This monograph describes the Curriculum Inquiry Cycle (CIC), a professional development process that supports educators in making curriculum and instruction decisions responsive to state standards, local needs, and student characteristics. It is designed to improve learning and teaching, with the classroom as the central focus. The CIC has four phases: Examining Current Practice, Making Decisions, Creating Optimal Learning Environments, and Researching Our Classrooms. Teams of teachers and administrators from a school or district engage in the CIC either onsite during the school year, in a 5-day summer institute, or in a combination of the two. After an overview of the subject, Section 1, Introduction, discusses changing expectations of students and teachers, reconceptualizing learning and teaching through inquiry, and curriculum as a vehicle for change and professional growth. Section 2, The Curriculum Inquiry Cycle, describes the four phases. Section 3, Ways of Thinking about Learning, discusses what learning is, theories about learning, and connections between learning and intelligence. Section 4, Ways of Thinking about Teaching, discusses what teachers need to know and be able to do to provide an optimal learning environment for students, sources of a teacher's knowledge base, reflective teaching, and the effect of teacher beliefs. Section 5, Working with the Four Phases of the Curriculum Inquiry Cycle, explains how to utilize the phases. Section 6, Seeing through New Eyes, describes how curriculum inquiry encourages conversation about possible ways for teachers to look at themselves and their students. (SM)