Dr. Carol C. Kuhlthau & Dr. Ross J. Todd

Six characteristics of Guided Inquiry

I. Students learn by being actively engaged and reflecting on that experience (Dewey, 1933, 1944)

John Dewey described learning as an active individual process, not something done to someone but rather something that a person does. Learning takes place through a combination of acting and reflecting on the experience and its consequences, what Dewey called reflective experience or reflective thinking. This is highly personal and individual. Dewey particularly emphasized hands-on learning as opposed to authoritarian methods in teaching and considered that the experience of the learner and critical inquiry were essential to meaningful learning. He believed that education must engage with and enlarge experience, enlist natural curiosity, be directed towards the investigation of matters of interest, and which would fulfill and enrich the current lives of students as well as prepare them for work, citizenship and living in a free and democratic society.

Like Dewey, Jerome Bruner's research and writing (1973, 1975, 1990) confirm that people are actively involved in making sense of the world rather than passive receivers of information. Bruner believes that it is not enough to merely gather information; rather, learning involves "going beyond the information given" to create "products of mind."

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II. Students learn by building on what they already know

Past experience and prior understandings form the basis for constructing new knowledge (Kelly, 1963; Piaget, 1976; Bartlett, 1932; Ausubel, 1963, 1968). The central concept is that connections with a student's present knowledge are essential for constructing new understandings. Todd’s research (1999a, b) shows that students build their knowledge in selective and deliberate ways in the context of individual frames of reference such as personal experience, existing knowledge, and current stage of life cycle, and shaped by desired cognitive intent. This research shows five information intents: Get a Complete Picture; Get a Changed Picture; Get a Clearer Picture; Get a Verified Picture; and Get a Position in a Picture. As drivers and outcomes of using information, these information intents enable learners to move forward in their information endeavors, constructing new pictures that represent new understandings.

Ausubel was also concerned with how individuals learn large amounts of "meaningful" material from verbal/textual lessons in school. He contended that "the most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows." (Ausubel, 1968) According to him, a primary process in learning is subsumption in which new material is related to relevant ideas in the existing cognitive structures. Ausubel proposed the use of advance organizers as an instructional approach which act as a "subsuming bridge" (Ausubel, 1963) between new learning material and existing related ideas.

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III. Students develop higher order thinking through guidance and instructional intervention at critical points in the learning process (Vygotsky)

Higher order thinking entails deep processing that leads to understanding. Deep processing requires engagement and motivation fostered by authentic questions about a subject that are drawn from the student’s own experience and curiosity. Deep processing also requires the development of intellectual skills that go beyond the locating and gathering of facts. According to Bloom (Bloom’s Taxonomy), the skills of comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation help stimulate inquiry that leads to deep knowledge and understanding, rather than shallow processing in response to simple or superficial questions with prescribed answers.

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IV. Students' development occurs in a sequence of stages (Piaget)

Learning is both a cumulative and developmental process of becoming informed. Students progress through stages of cognitive development, with their capacity for abstract thinking increasing with age. This development is a complex process that involves the whole person thinking, acting, and reflecting, discovering and linking ideas, making connections, developing and transforming prior knowledge, skills, attitudes and values.

Jean Piaget, for example, identified four stages of cognitive development:

1. Sensorimotor stage (Infancy)
2. Pre-operational stage (Toddler and Early Childhood)
3. Concrete operational stage (Elementary and early adolescence)
4. Formal operational stage (Adolescence and adulthood) (In Huitt & Hummel, 2003).

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V. Students have different ways of learning (Gardener, 1983)

Learning is a holistic experience with many ways of knowing. Students learn through all of their senses. They apply all of their physical, mental and social capabilities to construct deep understandings of the world and one's life in it. Reading, listening, viewing, and observing are joined with writing, speaking, visualizing, performing, and producing to encompass a holistic experience of learning.

Howard Gardener, for example, characterized it in terms of multiple intelligences: Verbal/ Linguistic Intelligence, Logical/ Mathematical Intelligence, Visual/Spatial Intelligence, Bodily/ Kinesthetic Intelligence, Musical Intelligence, Interpersonal Intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence, Naturalist Intelligence.

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VI. Students learn through social interaction with others

Students live in a social world in which they are constantly learning through interaction with others around them. Parents, peers, siblings, teachers, acquaintances, and strangers are all part of the social environment that forms a learning milieu in which students are continuously constructing their understandings of the world and making meaning for themselves. Vygotsky, responsible for the social development theory of learning, proposed that social interaction profoundly influences cognitive development. Vygotsky believed that this life long process of development was dependent on social interaction and that social learning actually leads to cognitive development. This phenomena is called the Zone of Proximal Development, described by Vygotsky as "the distance between the actual development level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers" (Vygotsky, 1978). In other words, a student can perform a task under adult guidance or with peer collaboration that could not be achieved alone. The Zone of Proximal Development bridges that gap between what is known and what can be known. Vygotsky claimed that learning occurred in this zone.

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Summary: Characteristics of Guided Inquiry

These characteristics, drawn from educational research are the heart of Guided Inquiry. They characterize Guided Inquiry as an instructional approach, and provide a framework for planning and implementing it in schools, particularly in terms of thinking about and providing the range of instructional interventions which develop students’ competencies and skills with accessing and using information sources effectively to build new knowledge.

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Guided Inquiry © is copyrighted by Dr. Carol C. Kuhlthau and Dr. Ross Todd.