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

The learning environment for Guided Inquiry

Learning environments and instructional interventions that focus on Guided Inquiry will typically show many of the following attributes (Kuhlthau, 2004; Gore, Griffiths, & Ladwig. (2002; Callison, McGregor, & Small, 1998).

• Guided Inquiry is initiated though compelling situations, and questions which meaningfully engage students in wanting to know, and which provide challenge and opportunity
• instructional activities put emphasis on meaningful, authentic activities that help the learner develop skills relevant to problem solving and to construct understandings
• students are more motivated to engage in their inquiry when they are able to exercise some choice over the specific questions they want to answer and how to present their new understandings
• an attempt is made to connect with students' background knowledge
• instructional activities involve the students in thinking, acting, and reflecting, discovering and linking ideas, making connections, developing and transforming prior knowledge, skills, attitudes and values - higher order thinking and critical analysis occurs throughout
• instructional activities enable students to develop deep knowledge, deep understanding
• Students see that inquiry learning is developmental, an iterative process of advancing, consolidating, reinforcing, and involving whole person; opportunities for students to provide their understanding of concepts or ideas, and opportunities for sustained dialogue between students, and between teachers / school librarian and students
• learning activities closely resemble the ways that students will be expected to use their knowledge and skills in the real world, and to equip them for work and living in a democratic society: assigned work has resemblance or connection to real life contexts and a focus on identifying and solving intellectual and/or real-world problems
• structured interventions are informed by the Information Search Process enable students to have the information seeking and use skills to engage in an active search for meaning and understanding; they provide students with the knowledge and skills to work competently and responsibly with information, and to represent their new understanding in appropriate ways
• students know how to engage with diverse information sources to build background knowledge, formulate a focus and collect pertinent information – the focus is constructing mew knowledge, not just a source orientation
• students encounter deep knowledge and build deep understanding of the curriculum content
• students demonstrate a personal process of construction through the products they create that show their new understandings
• students have opportunity to communicate and share their new understandings
• the inquiry learning environment is one where academic and personal success and intellectual inquiry are valued and acknowledged, and one where students feel connected, cared for and trusted
• students are given feedback throughout their inquiry process that advances and nourishes their learning and continues to motivate them
• students are given opportunity to practice their new skills to sustain and support their learning beyond the formal classroom and school library experience
• inquiry learning is responsive to students' personal, social and cultural worlds, valuing differences and cultivating an inclusive community

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