The Inquiry Learning Cycle

An Introduction

The Inquiry Learning Cycle:

“Knowing a great deal is not the same as being smart; intelligence is not information alone but also judgment, the manner in which information is collected and used.”

Carl Sagan

What is the Inquiry Cycle?

The Inquiry Cycle is a ‘learning to learn’ thinking tool. It supports people to think deeply about information and to identify new information”.

What is the Inquiry Cycle?

It starts with exploration and questioning and leads to investigation into a worthy question, issue, problem or idea.

What is the Inquiry Cycle?

It involves asking questions, gathering andanalyzing information, generating solutions, making decisions, justifying conclusions

and taking action.

The Inquiry Learning Cycle:1: Knowledge

Attack

2: Sort and Sift

3: Develop Essential Questions

4: Develop Subsidiary Questions

5: Finding Out -

Research

6: Sort and Sift

7: Report and Take Action

Stage 1: Knowledge Attack!

This is the stage of gathering and recording known information about the topic from reputable sources

2: Sorting and Sifting #1

During this stage all the information is classified and sorted, deleting that which is unreliable or repeated

3: Developing an Essential Question:

This is where you form your driving question, for which there is no current answer. In answering this question new information will probably be generated. This question is one that may have been suggested by conflicting information gathered during the knowledge attack or by an absence of information during that stage.

4: Developing Subsidiary Questions:

These smaller questions help focus the inquiry towards answering the big question.

5: Finding out - Research

This stage involves researching the subsidiary questions. There will be answers to these questions, but information may be conflict and the inquirer will need to use critical thinking strategies to sort information. The information may have been gathered during the knowledge attack but new information may also be required.

6: Sorting and Sifting #2

Again information is sorted and classified, deleting that which is repeated, unreliable or not relevant. Critical thinking strategies will be useful as will information literacy skills, including digital literacy.

7: Reporting and Taking Action

An important phase of the inquiry process is to use the new information to take action. This might include sharing findings with others through verbal or written communication. The inquirers might also establish a project to address the reported findings.

Important Note:

Although this is called the Inquiry Cycle it is not to be followed without reflection on the next step. Sometimes the inquirer might need to go backwards on the cycle before moving forward.