Guided Inquiry Design®: Born from Research. Built for Classrooms.
A research-based framework that equips educators to guide meaningful inquiry and help students become deep thinkers and lifelong learners.
What We Believe
We believe students deserve more than surface-level tasks. They deserve real opportunities to explore, wonder, and construct knowledge that matters. We believe teachers want to guide this kind of learning, but they need structure, support, and strategy. Guided Inquiry Design® was created to meet that need.
Where It Began
Guided Inquiry Design® was born out of a deep recognition: Students could thrive with inquiry, but teachers weren’t being equipped to guide it.
The research was clear. Dr. Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (ISP) showed how students move through inquiry cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally. But most teachers didn’t know the stages or how to support them.
That’s where GID began.
Dr. Carol Kuhlthau
Dr. Leslie Maniotes, a classroom teacher and curriculum specialist, Ann Caspari a Smithsonian museum educator and Professor Carol Kuhlthau saw an urgent need to make this research accessible, practical, and teacher-friendly. They worked tirelessly to build a framework that:
- Uses familiar language and sets clear goals for each phase
- Includes visual icons that represent the fluid nature of the process
- Aligns emotional experience with instructional design
- Equips teachers to shift from assigning projects to guiding inquiry
Over several years, the team developed every detail—from the phase names and guiding tasks to the visual arc of the process that mirrors the emotional journey of learning.
Every element was intentional, from the names of the phases to the layout of the process arc, designed to support teachers in creating deep, authentic learning experiences.
GID was created for teachers first, because we knew that when educators are equipped, students thrive.
We still have this as our mission.
What Makes GID Different
- Validated Research at Its Core
The Information Search Process (ISP) isn’t just a theory—it’s a validated model supported by decades of inquiry-based learning research. GID is the only framework that aligns instructional design to this process.
- Built by Educators, for Educators
GID isn’t just academically sound—it’s teacher-friendly. Structured, collaborative, and adaptable, it helps teams design units that lead to deeper thinking, not just better projects.
- Centered on the Human Experience
GID accounts for what students actually go through: the uncertainty, frustration, curiosity, and breakthrough moments that define authentic learning.
Guided Inquiry Design® was developed through a collaborative approach from three diverse fields of education—information science, museum education, and curriculum & instruction.
Meet the Creators of Guided Inquiry Design®
Leslie Maniotes
Founder & Lead Consultant, BLV Consulting
Co-Creator, Curriculum Specialist and Educator Trainer
Leslie Maniotes, PhD, is the co-creator of Guided Inquiry Design® (GID) and a leading voice in designing learning that protects and develops human thinking in today’s classrooms. Her work translates over 30 years of research on how people learn into a practical, scalable framework used by schools and districts around the world.
Drawing on her background as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, and instructional coach, Leslie bridges research and practice to help educators design meaningful, inquiry-driven learning experiences that build student curiosity, understanding, and independence.
As the architect behind GID’s application in schools, she has shaped the language, structure, and implementation of the framework to make inquiry both accessible and sustainable at scale. Her introduction of Third Space theory into Guided Inquiry Design® deepens this work, ensuring that students’ identities, experiences, and curriculum come together in powerful ways.
Today, Leslie partners directly with schools and districts to build instructional capacity, strengthen collaborative culture, and create lasting change through inquiry-centered design.
Carol Collier Kuhlthau
Professor Emerita, Rutgers University
Co-Creator, Research Lead
Carol is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Library and Information Science at Rutgers University and founding director of CISSL—the Center for International Scholarship in School Libraries. She is internationally recognized for her groundbreaking research that validated the Information Search Process (ISP) model, mapping students’ thoughts, feelings, and actions across six stages of inquiry. Her work laid the foundation for Guided Inquiry Design® and reshaped how educators understand learning from information.
Ann Caspari
Education Specialist, Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum
Co-Creator, Inquiry Learning Specialist
Ann is an education specialist at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum and director of a professional development program for preschool educators in Washington, DC. With a master’s in museum education, she brings deep expertise in inquiry learning through experience, developed in museums from Boston to Calvert County. Ann brings the power of wonder, play, and early engagement to the GID model.
These three co-creators are the authors of Guided Inquiry Design®
Carol Kuhlthau, Leslie Maniotes, and Ann Caspari co-authored the foundational books
Guided Inquiry: Learning in the 21st Century and Guided Inquiry Design: A Framework for Inquiry in Your School.
Leslie Maniotes also leads the GID in Action series, written in collaboration with educators in the field to bring the framework to life from real classrooms.
Where We Are Today
Now, led by Dr. Leslie Maniotes, Guided Inquiry Design® is more than a framework—it’s a professional learning ecosystem. Through online courses, coaching, school partnerships, and global speaking engagements, Leslie helps educators bring GID to life.
GID is a framework, a philosophy, and a growing community of educators committed to deeper learning for all.
The Framework Is Just the Beginning
You can read about GID here. You can see the phases, the icons, the process. But knowing the framework isn’t the same as knowing how to use it.
That’s where our professional learning comes in.
Through Guided Inquiry PD, educators gain the clarity, strategies, and confidence to shift from assigning research to designing rich, inquiry-driven learning experiences.
“When can we do this again?”
“I’ll never forget what I learned in this class!”
These are the voices of students whose teachers were equipped to guide inquiry well. This is the kind of culture shift GID creates—when teachers are trained to lead it.