by Leslie Maniotes | May 14, 2026
Most descriptions of inquiry based learning look great on paper. Stages. Steps. A clear path from question to answer. And then a teacher tries it in a real classroom and somewhere in the middle, things get messy. Students get stuck. Topics fall apart. A child who... 
by Leslie Maniotes | May 8, 2026
I typed “inquiry process steps” into Google and opened the Images tab. Pages and pages of cycles. Arrows this way and that. Color-coded loops. Clean, confident diagrams all pointing back to where they started. Circles within circles. Spirals. Wheels. Some... 
by Leslie Maniotes | Apr 11, 2026
Search for “inquiry process steps,” and you’ll find plenty of diagrams. Lists. Cycles. Arrows moving back and forth from one stage to the next. They’re helpful, until you try to use them in a real classroom. Because here’s what those... 
by Leslie Maniotes | Apr 7, 2026
Most educators have heard of the “inquiry process.” They can name the steps. They’ve seen the various diagrams, the circle, the pool… But when it comes to the classroom, the real question is: What does it actually look like when students are in the process of... 
by Leslie Maniotes | Sep 30, 2025
Middle school students in the Immerse phase of Guided Inquiry Design using maps on a historic tour of Richmond, VA. Thanks to Chesterfield County Schools for the image. Guided Inquiry Design is a proven methodology for inquiry, and offers a comprehensive definition...
