By Dr. Leslie Maniotes
Why Speed Isn’t the Same as Understanding
In today’s AI-powered world, students can find answers faster than ever. With a few keystrokes, we’re flooded with information. But too often, students searching for answers are left with surface-level understanding and little time to think, reflect, or grow. In a system that rewards speed and productivity, we risk forgetting what real learning actually looks like.
That’s a problem.
And that’s why Carol Kuhlthau’s cornerstone text, Seeking Meaning, is more essential now than ever.
Learning Is Human—and Messy
Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (ISP) reminds us that real learning is not instant. It’s emotional. It’s uncertain. It unfolds over time. It starts with curiosity.
Her research, decades ahead of generative AI, revealed that students don’t just collect facts; they navigate a deeply human experience of inquiry marked by confusion, exploration, insight, and growth.
Learning is Human, and Messy
Slowing Down for Deeper Learning
So what can we do?
As educators and librarians, we can slow down the learning process, not to do less, but to go deeper. The ISP and in turn, Guided Inquiry Design® (GID), give us the roadmap. With this framework, we can design experiences that honor the process, meet students in their uncertainty, and guide them with purpose.
The 30th Anniversary Edition of Kuhlthau’s Seeking Meaning offers not only the research-based theory, but also practical tools: the concept of the librarian as mediator, strategies for instructional intervention, and the powerful “zones of intervention” that help us guide students to learn from information, not just about it. These approaches work and help us to slow down when necessary and especially at the start, to create space for exploration, and trust the process.
From Fast Facts to Real Growth
Over the past fifteen years of practice with Guided Inquiry Design®, I’ve seen this again and again. When students are given time in their process to reflect, struggle productively, and make meaningful connections, they don’t just learn more, they become thinkers, researchers, and agents of their own learning.
Slow learning is what we need to counter the fast answers of AI.
Slow learning, guided support, and space for personal perspective.
When teachers and librarians collaborate using the GID framework, grounded in deep knowledge of the ISP, they structure learning that supports students both cognitively and emotionally. And when they do, something remarkable happens: students move from compliance to curiosity. From overwhelm to ownership. From “Google” to growth.
This is why the ISP continues to matter, maybe now more than ever:
The most transformative aspect of the ISP for today’s educators is how it centers the human experience of learning, something that’s more vital than ever in an AI-driven world. As technology accelerates access to information, the ISP reminds us that deep understanding still requires guidance, reflection, and emotional connection. It equips teachers and instructional librarians to design learning experiences that flow with the process to honor students’ inner lives and help them navigate complexity with confidence. In this way, the ISP doesn’t resist the future, it helps shape it, ensuring that learning remains purposeful, personal, and profoundly human.
The ISP Isn’t Just Enduring—It’s Urgent
As AI continues to shape our tools, the ISP continues to shape our practice. With GID, we can keep learning human.
If you’re an educator, librarian, or school leader thinking about how to guide students in this new era, I can’t recommend the new anniversary edition of Seeking Meaning enough. It’s not just a classic, it’s a call to action.
Images from this post came from our GID in Action blog.
Ready to Take Action?
Whether you’re new to inquiry or ready to lead change in your school, Guided Inquiry Design® can help you bring this powerful research to life in real classrooms. We have the training, the coaching and support you need to create a sustainable thriving program in your school or district! Here are some ways in.
👉 Explore our free Welcome course
👉 Bring Our Flagship Course to Your District
👉 Join the movement to slow down learning and seek meaning—together.
👉Read the original blog post where these images first appeared, from a team from St George’s School.
Let’s not let the speed of technology erode the depth of learning.
Let’s slow down.
Let’s teach students how to seek meaning—together.
