Guided Inquiry Design® Process

Guided Inquiry Design® Framework

All GID Icons and Framework Graphics are © Copyrighted materials and are not to be used without prior written permission.

The process you see here is used in classrooms by teachers and students.
It serves as…
1. The educator’s pathway to designing inquiry learning.
2. The student’s model for “how I learn.”

Click on the color bars to reveal three bullet points describing the main objectives for engaging students in each phase.

The icons represent the nuances of each phase.

Open represented as an open circle. In GID we open to a concept to start with wonder and curiosity.

Immerse looks like ripples in a pool of water. Time spent in this phase ripples into the success of later phases of inquiry.

Explore is an explosion. Because of the emotional response students experience of information overload in that phase, the icon reminds us to slow down and pay attention to students’ emotions and connections to their own interests.

Identify is the turning point of the inquiry signified by the bending arrow into a dot.

Gather is when students are out and back. Students move from resources to their notes and engage in the processing of each resource to understand their question.

Create is the shape of a hexagon with many shades which indicates a reforming of understanding as students create new meaning through the information they have found.

Share is a talk bubble as students share their learning with their inquiry community and the wider world.

Evaluate is a think bubble because students not only reflect all the way through the GID process, but taking time to reflect at the end helps them become more aware of how they learned, an important skill for today’s learners.

GID is a linear looking process since the process occurs naturally across time. Although each phase doesn’t completely stand alone, one phase overlaps with the next in a flow of connected learning experiences. This helps teachers to design inquiry based learning as it will occur in their classrooms day by day, across time.