Stages of Inquiry (Step 5)
Help launch your investigation using these steps. They can be but do not need to be used sequentially.
5.1. Clarifying the Problem:
Key question: what is the problem?
Probing questions:
Is the problem statement or description clear?
What unjustified assumption, if any, is being made?
- Is the problem statement too broad or too narrow?
- In what ways does the problem statement need to be modified?
- Why is this an important problem?
- What is unclear or needs to be known?
- What might be true but there is not date for yet?
- What might be causing the problem?
- What might cause the causes of the problem?
- Why might this be a complicated/complex problem
5.2. Gathering Information:
Key question: what needs to be known and how will this occur?
Probing questions:
- What specific information is needed?
- What scope/range of information is needed?
- Where can information be found? What available sources of information are there? (e.g. people, Internet, publications)
- What procedures are necessary for obtaining information?
- Who might assist in obtaining information?
- What tests or experiments can be performed?
- What comparison groups may be needed?
- What anti-bias measures need to be introduced?
- How can false information be recognized?
- How will information be recorded?
5.3. Organizing and interpreting information:
Key question: how will this information be organized and understood?
Probing questions:
- What connections/relationships are there among pieces of information?
- In what ways might information be grouped or categorized?
- What alternative groupings are possible?
- What subsets and overlapping groups can be created?
- What inferences or implications might drawn about this information?
- What are some important keys to understanding here?
- What does this information reveal about possible causes of the problem?
- What relationships might be causal and what might be correlational?
- What seems to be left out, why is this an incomplete picture?
5.4. Drawing Conclusions
Key question: what has been learned about the problem?
Probing questions:
- What things were discovered about the problem in order of importance?
- What combination of factors contribute to producing the problem?
- How valid and reliable is what has been learned?
- When and under what conditions is this problem likely to occur?
- Where can examples of this be found?
- What solutions to the problem were identified?
- What is the relevance of these solutions for similar and/or future problems?
- What predictions can be made?
- What opposing information was discovered? What is its significance?
- What lack of understanding and areas of disagreement are there?
- What generalizations or overarching ideas are suggested?
- What new questions are ther as a result of what has been learned?
- How can what has been learned be put to use?
- What remains unclear/unknown, yet to be solved?
(Original page by Mary Frangie)
