The document provides guidance on effective research methods for open-minded inquiry. It advises against one-sided research aimed only at confirming pre-existing opinions or finding simple answers. Effective inquiry requires considering multiple perspectives, following leads, asking new questions, and seeking to understand complex issues rather than oversimplify them. Key recommendations include focusing research on answering questions to become an expert on the issue, using various search techniques and grouping keywords to maximize results, and avoiding opinions to focus on factual information.

1. YOUR LOI

2. QUICK REVIEW/REMINDERS…WHAT
INQUIRY ISN’T…
1) Reporting information without looking at it through the context of your own experiences, observations,
knowledge, other texts, and other information
2) Research compiled to a question you already know the answer to a question to which you are not open to ALL
information.
3) Research that only skims the surface and doesn’t show engagement or efforts to really understand the issue
from multiple angles
4) Research that follows a straight line and stops at the first sign of an answer– This happens if you find some
basic info or a perspective that looks good and you think, “I found everything I need. I don’t need to go
anywhere else.”
5) Research that doesn’t produce new questions and knowledge- Good inquiry should take you somewhere new
and open new doors.
6) Planning an argument – Usually this leads to one-sided research.
7) Hunting for a Single Answer-- You should find facts and possible answers along the way, but this isn’t the end
goal and likely causes frustration when you don’t find exactly what you’re looking for.
8) Focusing your Search on Opinions– Don’t oversimplify. You can and should read opinions along that way;
conversations are founded through arguments and information is presented through arguments.
 However, when you frame your search methods around finding opinions or sides, you limit your search and risk leaving out
important information about the issue.
 Focus on finding answers to questions about the issue that you need answers to. Your goal should be to teach someone
about the issue... to become an expert.

3.  Once you have a list, look for ways those words can be grouped
together and regrouped to get different results.
 Learning to do this is one way to learn how to use the discourse
of the internet and search engines.
 It will only produce the words and groups you provide. It will
not offer synonyms or order them based on what is most helpful
for you. Search engines cannot read your mind. Like any other
machine, they respond to your move.
 You are essentially learning to “speak” to the search engine and
tell it what you want it to find. It can’t find what you need
unless you, first, figure out how to tell it what you need.

4.  Ex. From Earlier Presentation (Standardized Testing)--
 What are they meant to accomplish?
 How has their use risen in recent decades and why has it risen?
 How has their use been affected by NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND?
 What are some examples of standardized tests and when are they
used?
 How does testing differ in private schools or alternative education?
 Does it correlate with negative learning outcomes?
 Does it correlate to positive learning outcomes?
 Do educators think they are helpful or hurtful? Researchers?
 Are they really associated with Attention Deficit Disorder?
 What are the alternatives for measuring learning?

5. BRAINSTORMING FOCUS
QUESTIONS
1. FIRST-- Write your LOI in a few concrete sentences. Explain what the issue is and what you want to discover about the
issue.
2. NEXT-- Brainstorm at least TEN smaller questions to begin your research that you need to answer in order to
understand different aspects of the issue:
 Remember that these help you focus on finding out information you don’t know about the issue. Don’t focus on
opinions; focus on finding answers to your questions.
 DIVIDE YOUR QUESTIONS TO FOCUS AREAS TO HELP GENERATE MORE IDEAS. Here are some ideas--
1. History of the Issue
2. Current Situation or Examples-- Events/Problems/News
3. Questions about People Involved
4. Questions about Organizations
5. Specific Terms or Phrases you don’t know
6. Current Policies or Laws
7. Types of Information (Studies, Interviews, Statistics)
8. Wondering Questions– How? Why? When? Who? What?
9. Important Groups Involved in the conversation (Researchers, Scientists, Lawmakers, Educators, Parents,
Politicians, etc.)
10. Questions about the Reasons or Motivation of Certain Groups

6. KEY WORD BRAINSTORMING
FOR YOUR LOI
List keywords to help you research this issue.
Step 1: Write out your line of inquiry (LOI). Include any key
questions that go along with it. DONE!
Step 2: Pull out and list the search terms you see (as many as
you can think of). You can also consider words that are often
appearing as you read (common vocabulary, names, and
terms) and words in your smaller questions.

7. List as many synonyms for
any of those words as you can
think of.
Try to increase your list by at
least 7 words.

8. List as many specific terms or
names that correlate to your
LOI as you can think of.
Try to increase your list by at
least 4 words.

9. List as many general terms
that correlate to your LOI as
you can think of.
Try to increase your list by at
least 4 words.

10. Think of different ways you can group
these words together to create different
search results.
Write at least 10 search sentences (3 or
more words) that focus on different
questions you listed. You may add new
words if you need them.

11. 1. Avoid evaluative terms– good, bad, right, wrong, effective, ineffective, etc.
2. Add source types and domains to your search (documentary, .org)
3. Add a “-” to remove domains and words from your results (-.com, -documentary, -blog, -teen)
4. Add quotation marks for exact phrases that you need to search for verbatim.
5. Avoid common words (stop words) and punctuation unless searching for a specific phrase
inside quotes. [Ex. a, the, which, that, of] Both are typically ignored… but not always; this
can mess up your intended results.
6. Search base words only (walk not walks or walked, cat not cats.)
 Exception... Gerunds (verb spelling used as a noun) should be used with exact spelling
(Walking, Running, Swimming).
7. Order search sentences from general to specific in the search box will maximize your
Autocomplete so that you can get new sentences and ideas.
8. Include a tilde (~) in front of a word to return results that include synonyms.
9. Use the (OR) or (|) to return results with either of two terms. Ex. result outcome will
return pages with both result and outcome, while result | outcome will return pages with
either result or outcome.
10. Find Related Sites -- Ex. related:www.youtube.com can be used to find sites similar to
YouTube.