Core Concepts

Teaching to these concepts can help students develop their information literate abilities and deepen their disciplinary knowledge.

Inquiry and Discovery
Research is a nonlinear, iterative process of asking questions and selecting and using appropriate resources to seek out relevant information. The process often produces new and increasingly complex questions, and requires persistence, adaptability, and flexibility to pursue new lines of inquiry or alternative directions as new understanding develops.

Examples of Essential Questions:

• Are learners aware of the major sources of disciplinary information?
• Can learners use discipline-specific search tools effectively to retrieve relevant information?
• Can learners define an appropriate scope of inquiry?
• Do learners view research as an open-ended, ongoing exploration?

Critical Approach
Information is evaluated based on its creators’ expertise and credibility as well as its suitability for information need and use case. Power and authority structures control quality of information sources but may also privilege certain voices and restrict access to information. Bodies of evidence may provide established answers to a topic, but a research question may not have a single uncontested answer.

Examples of Essential Questions:

• Can learners evaluate the quality of information?
• Do learners understand the sociopolitical and economic issues surrounding knowledge production and dissemination?
• Are learners inclined to seek multiple perspectives when gathering and assessing information?
• Do learners have an awareness of their own information privilege?

Ethical Engagement
Information creators and users hold certain rights and responsibilities when participating in scholarly communities. Individuals are responsible for making deliberate and informed choices about how they access, use, create, and share information and data.

Examples of Essential Questions:

• Do learners respect and give credit to the work of others using appropriate attribution and citation conventions?
• Do learners understand that intellectual property is a legal and social construct that varies by culture?
• Do learners respect principles of privacy, confidentiality, and other ethical issues as they relate to research?

Scholarship and Communication
New insights and discoveries emerge over time through sustained discourse within scholarly and professional communities. Scholars, researchers, and professionals communicate through a variety of formats and delivery methods. Iterative processes from researching to disseminating information vary, and the resulting information product reflects these differences.

Examples of Essential Questions:

• Do learners understand the processes of information creation and dissemination in their field?
• Can learners identify the contribution particular works or authors have made to a discipline?
• Can learners contribute to scholarly conversations at an appropriate level?
• Can learners use existing and emerging digital tools to conduct and share their research?