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Our universal sense of curiosity and wonderment often leads us to interrogate our observations more deeply. This is achieved by asking questions of our self, others and of the resources we can access. This increases our knowledgebase and as we ask increasingly deep questions,130 the more clarity surrounds the developing idea.
We may know that London is the capital of England, but this is simply knowledge. It is when we start asking questions such as, “Why is the capital of England, London?”, or “Who decides, what the capital of any country should be?” do we build more of an understanding about capital cities.
Taking our existing knowledge and interrogating it by asking questions generates additional knowledge. Our brain scans the increasing amount of knowledge we are learning and the growing numbers of variables we are identifying, and it then starts searching for patterns between these variables (remembering that a variable is something that can change). Our brain is always looking for patterns, and finding a pattern between variables in a single context gives birth to an idea.
Another example of an idea is while we learn to drive. We learn to steer the car around a corner by turning the steering wheel by a certain amount (variable 1) while the car is travelling at a specific speed (variable 2) for a certain length of time (variable 3) before we return the steering wheel back to its original position. From this experience, we develop an idea for what we will do the next time we turn a corner.
If we change the speed of the car (variable 2) when we go around the next corner, we realise that we must turn the steering wheel a bit more quickly than last time (variable 3). Our idea is becoming more meaningful as we explore the relationship between the variables for steering a car around different corners. Our experiences in changing the variables helps us strengthen our idea and assists us to make more accurate predictions about how we will successfully navigate turning corners in our car. Each time we change one of more variables we have introduced a new context.
The diagram below shows the transition phase from knowledge to ideas.
130 Lupton, M. (2012). Inquiry Learning and Information Literacy [Blog]. Retrieved from http://inquirylearningblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/collecting-questions/
Resource 47:
Building Ideas
Applied to 2-3 contexts
Identity
Knowledge (the minimum)
Start Here
Thinking & Questioning
The Language of Learning
Collaboration
Managing Self
Ideas
(to be understood)
Stage 2
Connecting & Reflecting