# 3 An appreciative approach to inquiry

Like many models of inquiry or reflective practice, appreciative inquiry is based on a cycle. In the original appreciative inquiry, there were four parts to the cycle (Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver), although there are variations on this. For the purposes of this course, we have created a variation to the original 4D model that aligns itself with inquiry in educational contexts, and the particular creative methodological approaches we feel support this type of inquiry.

Each segment of the model relates to one session of this course, where defining and redefining the inquiry occurs across every stage. Click on the circle below to reveal each segment. Then click each segment to find out more about each stage.

Figure 5 The 4D model

## Activity 4 Exploring the interactive model

Allow about 10 minutes

Take some time to explore each section of the cycle. You will notice as you go through the course that the process mapped here as a cycle with a particular order isn’t necessarily experienced like this. As you develop your own appreciative approach to inquiry, you may create your own ‘map’ of the journey, where different parts may overlap, become simultaneous or be revisited at various points.

As you read each section, consider how it relates to your initial ideas about inquiry, which you noted down in Activity 1.

- How does it differ?
- How is it similar?
- Which words/descriptions excite you the most and why?

### Discussion

The language of the appreciative inquiry cycle might be quite different from the terms you are used to thinking about and writing inquiry with. Terms such as dreaming, imagination and appreciating aren’t often discussed in relation to inquiry. This course will explore how you can use different language for inquiry to stimulate and generate different thinking and doing. In doing so, the next section begins to explore what it means to be appreciative as an inquirer.

OpenLearn - An appreciative approach to inquiry
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