I think cognitive overload was definitely a big issue last time I tried to guide a class through the inquiry process, and probably the biggest learning that I have gained from this forum is the need for students to spend a lot of time under the direction of their subject teacher exploring, questioning and becoming engaged with a topic before they develop a research question and begin the process of retrieving, assessing and ordering information. I love the example in 'Focus on Inquiry' of a primary school class doing a project on 'The Life of Insects' that spent time looking at pictures, going on bug walks, singing songs about insects etc. and then started to form their own questions before moving on to do a bit of personalised research. I work in a secondary school but sometimes it helps to move things along the spectrum a bit. I have also taken away that I have to be more careful about how and when I teach the Information Literacy skills required to support the different stages of the process so that students feel they have at least one definite strategy to deal with each phase. As the text suggests, this is another way of reducing the cognitive load placed on the students. I know that this is Librarian 101, but I have to confess that I do sometimes feel that I need to go back to basics and brush up on my own Information Literacy skills, and my ability to deliver these skills in a way that students will find engaging - do you offer any such training @Elizabeth ? I suspect that the cognitive load issue is probably closely linked to affective load in that if I can reduce the cognitive load and make students feel supported through the process then affective anxiety would become less of an issue. This is not to dismiss the affective side of the process. I think it is important to make the students aware of the process that they are going through and for them to reflect upon each phase from an affective point of view as this will help them to develop their emotional literacy and resilience. This is another thing I have taken away from this process! Time (and therefore opportunity) is always an issue. There is a teach-to-the-test culture in my school and the UK has a government that has a teach-to-the-test approach to education, so I do feel that is the prevailing tide that we are all struggling against.