ESE research has a long history of focusing on the connections between learning processes and changes in practices towards a more sustainable future (Gould et al. 2019; Kollmuss and Agyeman 2002). Transactional theory of learning was developed to dive into everyday habits, their disturbances and potential inquiries that induce learning and habit change (Van Poeck, Östman, and Block 2020; Van Poeck and Östman 2021). This contribution zooms into the inquiries conceptualized in transactional theory of learning. Inquiries are processes in which actors question their current habits, specify why they have been interrupted in their routine, what might be problematic about the old habits and think through what new habits might look like. The paper aims to better understand inquiries as a link between an interruption of habits and their change. In order to do so we take up five ideal typical phases of inquiries to conceptualize possible paths (Dewey 1933; Dewey 1938). This serves as the theoretical basis for an empirical analysis of farmers' inquiries. The core of the paper is a case study of robotic weed control in sugar beet cultivation in northeastern Germany. The study zooms in on how farmers with a general interest or even enthusiasm for robots in agriculture carefully examine how the purchase and use of a robot could be realized. It shows that farmers consider values, bodily experiences and feelings, practical aspects related to availabilities and competencies, as well as possible risk control strategies when deciding on the use of technology. Also, practice changes initiated by the use of a field robot could be observed. Experimentation with learning to use the robot results in newly formed habits to compensate for shortcomings of the robot. These empirical findings help to better understand how actors engage in inquiries, how they carefully examine what changes in their habits mean, and how they get involved in dramatic rehearsals in the sense of imagining new habits and their consequences. It also sheds light on farmers' habit formation, the factors they incorporate into their daily practices and, in particular, what is relevant to technology adoption.

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