Question

how do you distinguish between information gathering and insight formation ?

Answer 1

Information gathering is an activity by which a person gathers information, mostly after an occurrence, from sources witness to the event or those that have borne the effects of the event. Sometimes, however, information may be gathered about a planned or predictable event in advance of its unfolding or occurring.
Insight information is a piece of information which a person is able to infer by understanding the inner nature of things or by seeing things intuitively.
Inside information is something a person has knowledge of by being in the midst of things or by having witnessed an event. 

Answer 2

Answer:

Learning the dates of battles or the details about victorious armies are facts. These details are part of knowledge which are content-based. There is no point in spending precious years of student life on information gathering because dates or facts could be ascertained from the books any time by just looking them up. Learning facts or parrot-like learning i.e., learning without understanding is what we call information gathering.

Analysing the facts, ascertaining the causes that led to a certain incident such as an uprising or a war and learning the ideas that spring from such actions are part of insight information. It gives us a clear perception into the true nature of a thing. Such knowledge increases our logical reasoning, power of analysis interpretation and understanding and makes us think.