We had an amazing and inspiring class with Jeff Hopkins from the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry this afternoon. They have an unbelievably exciting education model for their students, and Jeff really got my wheels turning with ideas of how to incorporate more inquiry-based strategies into my teaching, even in the more ‘traditional’ public school system.

Jeff opened his talk with a compelling question: If the education system is learning more and more all the time about the psychology of learning and how learning truly best happens, why don’t our educational practices line up with that research? He followed that up with perhaps an even more compelling question: Does it have to be like this?

Jeff Hopkins and the philosophy of the PSII argue that it doesn’t. They have set out to create an educational environment that is truly student-centred, and led entirely by student-driven inquiry and study.

Jeff emphasized that this kind of learning can happen anywhere. The PSII has set up in the urban centre of downtown Victoria to utilize the publicly available resources there such as the YMCA, local parks, and artistic spaces, but inquiry-based learning is also excellently suited to more rural areas where students can be in close contact with nature and engage in what Jeff called “cognitive apprenticeship” with mentor figures.

On the PSII’s website they offer many inquiry tools as creative commons resources, which is wonderfully generous of them and demonstrates a true value for promoting this type of education. One that I particularly enjoyed was the Inquiry Flowchart. What I love about this flowchart (and an aspect that Jeff pointed out) is that it provides a great deal of structure and scaffolding to something that can sometimes be intimidating (for both students and teachers) in its apparently free-form, no-rules format. This flowchart shows that inquiry is (though perhaps in part) not all just floundering around, browsing various topics. To complete legitimate inquiry projects at the PSII, students are expected to be curious, carefully consider and craft effective questions, be accountable to stay on task, and plan, document, and self-assess their own learning.

One of the other parts of Jeff’s talk that I found very thought-provoking has to do with how well students are meeting BC curricular competencies and whether they are getting a “well-rounded” education. He questions that 1) Are students in the public school system who may be following BC curriculum more to the letter truly well rounded? And 2) How important is it that students leave their studies as well rounded, when perhaps it is more valuable for them to have the experiencing of following their own interests and passions, being creative and critical thinkers, problem solving, and honing their own skills in their chosen fields?

Overall, I feel very inspired by Jeff’s evident passion and philosophy. I think the public school system could learn so much about effective and exciting learning from the PSII’s model, and I certainly hope to continue incorporating these strategies into my future teaching.