Tucked into a nondescript office building in downtown Victoria lies school where students are free to explore self directed learning. Founded by Jeff Hopkins, the former superintendent of the Gulf Island school district, Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) is based around inquiry education. This alternative approach to education allows students to follow personal learning paths. On Tuesday, January 28th, I had the privilege of visiting the school with the cohort and hearing from Jeff and some students about the world of inquiry education.
This approach to inquiry based learning flips the script on the structures and practices of typical public schools. Each morning, students come in a design their own schedules. Rather than going from class to class, time is allotted for collaborative learning, individual learning, and teacher lead “sessions”. Math is taught and explained in session once a week, but, other than that, learners are free to explore any and all areas that hold their attention. Teachers are always around to help the learners as they develop and explore inquiry projects based around five types of questions:
- Values questions
- Systems questions
- Cause and effect questions
- Theoretical questions
- Descriptive questions
Depending on the inquiry project, students may choose to explore their topic for a few weeks, a few years, or anywhere in between. In the past, learners at PSII have published novels, taken University courses and built particle accelerators as part of their inquiry based learning. Needless to say, students seem to flourish in environments where the learning is based around topics that spark their interest.
As I listened to Jeff and chatted to the students at PSII, I couldn’t help but wonder how inquiry based education might be incorporated at an elementary level. Younger students may not yet possess the ability to participate in courses at UVic or build complex machinery, but that doesn’t mean that inquiry based education is outside the realm of possibility.
In his TedXVictoria Talk, Jeff focused on how education should be about “lighting a spark” rather than “filling a bucket”. For optimal learning, our students are not to simply sit idle and absorb the information that is thrown at them, but rather be intrinsically motivated to explore and dive deep into topics that are of interest to them.
During my Wednesday school visits last semester, I was lucky enough to witness inquiry based learning being actualized in a grade two/three class. One child in the class, who was on the autism spectrum and characteristically expressed strong distastes towards all other school work, was tasked with creating a research project on his favourite animal. I was blown away by the result- a well thought-out, carefully designed poster and presentation all about lizards. Clearly, a spark had been lit within this child and the results were nothing short of inspiring.
I was always a child who excelled in certain subjects (such as Language Arts) while falling short in others (Math). A common phrase that showed up on my math report cards in elementary school was that I “needed to apply myself more”. Yet, I was never able to stop myself from day dreaming through multiplication lessons- I was being asked to apply myself to subjects that did anything but light my spark. Perhaps I would have benefitted from a more inquiry based approach to learning.
This isn’t to say that we should only teach students their favourite subjects, as curricular guide lines are in place to create well-rounded individuals with comprehensive understandings of the world around them. However, it should be noted that students drive to learn increases drastically when they are focussing on something that captivates their interest.
In order to strike a happy medium between the Inquiry driven approach of PSII and traditional elementary teaching practices, we might choose to incorporate student’s passions and interests into day to day lessons. This can be done through the selection of relevant examples and utilizing hands-on learning wherever possible. In addition, having children work on their own inquiry projects on top of other classes is a great way to optimize student’s school experiences.
As I go into my teaching career, I’ll continually be on the lookout for ways to incorporate inquiry based education into my practice. On a selfish note, I’ll be able to derive more joy from this as well. Rather than assessing project after project on the same criteria, I’ll be granted a glimpse into the passions and ideas of each of my students as individuals.
