This week, we had Jeff Hopkins guest lecture in our class. Jeff is the founder and co-principle of the Pacific School for Inquiry and Innovation (PSII). Jeff discussed his background in the public school system and his desire to explore and develop an alternative approach to schooling. Jeff left the public school system to start PSII based on a model of inquiry based learning.

The following video comes from PSII’s website and explains the inquiry process.

From PSII’s Website

I found Jeff’s perspective on learning/teaching to be very interesting. I particularly appreciated the focus on student-centred learning which gives students the agency to determine their own goals, approaches and interests. I appreciated hearing that many students have found success at PSII after struggling to learn in the public school system. I still found myself hesitant about going all in on inquiry-based schools.

My main concerns where about accessibility and crucial topics which all students should be given the opportunity to learn about. In regards to accessibility, I wondered how PSII works for students with high support needs and wether they’ve had students on the Evergreen diploma pathway. My other concern was about how they insure all students learn about important topics such as Residential schools, the Holocaust, Japanese internment in Canada etc. For example, Residential school denialism is a problem in Canada, and teaching about it in schools is crucial for Truth and Reconciliation.

I guess where I’m at after Jeff’s talk, is curious about how we can bring inquiry based learning more into the public school system (because if it’s so good it shouldn’t be available only to people with the money to pay for private schooling) and also curious about more alternative approaches to schooling.