“Learning is not something that comes from the outside, rather it is something that is already inside us; a spark”

– Jeff Hopkins TEDxVictoria

The founder of the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, Jeff Hopkins, recently spoke to our cohort about his establishment of an inquiry based, cross curricular school, situated in Victoria, British Columbia. Of all of the pedagogically illuminating presentations we have been privy to, his has resonated the most with me. At its core, the process he has engaged in at a school wide level, is essentially, what I have been working collaboratively to help create at Fort St. James Secondary School (thanks also to Andrew Vogelsang and Deirdre Houghton for their unwavering work in this). His discourse essentially edified what I believe is the correct method for student learning; creating that ‘spark’ and having the students pursue their passion. 

In our current model of teaching, Jeff alludes to the fact that the teacher is the hardest working person in the room. Within my current framework of inquiry, students are free to pursue whatever aspect of carpentry, or blended project they desire. This may include a combination of Carpentry with any other subject. As an example, I have had students in the past, design and build an Eiffel Tower, to present as a cultural component for their French class. With projects like this, there is no doubt that I am extremely busy helping to guide individual, and groups of learners, but these students are also working at least as hard as I, to learn, and create something of meaning.

I pride myself in knowing a little something about everything. In fact, every morning, I wake up early and spend the first hour of the day learning something new. Have you ever wondered how to make a lemon battery? The things I learn are sometimes simple, and sometimes extremely complex. They may range from learning to create a simple lemon battery, to learning how nuclear fission occurs. Despite this, I am unable to procure knowledge about everything. As such, I rely on specialized teachers, in other rooms, to help guide our inquiry students. For example, students are often interested in adding complex graphics to their carpentry projects; occasionally, they want to create the graphics themselves. As my graphic design skills are limited, I often send these students to our digital media teacher for advice, and then, perhaps to the art teacher, to guide that student in the process of applying their graphic onto their project. This inquiry process relies on using many different resources to enhance the students’ experience, and fortunately at Fort St. James Secondary School, the administration also believes in encouraging this practice. An added benefit is that this process also allows us, as professionals, to interact with many different students, on unique and interesting projects, in a positive manner. This ultimately creates relationships, which go well beyond what I was ever able to achieve teaching rote lessons, in a stand and deliver fashion.

Thinking back to an earlier reading on Teaching for Meaningful Learning: A Review of Research on Inquiry-Based and Cooperative Learning, since employing inquiry, I have had a concern that I was not teaching my students enough. Perhaps, I would think, I should directly teach more basic skills to ensure they are learning enough. Dr. Brigid Barron and Dr. Linda Darling-Hammond, however argue, “research on project-based learning has found that students who engage in this approach benefit from gains in factual learning that are equivalent or superior to those of students who engage in traditional forms of instruction” (pg 3). This thought, as well as the fact that I participate alongside the students as they conduct both their inquiry, and assessment of their own learning, yields hope that I am indeed doing enough. 

During his presentation to our cohort, Jeff Hopkins roughly quoted something he had heard. The quote proceeded along the lines of – “if a person does not speak much they should learn to speak more, and if a person speaks too much they should learn to not speak as much.” Ultimately, children, students, adults… people, are all different. We all have different thoughts, talents, interests, and capabilities. Why then, are we all continually learning exactly the same thing, in exactly the same way? Let us instead, celebrate the fact that we all are unique, and base our educational system around that premise.

“Chispas 3”by ArmanMesh is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0