During class time last week we visited the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. The PSII principal met with us to give us a brief overview of their beliefs and practices in their secondary program.

I found a lot of the questions we posed at the end of his presentation came from us trying to wrap our heads around the process of inquiry based learning. It was so interesting to hear that there are 95 students attending the school and 7 teachers employed there. This small group of learners provides an opportunity for the teachers to develop strong relationships with each one. These positive relationships are also facilitated through the open spaces that the students learn in. There is no rigid classroom structure, and the students are encouraged to work in whatever space will be the most helpful to them. This will sometimes look like a louder area with lots of chatter, and sometimes might be a silent area. Giving students these choices, such as where to work, encourages them to know themselves and how they learn best. It gives them a chance to take personal responsibility of their development and create positive habits for themselves in order to keep growing.

Something else that was discussed was the current structure used by most schools to assess student’s learning. Most teachers have modes of assessment throughout the course of a subject. This might be tests, quizzes, projects or assignments. Usually there are number grades from these assessments given out over the course of the semester. It does not make logical sense to simply average these grades and assign that number as representative of that student’s learning. What if they had no knowledge at the beginning of the course and scored very poorly on the first assessment, but by the final test had mastered the subject and scored perfectly. Wouldn’t you say that student had maximized their learning? Shouldn’t their grade reflect this huge development? Is it still fair to average in that first low grade when they hadn’t had any teaching or time to learn then? I don’t think so. The teachers at PSII have shifted completely away from this traditional model of evaluating learning and toward a more holistic and collaborative view of learning that allows students to explore and learn and grow in an area they enjoy.

Overall the trip to PSII was extremely interesting and certainly got me thinking about a lot of teacher’s traditional practices and whether or not they are truly helping our learners.