Weekly Reflection: Feb 9

Today we visited the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) for a behind the scenes tour. Jeff Hopkins, the founder and current co-principal, generously answered all of our questions and guided us through the campus. His enthusiasm was contagious and I found the tour very insightful.

I must admit that I have very little knowledge about independent schools in general and PSII seems to be in a class of its own. Situated in downtown Victoria, the school offers a non-traditional, inquiry based learning journey for students from grade 9-12. The school model seems very similar to High Tech High (see my first blog post) in that if offers students an incredible amount of choice in what they want to learn. Students are allowed to pose questions about a topic they are interested in and, with the help of teachers, refine a project that lets them explore their desired area. It sounds like a very unstructured and loose environment, but Jeff was adamant that their curriculum and assessment process is still very rigorous. He believes that students come out of PSII very prepared and have no problems getting into university. Jeff even stated that the BC ministry of education certifier had “never seen such rigorous assessment”.

I am still on the fence about whether this school system should be mainstream. I think it works very well for some students but not for everyone. I think it would work best for very advanced students who might feel that traditional approaches are not challenging enough. It might also be suited for students who have trouble focusing because they are unmotivated by the material, or have trouble paying attention in a classroom setting. The teacher to student ratio is also exceptional.

Practicality might be the biggest limiting factor. I don’t think the current state of the education can support this teacher to student ratio and this style of school simply doesn’t work in large classrooms. Another major practical issue I see is the amount of funding required to operate like this. It is not feasible for schools to purchase or retain materials and equipment necessary for hundreds of unique projects. The easy fix would be to raise tuition but then the issue of economic accessibility becomes a concern.

In general I believe that PSII offers an incredible experience for some learners but it probably won’t be replacing the traditional educational model any time soon. I do, however, believe that many of the PSII philosophies should be incorporated into traditional classrooms where applicable. I could see a how an “Inquiry Learning” option as an elective could work in many schools. If feasible, why not even incorporate a single class like this into the credit requirements to graduate? I would love to talk to students who have graduated from PSII and learn about their experiences and thoughts about how PSII shaped their lives.

Brad

Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry: https://psii.ca/