Class Reflection 2 – Field Trip

Getting to visit the Pacific School of Innovation & Inquiry today was an interesting learning experience. The school itself seemed like a hole in the wall, I nearly missed the entrance when trying to find our class. Walking around inside, there were so many large windows and areas that were covered without walls. It seemed like a good environment to encourage creativity and learning. The school had different spaces to work alone or with others, as well as specialized spaces such as the textiles area, a science lab, a workshop space, and more!

One thing I found interesting was that there are ten staff members and 125 students. Each teacher can help any student in any subject, but there are some teachers that ‘specialize’ in one subject or another! The students’ learning is completed through personal inquiry projects based on what questions they have and what they want to learn and explore. Then, the staff look through the students’ research and see how what they have done fits into the subjects required to graduate. Rather than forcing students to fit the curriculum, the curriculum is fitted to each individual student. They find that over 90% of the time, students’ inquiry projects throughout their years at the school (grade 9-12) will ‘hit’ all of the areas and subjects that are taught in public school.

The main questions I have left after this experience is: would this approach to school work on a larger scale? And does it have potential to become the new mainstream way of teaching?