Jeff Hopkins spoke in our class this week about his school in Victoria, Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry. From what Jeff spoke about during class it seems like this school is ideal for students who want to focus on subjects they are interested in, rather than the broad spectrum public schools in BC usually have. This school allows students to create inquiries based on their interests, while also qualifying for graduation in BC. In his TEDx Talk, Jeff Hopkins talks a lot about how schools should focus more on inquiry-based learning because doing so helps students understand subjects on a deeper level. He also suggests we should be teaching our students what they need to know instead of what they need to know about. In other words, there needs to be a comprehensive understanding of what you are learning about. As a future educator, I have been learning a lot more about inquiry-based learning and this has interested me because it seems like students will leave the classroom with better knowledge using this method of learning. When I was a student in grade school I remember only wanting to pass my courses and not caring about the content. Inquiry-based learning helps students explore what they are interested in and in turn, they will feel more connected to these topics.  

Competency Assessment Framework

I found this assessment guide on the PSII website and it is very interesting to me because it is a lot more simplified than the BC curriculum guidelines, although it seems much more relevant to what we need to learn in the present day. Instead of being broken down into math, science, art, etc., they break up assessment into broader terms such as collaboration and leadership which are both very important skills needed after graduation.