Jeff Hopkins talked to us about his thoughts and his actions regarding changing how learning is done in a drastic manner. Jeff left the public school system and started his own school called the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (or PSII) in Victoria. This school bases it’s approach to teaching on Vogotsky’d theory about the Zone of Proximal Developement, the area just outside the learners comfort zone. If learners are not in the zone of proximal developement, then they will become disengaged, and potentially act out. Jeff believes that it is maintaining this zone of proximal developement that public schools tend to struggle with the most. It is very difficult to do with so many students and so little resources.
To maintain student interest, the course need to be built up around the individual learner with them in the centre. To do this, PSII uses an inquiry model to learning and assessment. In this model, all the coursework is built around questions that the learner creates and wishes to pursue.
The general inquiry process starts with students generating a question, and then researching it. That research is used to create newer and deeper questions that will eventually lead to the completion of a project. Throughout this process, the teachers work alongside the student to point them in areas where they will learn the required material to meet the curriculum.
All in all, this method seems impressive, although I remain skeptical. I struggle to see how students following only one inquiry can lead them to all the areas that they need to learn. However, I have to admit the results that the students are achieving seems impressive.