Weekly Reflection #1

Do we need to reimagine education? After visiting the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry and hearing why Jeff created the PSII, I do believe change is necessary. The idea behind the PSII was that the public school system is large-scale, which made it challenging to change. In the independent school system, this change was easier to make. I believe that visiting the PSII was a great experience and opened my eyes to many different ways in which inquiry is essential to student learning. Though the public school system cannot be fully inquiry-based, I do see many ways we can integrate inquiry into the general classroom. I believe that education does need to be reimagined in some respects, geared towards child-focused learning rather than set content and curricular competencies. Allowing more room in the curriculum for students to explore and inquire about topics that interest them will make them more engaged and happier overall in the school environment. This can increase student success across the whole public school system if we tailor their learning to their interests and give them space to explore.

What obstacles do educators often face when they try to change pedagogy? Within the public school system, there are more barriers to overcome when attempting to change the pedagogy. There is a set curriculum, and though there is a lot of choice in how you teach subjects cross-curricularly rather than in a specific way, you still have to teach the content of each subject. There is standardized testing that students must prepare for, and content built on prior years. I haven’t spent much time in the public school system, but I can imagine it would be challenging to change a system in older schools that have done things a certain way for so long. With this same thought in mind, I believe that it would be hard at first to be the only one making the changes and standing out at the school (though this shouldn’t be a reason not make a change, I would imagine it would be hard as a new teacher trying to connect with colleagues). This can also stem from a lack of support from admin and colleagues, and without a good mentor, I feel it would be challenging in this regard as well. Finally, I feel like both students and parents can pose challenges when changing pedagogy, because students have grown up in a ‘traditional’ teaching setting and have certain expectations. Parents may also expect the things you see in general classrooms rather than new and different ways of learning.

What concerns and/or excites you about this approach? Regarding inquiry learning, I am excited to see how students explore their interests and grow their love of learning. I do believe it is a valuable teaching practice, and in the current system, students don’t get to explore their interests as much as they could. I am excited to have students be excited about learning, to inspire them to take ownership of their knowledge, to show their learning in many different ways, and to have them think outside the box. I also believe it’s valuable to explore my own creativity. As a future teacher, I want to be creative for my students, not only allowing them to explore their interests but also inspiring them to do so by exploring mine and giving them opportunities to learn in different ways. I hope to find different ways to keep exploring how I can reinvent education, keep students engaged, and allow them to think critically for themselves.

I was heavily inspired for this blog post by the visit to PSII and by the image below about the school’s inquiry process. I hope to normalize inquiry in my future classroom and inspire others to do the same, slowly changing the education system to be geared toward students rather than specific content.