Jeff Hopkins is the creator of The Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry (PSII) here in Victoria. He created this school in response to frustration with the standard Western school system. The foundation of this new school is to encourage all students to be in Vygotsky’s “zone of proximal development.” This is the zone between what is “too easy” and “too difficult” for each student to encourage growth. The problem with standardised schooling is that each student has a different zone of proximal development, and it is nearly impossible to ensure that every student is in this zone when planning a one-size-fits-all lesson. Individualised inquiry-based schooling allows for students to enter their specific zone of proximal development every day, providing a challenge that is productive.

With this proximal zone of development in mind, the guiding framework for PSII was developed:

The process of inquiry-based learning at PSII is as follows:

1. Question generation – deep questions formulated with help/guidance from teacher
2. Initial research
3. New questions (reframed, deeper)
4. Develop learning activities
5. Execute learning activities

The following video available of the PSII website summarises this process:

During this process, assessment of learning, as learning, and for learning are taking place at every stage. Due to the personalised nature of the student output being assessed, assessment ends up being more rigorous than standard assessment.

In addition to assessment, the difference in the role of the teacher at mainstream schools and PSII are summarised below:

• The teacher’s role in mainstream schools:
  • Sole planner, creator, deliverer, assessor, motivator, monitor, expert, evaluator, reporter, and follower of the curriculum for a group of students
• The teacher’s role at PSII:
  • Professional facilitator of learning, who adapts learning conditions to be developmentally appropriate to each learner, who encourages and seamlessly incorporates legitimate in-and out-of-school learning experiences, and who offers or finds expertise as demanded by co-created individual learning plans 

Additional differences between mainstream schools and PSII:

So … Now what?

PSII is an inquiry-based high school that focuses on individualised learning through student-led practice, allowing every student to remain in their proximal zone of development. It is similar to High Tech High, but located here in Canada and closer aligned with BC curriculum. The depth of learning is far deeper at PSII than in traditional schooling, and requires more flexibility, adaptability, and communication school wide. Collaborative and independent skills are intrinsically learned through this process, and the subject matter is much more diverse and interesting. While this strategy is effective when fully implemented like in independent schools such as PSII, it may be difficult to implement effectively within the framework of traditional schools. This isn’t to say that we can’t incorporate aspects of Inquiry-based learning in public schools. I think in my future practice I would really like to give students the opportunity to do a inquiry-based assignment, however, I’m not sure if it will be practical in application since students won’t have the time or resources to adapt to this kind of learning.