This week’s guest was Jeff Hopkins, Founder and Principal Educator of PSII, who chatted with us about inquiry-based learning. During his conversation, I slowly began to understand more about the inquiry process and the role a teacher can play in supporting a student’s inquiry project.  I was stuck in thinking inquiry was just a research project because that is what I am used to but Jeff presented inquiry-based learning as a team searching for more questions, diving deeper into a student’s curiosity.  At PSII the educators are there to support what students wonder about. It seems the lines are blurred between who shares knowledge and who conducts the learning. However, the teachers are there to support the learning process which models what most jobs and life require, collaboration, connecting and conversation.

I keep thinking back to an ISTE article that discusses how we are preparing students for an unknown future. I think inquiry-based learning support students “to live in interdisciplinary spaces and to live in cross-thinking areas where they can see the connections across disciplines.”- Education leader, Scott McLeod. It has made me wonder what is my role as a teacher…

As educators, we can facilitate students’ curiosity in BC as teachers have autonomy in delivering the curriculum which can support inquiry-based learning.  This is exciting because this makes education and teaching more authentic and meaningful for everyone. There are many ways to do this, ones I still have to figure out and learn.