Jeff Hopkins is the founder of this high school, located in Victoria BC, and describes that “education is not the filling of a pale, but rather the lighting of a flame”.
He did not agree with traditional schools, he wants to make a shift and focus on the knowledge aspect, rather than the knowing about. He created a school surrounding inquiry-based knowledge, which focuses on goal setting, ideas, and collaboration. He aims to fulfill student curiosity and move towards competencies, rather than courses. What this means is, giving the students the freedom to choose what areas of schooling interest them, while creating broad areas of learning. This shows students how interrelated studies are and how apparent learning can be in real life. They measure students’ achievement through the goals they set and accomplish. The teachers work together and aim to be as flexible and helpful as possible to set up student success and student interest.
For prospective elementary education students, he discussed some advice on providing our students with inquiry-based learning. As elementary has more freedom in the curriculum he suggests not sectioning subjects, and rather taking the time to blend courses and develop competencies. He says not to assign grades as they are not a good form of information to provide feedback or accelerate students’ achievements. Help students understand goal setting and help them set up achievable and educational goals, that get them excited for learning. Overall, by allowing choice and inquiry, students become intrinsically motivated to expand their knowledge and become inspired to think critically. This is a type of education I aspire of being part of and hope one day I can create this type of classroom, where students reach their goals and are inspired to learn and develop throughout their lives.
Here is Jeff Hopkins Ted talk, which I encourage everyone to look at and imagine how education can be transformed and remodeled for future students.
