Weekly Reflection 1: PSII
It was a really interesting experience to get to visit the Pacific School of Innovation and Inquiry, and it was so kind of the founder, Jeff Hopkins, to give us a tour. I learned a lot about schooling systems and alternative teaching methods from this visit, but I do have some reservations about the style of the school.
When we first heard about the school, I was doubtful of how well an inquiry-based system would work.
I was confused about student motivation and how they connect different subject areas to learning. Picking one topic to look into also seemed too limited to me. I felt that students would lose interest in their inquiry, or not want to work on their project if they had no deadlines. I am someone who can only function under pressure, so I need to be pushed to get anything done.
Jeff did say that students are given freedom to take breaks as needed, but it’s up to teachers to recognize when students need slack and when they need to be pushed further. That seemed a bit risky to me, since teachers have a possibility of pushing students to do work when they can’t take it, or being too relaxed with students who can. But this is an issue with the school system I’m familiar with, so this isn’t just a PSII problem.
Something I found really cool was that there were spaces for any sort of inquiries from the learners. Subjects such as food, art, crafting, technology, pottery, and science were all given places in the school with all sorts of materials provided. We were told that the school can just go out and buy any materials for students as needed, so I wonder how the school is able to budget for unexpected requests. This open style of acquiring materials is definitely helped by the fact that PSII is a private school.
We learned that teachers are constantly meeting with students to support them through learning. Teachers have scheduled meetings, drop-in sessions open for anyone, and are always available around the school. I like the idea of teachers being easy to find and approach.
The focus of the school is on the process of learning, rather than the final product. This is a very supportive and forgiving environment, which I greatly appreciate. This is especially helpful for more ambitious projects, where the final product can fail (such as pottery, sewing, circuitry) but the process required a lot of time and dedication. When my brother was in high school, he made a motion-tracking taser out of circuit boards, which didn’t end up working the day he presented. If he had been at an inquiry-based school, evaluators would have been able to see the work that went into it.
This is also a great format for preventing AI use for assignments and “cognitive offloading.” Student accountability and ongoing work are impossible to fake, since teachers can interact with students as they develop their inquiry.
We saw an example of a student’s pottery assignment and how they connected it to various subject areas, but I still wonder if they’re really getting a well-rounded understanding of the different subjects. Math in particular is hard to connect; are they really understanding and applying mathematical skills? As I work through my crochet free inquiry, I can technically apply math to my processes (through measurements and gauge calculation), but it’s not something I’m considering while working. The school does seem to encourage students to actively engage with all subjects as they work, but I feel like it seems too easy to fake their understanding.
We were given an example of a student who didn’t do work for an entire school year. The student did eventually begin applying themself, but this is still a concerning example. It’s worrying that someone was able to lie their way through a year of school. That being said, students slip through the cracks in public schools all the time. The fact that PSII only had one example may have been a good sign.
I had a lot of fun on this school visit! The school was beautiful, the students were friendly, and the projects we saw were really interesting. Some parts of PSII’s system did not seem to work for me, but the focus on process over product, personal interaction with students, and growth-based assessment really stood out to me. While I wouldn’t adopt all of the methods of this school, I will definitely apply these key ideas in the future!