Weekly Reflection

For this week’s blog post, I will be discussing three things that are of interest to me in education. First, we do need to reimagine education. I have always felt that our education system does not work for many, which is why I decided to become a teacher in the first place. I am intrigued by inquiry based learning and am enthusiastic about this new path of learning method. Additionally, there are many things that excite me about this approach, and I will explain why in this post! I was fascinated by the turn out rate and results of High Tech High’s approach. 98% of High Tech High’s students were accepted into post-secondary education! WOW! Lastly, I will discuss the pros and cons of lesson plans vs learning plans. 

We need to reimagine our education system because it is not working for so many people. I would argue that the majority of people would consider their K-12 school experience to be not a positive one. I could also argue that for some, school was traumatic for them. This is not right. People spend so much time in school during vital periods of their lives. School should be a safe place where people can be their genuine selves, learn how to become successful in their own way, and become the best person they can be! 

After watching Most Likely to Succeed, I was so interested in the parents’ response to High Tech High’s method of teaching, which was inquiry based learning. The parents were so critical of gradeless, testless classes! I noticed that a common argument was that their children needed the grades to get into college… to get a good job… but then at the end of the film I saw an amazing stat: 98% of High Tech High’s students were admitted into post-secondary. Clearly, the school’s method worked if the goal was to get into college. 

Additionally, I can’t help but think about the entire system itself. Why must we sort people based on their grades… and then income…? Why do some people deserve a “better college” and thus “better jobs”? Plus… just because you get good grades in college does not mean you will get a good job… Why do people think that getting the best grades means you will be the “best” person? 

Inquiry learning fascinates me. I have never heard of this type of learning until I started this post-degree program. I didn’t even know what inquiry was! In my last semester, I took a class called Link 2 Practice where we got to go to an elementary school and observe a classroom for a day, once per week. I remember somewhere in the beginning of the semester the professors that lead the class mentioned an inquiry project that was due at the end of the semester… I thought, “What the heck is in an inquiry project? We get to pick anything that interests us… and then just research it and present it…? Really? Is it that easy?!” And it was! My inquiry topic that I selected was “What were the benefits of the outdoors on learners with ADHD?” I found myself genuinely applying myself to the class, because I was able to explore and learn something that I was authentically curious about. 

Finally, I do see some pros and cons to Lesson Plans vs Learning Plans. I think the pros of lesson plans is that they give the teacher a concrete plan about what is expected of the teacher and of the learner, which I guess is comforting in a way to those that enjoy the structure. The cons to the lesson plan is that it’s very concrete… and doesn’t give much breathing room for the diversity of learners. The pros of the learning plan is that it is comprehensive, flexible and frankly more suitable for the needs of a diverse learning group. It isn’t as concrete as a lesson plan, and even the title of it feels better. That’s what the students are there to do… to learn! The cons that I see of the learning plan is that perhaps teachers might not know exactly what they are doing for the entire class… I suppose teachers that need structure might find this uncomfortable… But I think teachers need to remember that in order for anyone to really learn anything, teachers must ‘let go’ so that learners can learn from their own mistakes.  More about learning plans here: https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/what-is-this-learning-plan