In my first year of high school, I made the decision to take an Inquiry class. It was the first year my school had offered the course and it was a combination of Math, Science, English, and Humanities. My inquiry class consisted of lectures on materials and tests, similar to normal classes. However, the course also included a lot of reflection and projects that allowed you to explore different topics through creative projects of your choosing, which was not very common in the other classes I was taking. I found that through taking this inquiry class, I was able to learn about different subjects without an extreme focus on memorization or examination, while still maintaining a balance of learning BC’s required curriculum. Understanding was at the forefront, whereas recalling was given a back seat. 

 

My experience in this class reminded me of the experience of the students at the school High Tech High from the documentary “Most likely to Succeed” (Dintersmith,Wagner, and Whiteley, 2015) that we watched for homework. Although my inquiry class was not to the same degree of this inquiry school in the movie, both my school and High Tech High were able to explore school work through asking questions and solving these questions through research, project building, and reflection. Now that inquiry is starting to make its way more and more into the classroom, teachers are having to learn how to balance an inquiry classroom with making sure the students are learning the curriculum required. In the documentary, students and families were concerned on how the inquiry based learning would affect their chances of getting into university (Dintersmith,Wagner, and Whiteley, 2015). Universities still very much to this day review grade point averages and percentages, which is not necessarily what inquiry is about. This was also a concern for my family when I was in highschool. Both myself and my mother were concerned on how the shift into teaching an inquiry based model would affect my grading and if I would be at the same level as my peers who were not in an inquiry class. Looking back, I feel that my experience in an inquiry class was beneficial and provided me a different way of learning that other classes did not provide.  

 

My experience with inquiry compared to the students at High Tech High was quite different because my timetable was filled with other classes that did not use the inquiry model, where as in High Tech High the whole school was inquiry based. However both experiences show a different balance of inquiry in classrooms. The BC school system will have to learn to find the proper balance of inquiry in classrooms over the years to come; this can prove to be challenging as many of the educators throughout the province were not “trained” to teach via an inquiry model.

Dintersmith, T. (Producer), Wagner, T. (Producer), & Whiteley, G. (Director). (2015). Most Likely to Succeed [Motion Picture]. United States of America: One Potato Productions.