A three-year old education program that encourages School District 43 high school students to follow their passions has won a national award from the Canadian Education Association.
The Inquiry Hub, founded by educators David Truss and Stephen Whiffin, has been recognized with the Ken Spencer Award for innovation in teaching and learning.
For the school, which has 53 Grade 9 to 12 students, the award recognizes the work and thought that has gone into a program that strives to meet students' individual learning goals.
"We're thrilled. Stephen Whiffin [currently the district's manager of information services] and I really had a vision for providing a true blended learning experience where students get to personalize their learning and find and follow their own passions in a high school setting," said Truss, who is the Inquiry Hub lead administrator (Mike McGlenen is the principal).
There are five teachers at the school, based at the former Millside elementary in historic Maillardville, who teach academics and assist students in following through on their independent studies programs. Many projects come out of the program, which uses inquiry-based learning and technology to encourage students to develop out-of-the-box critical thinking.
PROJECT-BASED LEARNING
Current "inquiries," according to Truss include designing and building a go-cart, developing a viable commercial glass recycling program, building an app to do school attendance through facial recognition and designing a 3D printer.
"They take all the academics required to graduate and then, instead of traditional electives, they take digital literacy and foundations of inquiry, which do two things: It allows them to pick any topic they choose to study and get credit; and it builds their practice in developing meaningful questions so that in later years they can do an IDS [independent study] that earns them credit."
Students who benefit most from the program, which still has spaces available for September, include those who are self-motivated, can work independently during unstructured class time, want to apply their learning in a practical way or with projects that make a difference, are interested in research and learning with technology, and find structured classes do not meet their learning needs.
The Ken Spencer Award recognized the Inquiry Hub for being a good example of personalized learning in the public school system.
"With the ongoing struggle of how to rethink high school, this program is an example of how we can push on structure to organize learning differently - how we can take that notion of students' passions and break down the traditional secondary timetable, this is a new model for learning," said Ron Canuel, CEA president and CEO, in a press release.
For more information about Inquiry Hub, visit www.inquiryhub.org.
