Saturday 28 April 2012

Inquiry and Challenge Based Learning

The Present
In Christophe Henry's blog Life in the Middle today is a video of a group of four students in the Agri-JIS Club talking about their project.  (A Challenge Based Learning Trial) As I write, they are in Geneva with two teachers at a conference co-sponsored by CERN and Apple.


Clearly they are engaged by the challenge they have set themselves. They are showing all the Essential Qualities of JIS Learners: Creative Individuals, Collaborative Workers, Effective Communicators, Self-Directed Positive Learners, Adaptable Learners, Problem Solvers and Responsible World Citizens.


These students show our newly adopted School Values of Perseverance, Balance, Compassion, Integrity, Respect and Responsibility. They share their passion for what they want to achieve.


The future?
These students worked on the project after school in a club. How would we need to change the way our schools work to be able to allow all our students to challenge themselves in this way as part of their normal school day?


OR... do we really NEED to give students this opportunity?


Maybe it's OK that this kind of learning be saved for After School Activity or occasional special days, like Earth Day, so that it doesn't interfere with our established routines.... 


How can we in elementary schools give our children more opportunities to engage in this type of Inquiry and Action as well as having them learn to be good readers and writers and mathematicians, etc? 


The more we can do to be prepared for the future before it becomes the past, the better........ IMHO.....

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