The first session that I attended was called: Creating a Culture of Inquiry. This session was very helpful to attain a better understanding of what type of program was being held at the Calgary Science School as well as how to format a classroom in the future to facilitate inquiry based learning. It was a great opportunity to discuss and brainstorm some of the implications of inquiry based learning. I was in a group that particularly looked at creating a community centered on this idea. We discussed that this type of learning would need to be developed from the “bottom” up with a systemic process. During this session, I came to the realization that although we are encouraged to teach in this manor, we have not been taught with inquiry based ideals. In other words, we need to begin this process with the revision of our teacher education programs. This way we can experience this kind of learning as students, and then implement it as teachers. I think that I am going to take some small steps in my own future classroom to build up to this standard of inquiry based learning.
The next session that I attended was called: Dialogue on School Leadership. This session was also very intriguing. This session seemed to be composed of participants that were either superintendents or school principals. I thought that it was interesting to hear from these leaders what they considered to be strong qualities of a leader. We shared our thoughts on various matters with a gentleman from Alberta Education, and it was interesting to hear his insight on many of the topics at hand. The Alberta framework for leaders in education was covered and I think that I will be able to implement these attributes into my own leadership practice in both education and humanitarianism.
The third session of the weekend that I attended was called: Leading Towards an Innovative Culture. This session was held by George Couros who is known for his innovative and reformative education practices. This session had a focus on discussing issues with our colleagues and peers. The thing that resonated greatly with me from this session is that to reform education we need to re-look at the structure of our education system. There are many successful organizations and institutions that do not run like a school. Maybe we should begin to mimic these systems to create a well engineered ‘machine’ in order to better engage students. George broke down the learning process into ten basic steps in order to better facilitate and foster learning in the classroom. These steps expanded beyond the walls of the classroom to gain support by the parents and community.
The fourth session was called: How to Assess Inquiry Based Learning. The issue of how to properly assess inquiry was a major topic of discussion at the conference. A rubric was discussed as both a positive and a negative in the education world. This session was very helpful and practical to use in a classroom setting. I learnt that the assessment piece of a unit, needs to be embedded in the lessons and scaffolded throughout the year/ unit to supplement the inquiry process. Some of the main ideas that I left the session with were: to consistently connect the material that the students are learning to the ‘real’ world, to connect the students with expertise and to have these professionals interact and give feedback to the students, to provide extensive feedback loops in order for a student to understand what they can improve on, to give students junior versions of a multitude of professions, always ask the WHY students are working on a specific task, and to encourage the students to be involved in every step of the teaching and learning process. I found this session to be very useful and it helped me to better understand what I can do to make an inquiry based classroom more effective.
The fifth and final session of the weekend was called: Flipped Classrooms. This session was again very interesting. I didn’t know much about flipped classrooms and this session brought to light some of the pros and cons of the flipped classroom. From this session, I determined that I don’t think a flipped classroom is ideal for every single day of the learning process. I do think though that this use of the internet and video medium can be beneficial in certain situations. There are some practicalities that maybe aren’t ideal for all classrooms or all age groups. In science I think that this could be very useful to prepare students for a lab the following day in order to have the inquiry in class and the details and instructional portion as ‘homework’. I am going to look to stay in touch with the teachers who are trying this in the coming semester to get an idea of some additional successes and failures of the process to find a more ideal time to use this.
I am so thankful for the opportunity to attend this conference. I learned an immense amount about inquiry based learning and how to make it effective. I also was able to connect with fellow educators from across Canada that I can connect with in the future to collaborate on different ideas and to share our successes. I also think that as student teachers, we brought an interesting perspective to the conference as well. I would attend this weekend again and would recommend it to another teacher as well.