09/24/2025

For this week’s class, we had a guest speaker, Jeff Hopkins, who ran an on-site Q and A at the Pacific School for Innovative Inquiry. For the sake of being able to pause and take notes, I have chosen to reflect on a video posted on our course website, which documents a past Q and A session between our professor and Jeff Hopkins.

Former superintendent for the Gulf Islands School District, Jeff Hopkins left to start Pacific School for Innovation and Inquiry. In this Q and A, he talked about his rationale for creating such a unique school, how it is put into practice, and how to set ourselves up for success with our own inquiries. 

Jeff explains that his interest for inquiry based learning is rooted in his understanding that humans naturally learn from inquiring. He uses the example of babies who begin to experiment with the world by putting things in their mouth. Curiosity and wonder are driving factors in every person’s learning process. In every setting except for school that is. In school, students are limited in their freedom of what they learn and how they learn it. All content and mode of information transfer is decided for them, and they are then assessed through standardized testing. Like in the documentary we watched, Most Likely to Succeed, Jeff Hopkins openly questions whether or not this is truly the best approach for the education system. It seems to me that the school that Jeff Hopkins has started is a product, or rather, the process of his own inquiry. His (paraphrased) leading question is: Is our brain working and learning differently, or even better, when we are learning in a self-guided environment about what we are truly interested in then when we are fed information? When we are fed information, do we make our own meaning out of it, or do we just memorize it for the sake of passing the test? In his student-led, inquiry-based school, this is what he is testing. 

Now, because it is still a school, the flexibility the students are given does not mean that they are allowed to divert to chaos. Jeff points out that in a school setting, the teachers responsible for managing their students’ learning have to be on their game, and can not just wing it. One of the first questions about this framework where students are given so much freedom and agency was how to get the learners invested in their own learning? The first thing done to begin any inquiry is to ask questions: what do you want to know? What interests you? What are you curious about? 

Jeff reports that oftentimes students are embarrassed or unsure about what they would like to explore for their inquiry, and this type of freedom can be intimidating. It is important that the learners understand how open and free this concept is so that they don’t feel limited in what they are able to explore. Jeff was also asked how, as teachers, they deal with student inquiries that go beyond their own realm of understanding. Jeff gave two examples. For the first, he explained that even if the teacher isn’t familiar with the student’s chosen subject matter, they can always turn the questions to a place of morals and values. The example he gave was a student wanting to learn about AI for their inquiry. Even if their teacher doesn’t know much about AI, they can still ask questions like, “what value does AI have?”, to help guide the student. The second example he gave was the use of the “Living library”. This form of learning is an excellent springboard for students to learn how to make and use interpersonal connections as resources. Jeff mentioned a time when he had a student who wanted to create a robotic arm, and so the school brought in a mechanical engineering student to work with him.

Getting students invested in their inquiry project is only the beginning. Hopkins explained the inquiry model used in the school for students to follow. Because an inquiry goes far deeper than a research project, the model has an immense amount of flexibility in how it can be applied. It is broken into three steps:

1. Ask a question. This is the base for the initial research of a topic.
2. A new set of questions. From the initial research, new questions will arise.
3. Co-constructed learning activities. With the instructor, the learners can now come up with a plan. Research, experiments, tests, creations, etc.. What can they do to learn about their chosen topic? 

Another way this model of learning is so unique is how the students are assessed. Instead of a grade given for the final product of their inquiry, students are assessed on the process of learning. Are they developing understanding? Are they learning to be critical thinkers? WHat skills are they developing as they go through the inquiry process? This also leaves room for self assessment and reflection, where students can track their growth.

Jeff responds to a question I was very curious about. When do inquiries fail, and how do we prevent or recover from them? The implications of the freedom and agency given to students can be overwhelming. In this model, students are given responsibility for their learning, and responsibility is scary. To avoid spinning out and losing traction in your inquiry, Jeff reminds us to ask yourself – what do I really want to know? Being able to stay focused on what you are wanting to learn instead of taking a “we’ll see where it goes” attitude is essential to staying on task. Jeff also points out that even though an inquiry does not need to have an end, in the setting a measurable end is necessary. Being able to have a set plan is essential to keeping yourself accountable, and breaking that plan up into smaller steps to make it manageable is an excellent strategy to protect yourself from becoming overwhelmed. 

After watching and reflecting on this interview, I feel that I have a much better understanding of the concept of an inquiry based school. Jeff Hopkin’s inquiry inspires me to question the education system myself and whether or not the modes of information transfer used in the classroom are the most effective. Do students learn better when they have more control in their learning? I still have some questions about this model. 

How do teachers accurately assess their students? How is the workload different for the teachers? How does a student-led learning environment affect the student-teacher relationships? Would this model work for all students?

I would be curious to look into this school more deeply, and I wonder if this is the model that all schools should be following, or if it should remain a specialized space.