VII

Inquiry, inquiry, inquiry….. 

This week we had the pleasure of hearing Trevor Mackenzie speak. He is a famous teacher for his inquiry based approach to education. He not only believes in inquiry as THE way go for education, but breathes and lives it…or at least it appeared that way when I was listening to his talk. 

He asked us to reflect on our high school experience by asking questions that took me back to when I first arrived in Canada as an international student and had to deal with a completely alien environment. He made me think about those teachers who made a difference in my high school education and my classmates, who “embraced” me and made sure I found a sense of belonging within my school community. 

Trevor also talked about teaching humanly and responsibly. This is very valid and a fantastic “motto” to have as I become an educator. 

As a future science teacher, I would like to give my students agency over their learning and Trevor suggested that Inquiry based learning is the “ticket” to achieving this in our classrooms. 

Other very important points that Trevor brought up and that would allow us to be better educators was the idea of being flexible teachers and getting to know our students in a genuine way. These will have a very positive impact in our teaching, but most importantly, it will greatly and positively impact the learning in our classrooms. 

Trevor also shared some graphics to summarize the great points he made during his talk. I’d like to spend some more time looking at and reflecting on these. “The tree of Inquiry” is a powerful representation of the type of practice I would like to have one day.