I have walked a very winding path this semester, not quite sure where I would eventually end up. I had had some experience of inquiry learning, and it was already a passion of mine; however, (as usual) I still had much to learn. The openness of inquiry learning, and its respect for the student was what had originally enticed me, but these two aspects were also its challenges when working in more traditional, teacher-centred schools. Moving into a more consultative position in a new school, and moving into a high school setting, has prompted me to become more reflective and to distill the essence of what I believe education should be about.
My teaching philosophy has changed over my professional life, but the ideas of:
· working together
· making connections / understanding the big picture
· following topics of interest
· learning “just in time, rather than just in case” (Cook, 2010)
· developing interpersonal skills
· and a concept of social justice (Lupton, 2016)
will always be “just right” for me.
Questions that keep me wondering:
· How can I persuade more teachers to work with me, other teachers and specialists (eg Teacher-Librarians) to develop cross curricular units of inquiry?
· What links does the Australian Curriculum have between subjects? And how much flexibility can we infuse into the secondary curriculum?
· Given that many schools are developing open flexible learning spaces, is this the opportunity that I can seize to convince teachers to abandon closed, silo teacher-centred units?
· How can high schools develop more learning sessions rather than lessons in spite of perceived timetable limitations?
And still the big one:
How can we ensure that all learning, for all students, for all time is within their Goldilocks Zone?
