Week 4 – Visiting PSII

What a neat experience!

Something I noticed as soon as we walked into the school was the atmosphere. It didn’t feel tense or stressful as it sometimes does when walking into school study rooms. I also noticed lots of artwork on the walls which appeared to be student artwork rather than the typical manufactured art classrooms and schools often have. This I feel added to the warmth of the environment as we have learned that adding students work into the classroom creates a sense of pride and allows students to better connect to their learning environment. Not only did the environment feel relatively calm but students were working collaboratively and individually in a variety of rooms, which in some ways may have contributed to the calmness of the students. 

One room they had available to students was called the Sensory room. During our introduction to the school, I don’t recall Jeff mentioning too much about the Sensory room, however, one of the teachers mentioned that there are couches in there. When we went to take a peak I didn’t see much other than soft lighting and bare walls as there was a student quietly working in there. I also noticed a mandala sheet covering the lights, to make the room lighting a softer colour. I really liked the idea of the sensory room. Although we did not get to experience it, from what I saw and was told about, it seems like a great learning space for a variety of students. Another interesting room was a room that they called the “Maker” room. This room had a kitchen, an art table as well as a shop table. This room was designed to cater to the students working on hands-on projects in a creative environment. 

Another aspect of PSII that I liked is that they have a soft timetable for students to follow if they feel necessary. I recall Jeff saying that with this schedule formatting students sometimes forget they have appointments with teachers, but they quickly learn how to set alarms on their devices. I feel that this encourages students to be responsible for their time, their peers’ time, as well as their teachers’ time. This is because students have to be aware of their appointments as they don’t have a bell ringing every 80 minutes as most students do.  

Additionally, I did have concerns about the inquiry-based learning. I support the idea of it, but I wonder if some students struggle with time management and focus primarily on some projects and not others. I also wondered about how heavy student interest is in this educational environment. If students are heavily focused on one subject and don’t have exposure to other subjects how do they broaden their intellectual spectrums? For example, if a particular student doesn’t enjoy literature or social studies, how do those subjects play a role in their learning. Are students able to neglect these subjects to an extent based on what their inquiry is about? If they have an inquiry that’s science-focused, will they get a broad understanding of history through that project or just an amount that is related to the inquiry topic?

Lastly, another aspect of this style of learning that piqued my curiosity is the transition to post-secondary. How do students adjust to post-secondary learning environments that are lecture focused when they haven’t been learning in that setting for many years. If students primarily chose to work individually and seldom work in pairs or groups at PSII, how do they manage group work at a post-secondary level? 

These are some questions I wish I would have asked during the visit, but it took me some time to process the information I had gathered before I had come to them. Overall, I would say that our visit to PSII was a good eye-opener to the varieties of schooling available to students in Victoria. The school reminded me of the school we learned about in the film “Most Likely to Succeed”. Primarily because there is a large focus on inquiry but also because we learned that the PSII students put on a play and have full control over all the decisions, costumes, and sets, similarly to the school in the film. I would consider working in this type of educational setting and I would also recommend it to students who struggle with some of the constraints in the public school system, or for those who are just looking for a change.  

Photo retrieved from Unsplash.com: twinsfisch