“How can we do this better? How can we grow this?” are the questions that Dr. Leyton Schnellert asks himself at the end of each year when he thinks about how to design more meaningful learning opportunities for teacher-candidates at UBC Okanagan. Recently the answer was to create a collaborative inquiry group that focused on the the opportunities presented with the implementation of BC’s “renewed” curriculum. The group met once a month during the teacher-candidates’ practicums. It began with just teacher-candidates and their teachers but soon the program expanded to include teachers from the schools they had visited, district mentor-teachers, and ministry representatives. What resulted was an authentic learning community where everyone is both a teacher AND a LEARNER.
“We are so confined by the system but we can do really great things within that system.”
-Teacher Candidate
This innovative model of mentorship and community building across organizations builds bridges between pre-service teachers and in-service professionals and EVERYONE is benefiting. One teacher candidate reports feeling “rejuvenated and validated” when she leaves the group. Another shares that learning with her peers and teachers assures her that “I’m okay. I’m doing okay.” And the in-service teachers are learning just as much! One secondary teacher shares that she was going to try an activity with her grade eleven and twelves students that a teacher-candidate in a grade one class had shared.
“I’m also learning from them.”
-In-service Teacher
Check out the video at to hear more about how Collaborative Inquiry at UBCO is transforming education.