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Concept Driven Learning

Inquiry Based Learning

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Video: How and where is inquiry happening?

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Video: How and where is inquiry happening?

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Read this PYP Blog : Concept based learning (ep.2) 

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Read this PYP Blog : Concept based learning (ep.2) 

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In the second of a series focused on the PYP support material 'The early years in the PYP', IB voices spoke to Anne van Dam and Kathryn O'Connell, 2 early years educators who have worked in local and global contexts, to explore what concept based learning looks like in action and to discuss some of the tensions educators feel when working conceptually with young children. Read a summary based on the podcast conversation.

"The IB has identified play as the primary driver for inquiry, as it reflects the holistic and authentic way in which children explore, grow and learn. Play offers learners the opportunity to learn through multiple sensory experiences, which other forms of learning might not. Through play, learners draw on their existing knowledge and understanding of concepts to explore, think, test and extend the ideas about the world around them. Focusing on conceptual understanding helps learners to make connections to real life experiences, recognize and classify patterns, make generalizations, predictions and connections across their learning and to transfer and apply understandings."

Sue:
Can you describe what concept based learning looks like in your context? What are some of the ways children express their conceptual understanding and what would I see and hear if I walked into one of your classrooms? Anne, I'd like to offer that to you first.
Anne:

Sure. We write conceptually based units. When we look at these documents, we also document sort of emerging lines of inquiry and emerging concepts. So although we have identified concepts before we start, we also acknowledge that through that inquiry, new things may arise. One of the big things for us, is that we document children's learning during play and that we really see play as inquiry and as a way making sense of their world. Through those interactions with materials, with each other, with spaces, we identify emerging concepts.

Form and function come into play very often. So when we meet, we bring our documentation and we discuss this. We look at our photos, our videos and our anecdotal notes and we talk about the children's learning. And we really aim to link the children's investigations to certain concepts. For example, we've got this group of children who are really interested in how things flow, outside with water and inside with sand, and we're thinking about how does it work? There's also something sensory about this exploration, but also about causation as the children are also thinking about ways that they can manipulate the flow of the water. Then we use a concept map to map out these concepts with an online tool called Miro, where we make connections visible between certain concepts. It really helps us with having this overview and having a look at how things are connected and how things evolve.

Kathryn:

I agree with everything Anne said. If we start from a point of belief that children are conceptual thinkers and that they're testing concepts and wondering about concepts all the time, then our job is a little bit different than being a traditional teacher. It's being a conceptual guide. As teachers, we love to tell kids things and instead, if we can stop telling and start asking, we're on our way to being conceptually based. Not just looking for how are children conveying what they know, but how are they trying to make sense of the world.

Anne:

Yes, it is important that we build over time the children's understanding of what concepts are. I think it connects with that question, 'what would I see and hear if I walked into one of your classrooms?' We might say things like, "you're thinking about responsibility", or "you're thinking about roles" or, "you are creating a system." And I think it's in that language that we've noticed that children start using that language as well.

Kathryn:

And can I add to that Anne? I often think it is naming, noticing and exploring. Those three things can happen in any order, but if we are truly the conceptual guide, then we can be talking about the concepts we're thinking of and that modeling does help children internalize it. They're able to more concretely talk about the concepts and they realize that they're conceptual thinkers.

Anne:

I often find that there is that sort of ethical feel for documentation where we have to check in with children. Like this is what I think about your thinking, but what you think about your thinking?

"When we start seeing the child as competent, perhaps we will have less of a tendency to tell and more of a tendency to start listening."

Sue:
What are some of the tensions an educator can feel during concept based inquiry? What is the role of the educator?
Kathryn:

Documentation, observation and being a conceptually driven inquiry-based teacher requires that educators are vulnerable, and it requires that they are a co-learner with their students, which is different from the way that we learned as kids. It also requires that we suspend judgment. So my advice to teachers is when they're feeling the tension, I know exactly what this needs, to go stop yourself. It's a journey that requires that you are completely open-minded.

Anne:

When we move towards a more child centered curriculum, that's actually a really complex process and it requires complex cognitive processes. I think it really starts with really seeing and believing the child to be a competent person. So that means that we really have to go back to our own image of the child, our own construct of who children are, what their rights are, what their responsibilities are. Do we see young children as learners, as thinkers, as constructors of meaning? Do we see them as inquirers through play?

And that's where we get to the documentation. We have to make this visible. It provides the future possibilities for us to either reject a certain idea or build on it or further explore it with the children.

When we start listening and documenting, and having conversations with other educators about their point of view, thinking about the best way to support these theories, these curiosities, these fascinations, then we can start thinking about what kind of situations we set up that help children to either deepen or extend, or even perhaps confront some of their own ideas. When we start looking at the children, and following their thinking, we will stay more connected with them. Then, the inquiry process becomes just so much more powerful.

Anne van Dam has worked as a teacher, coordinator, head of school and vice-principal at international schools in China, Singapore and Switzerland. She joined Eton House International Pre-School in 2007, drawn to the school for its vision to centre learning around young children's competencies in making meaning and establishing relationships. In August 2011, Anne became the Assistant Principal at the International School of Zug and Luzern(ISZL). At ISZL, she supported the development of a new shared vision for learning in the early years, placing a strong emphasis on relationships, play, learning spaces and documenting learning.

Anne moved back to the Netherlands in 2015. This has given her the opportunity to collaborate for two years with the PYP development team at the IB regional office in The Hague. She has been working on the IB PYP review focusing on learner agency, early years, inquiry and several aspects of 'the learning community'. Anne still works for the IB as a workshop leader and collaborates with international schools as an independent educational consultant. Since May 2019, Anne also learns alongside 4,5 and 6 year olds at an inner city, local PYP school in her home town The Hague.

Kate O'Connell is a passionate educator and lifelong learner with 25 years of experience in teaching and leading. She has worked and consulted in 30 schools, in 12 countries on 4 continents. This experience includes teaching various grade levels and leading as a PYP coordinator, Principal, and Head of School. She is currently teaching at The Australian International School Phnom Penh.

She received her Bachelor's Degree in Elementary Education and Master of Arts in Curriculum and Instruction from Michigan State University. She is currently pursuing a Certificate of School Management and Leadership through Harvard Business School and Harvard Graduate School of Education.

She leads and writes workshops for the International Baccalaureate, Compass Education, and online she has coached courses through Harvard Graduate School of Education's WIDE World.

She is unapologetically passionate about children and education.

Sue Tee is a PYP curriculum manager with responsibility for early years and the arts, based in the IB global office here in The Hague. Originally from the UK, she has worked in a number of international schools in Hong Kong and The Netherlands as both a class teacher and administrator. Whilst she has worked across the primary age range, her heart belongs with the early years and it is here she has spent most of her time, learning from and with amazing educators and children.

The early years is designed for PYP students ages 3-6. To learn more about the PYP early years implementation strategies and Programme outcomes, please click here .

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PYP early years series: Concept based learning (ep. 2)

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In the second of a series focused on the PYP support material 'The early years in the PYP', IB voices spoke to Anne van Dam and Kathryn O'Connell, 2 early years educators who have worked in local and global contexts, to explore what concept based learning looks like in action and to discuss some of the tensions educators feel when working conceptually with young children.

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questions you may have after this session

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questions you may have after this session

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Design strategies to enhance understanding

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Design strategies to enhance understanding

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https://www.ibo.org/professional-development/free-learning/pyp-pd-learning-resources/workshops/

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The PYP playlist

The PYP playlist contains a wide range of e-learning resources and structured lessions for student learning, to help everyone in your learning community develop a deeper understanding of the PYP.

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Learn more about Primary Years Programme (PYP) curriculum with these professional development (PD) interactive nanos and learning resources.

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IB Criteria for designing and reviewing a POI

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IB Criteria for designing and reviewing a POI

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holistic

play

stop telling-start asking

connection

co-learner with students

conceptual guide

documentation

observation

language

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We backward design our lesson. First we have a central idea, then we come up with related concepts based on the 7 key contcepts, then we design topics, and lastly some facts.

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We backward design our lesson. First we have a central idea, then we come up with related concepts based on the 7 key contcepts, then we design topics, and lastly some facts.

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Concepts drive students to think or view the world through different lens or angles.

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Concepts encourage deeper thinking, and related concepts promote subject related inquiries.

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Concepts encourage deeper thinking, and related concepts promote subject related inquiries.

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You can plan your inquiries to a level of depth that is difficult to achieve in other ways of learning

Concepts are interwoven

Discipline your inquiry/limit your concepts in order to achieve depth

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In this session, I've had a better understand of the 7 key concepts of planning PYP lessons. It's difficult to think about the guide questions for these concepts but it's very helpful to support the students have a better study. Thank you

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In this session, I've had a better understand of the 7 key concepts of planning PYP lessons. It's difficult to think about the guide questions for these concepts but it's very helpful to support the students have a better study. Thank you

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We have been shown a practical, visual way to collaborate with colleagues, apply key concepts and related concepts, and encouraged to be more vulnerable, open-minded and to think deeply about conceptual thinking and learning.

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By Ian, Sabrina,Tian and Cathy

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We delve deeper into a unit of inquiry by using multiple avenues of subjects. We use the 7 concepts/related concepts to dive deeper into a topic. We use all this knowledge that they are interested in to flush out a unit and co-learn aside a student. We don't just teach them knowledge; we get them to apply their understanding of a unit in an approachable and interactive way. We should stop telling a student information and instead start asking and inquiring about the student's interests.

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I've been in a reflected mode the whole morning actually. The most impressive part was the role change of a IB PYP teacher from a traditional typewhen I was reading the interview. PYP teachers are not necessary to TEACH, but to GUIDE and FACILITATE. And what does it mean to us is that we need to be OPEN-MINDED and not be a factor to impede learning happening. Then the process of reviewing the 7 key concepts helped me regained the clarity of the framework how a unit be prepared and planned. The last point is the structure of knowledge, actually the concept is just like a vehicle transferring facts and knowledge....

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1. students can be conceptual thinkers or guide, which means through interaction with the world they may find emerging concepts they want to learn.

2. As a teacher we should be open-minded and be a co-learner with students.

3. conceptual understanding can be changeable, contextual and reintepreted. When desiging our lessons, we may use backward thinking based on the facts related to our topic and then facilitate students to think critically about big ideas and greater details.

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When you decide to choose a topic, you have to think about divergent thinking, think about if it is a concept or fact, then use seven aspects : form, function,causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility to explore. And what I have learned ib is more like reverse thinking. It really helps teachers and students to think more about the topic.

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I‘ve noticed that concepts are the key points to help teachers to design the lesson. According to the 7 key concepts，we can ask open questions to lead students to think. Also the related concepts can link to different subjects, which help the lesson emerging together.

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I understand the question about "What is conceptual understanding?" and I know how to make a Key Concept. It's very useful to help me teaching in the future. Thank you.

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I learned the basic knowledge of the IB PYP system and one of the core concepts is to discuss “what means about ‘understanding’?” It includes four core aspects: non-example, example, facts and definition, which is from a large scope to more and more specific parts, like definition is a conceptual summary of the others, then delineating a certain limitation, and finally all part of make a summary. Additionally, how to use different “tools”, like bingo, o’clock partners, and concept wheel to help students, and how different from key & related concepts.

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Strategies to investigate concepts using the ATLs.

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Strategies to investigate concepts using the ATLs.

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More learning tools/games that can be used in the kindergarten, not only primary years students.

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Specific requirements and strategies to create a good PYP unit plan and lesson plans

how to provide provocations and ask bold but engaging questions

The role of subject-based knowledge in the interdisciplinary learning, how it plays out exactly?

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I would like to learn more about how we use the concepts with the text books.

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I would like to learn more about how we use the concepts with the text books.

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I wonder how to use different ways to assess students if they understand the key concepts

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I would like to shadow a teacher through their unit. I would like to understand how a veteran teacher develops their unit. Thanks

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How do we accomplish a complete teaching plan? How to assign different teaching tasks to teachers of different subjects?

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How do we accomplish a complete teaching plan? How to assign different teaching tasks to teachers of different subjects?

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1.How to design learning engagements that motivate students to become inquirers? 

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1.How to design learning engagements that motivate students to become inquirers? 

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2.How to cover the curriculum requirements but in the same time boost students' inquiry thinking ？

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How could we use some of the "tools", like the UKD, Transdisciplinary, Tuning in, etc. into our teaching in specific ways?

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strategies to engage students, approaches to learning, project based learning in the context of PYP.

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strategies to engage students, approaches to learning, project based learning in the context of PYP.

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I would like to shadow a teacher through their unit. I would like to understand how a veteran teacher flushes out a unit.

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I would like to shadow a teacher through their unit. I would like to understand how a veteran teacher flushes out a unit.

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Want to learn more about the demo of the lesson cases, like art. For some of the central ideas, it looks very good to explore, but when i try to think about the understanding goal and knowledge goal, it becomes more difficulty.

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How do we design a specific lesson plan under a central idea? It needs to meet the teaching goal from the textbook, it's concept-based learning, it cultivates students' critical thinking abilities, it's transdisciplinary

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How do we design a specific lesson plan under a central idea? It needs to meet the teaching goal from the textbook, it's concept-based learning, it cultivates students' critical thinking abilities, it's transdisciplinary

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How can students improve their writing through inquiry

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1. In IB PYP, how should we arrange timetable? Or what is a PYP timetable look like from G1 to G6?

2. Is one period of UOI per week for G4 student enough?

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Confidence Chart Spider Curriculum questions

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5 responses to How a focus on word choices can enhance the quality of the central idea 

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5 responses to How a focus on word choices can enhance the quality of the central idea 

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The author of this article provides some pointers to aid the process including focussing on the word choices and arrangement when w riting a strong central idea.

A unit of inquiry is only as strong as its central idea. We have to be able to answer the question "At the end of the unit what do we want the children to understand, know and do?"

Writing a good central idea is not easy. There should be a balance between openness for the generation of inquiry and be specific enough to ensure the construction of knowledge, skills and conceptual understanding. After many years of evaluating units of inquiry, my colleagues and I have identified some patterns in central ideas that make for strong or weak units of inquiry and constructed some guidance to evaluate central ideas when writing them.

Some common pitfalls to avoid are:

Central ideas that are a rewording of the transdisciplinary theme, for example 'Societies use systems to organize themselves' - the central idea should reflect the transdisciplinary theme not simply be a rewording of it. The central idea needs to refine the statements from the transdisciplinary theme to enable in-depth inquiry. For example, 'Businesses are organizations that provide goods or services to meet the needs of customers' has a number of concepts from the heart of the disciplines, is specific in the type of social system but is broad in that there are many types of businesses.

Central ideas that contain phrases like 'for different reasons' or 'takes various forms'. These avoid the focus that is essential for depth. Almost everything that happens, happens for different reasons and we need to explore some specific reasons. Compare 'Different forms of transport have different uses' - that includes only one significant concept to 'Transportation systems enable people and societies to connect'.

Central ideas that describe teaching strategies or tools. 'By exploring the interdependence of social systems and analysing the evidence we can better understand society' - for example, describes teaching and learning strategies, there is no enduring understanding from the heart of the disciplines (Wiggins and McTighe). 'Scientific thinking' although a concept from science, is general and is better developed through the process of learning to prove or disprove ideas from the scientific fields in a scientific way. 'Energy is transformed, stored and used in industrial and domestic applications,' has clear concepts from scientific field which can be investigated by a process of scientific thinking.

We found that focusing on very specific word choices and sentence structure is a useful device.

Central ideas that contain concepts from the heart of the disciplines to drive the inquiry ensure building of globally transferable, significant knowledge. In the PYP these are the 'related concepts' for example 'migration, stories, force, light, simple machines' as described in Making the PYP happen (2009), in the subject area annexes.

The writing of a single, concise sentence benefits from the use of a well-known acronym from word level English teaching - CVC (Consonant Vowel Consonant). We modified this to stand for 'Concept Verb Concept' when thinking about the structure of the central idea. This structure helps focus on efficient and powerful word choices.

Verbs that describe relationships between concepts, or processes one performs on another, give clear direction for 'unpacking': impact, shaped, depend, work together, grow, change, communicate' are examples of powerful verbs that denote a clear relationship or process. Verbs that are subjective in nature such as 'appreciate, value, enjoy' can be avoided as they are judgmental. Children are engaged by potentially interesting content but they can only know this if they understand the sentence. Complex ideas do not have to be dressed in complex language. Mystery generally does not promote the engagement that is a precursor for appropriate, challenging and critical thinking.

' The properties of materials determine their function' - has globally significant science concepts, a verb that describes the relationship between them, is concise and can be unpacked using the key concept questions. There is breadth in the multitude of materials and objects made from them that exist in the world and the potential for exploration, comparison and investigation by the scientific method promotes scientific thinking.

The collaboration of multiple perspectives in writing central ideas can lead to excellent outcomes but I believe that some systematic evaluation a little akin to the scientific method may be helpful to consider.
Louise Knight has worked with the PYP in schools in Norway, Nigeria, Iraq (including as PYP Coordinator and Language Support) and Indonesia with grades 1 to 5. She is passionately interested in language and literacy, particularly Functional Linguistics and she finds it useful to look at some of the issues around the use of language in texts, in this case the central idea as a text form, through the Functional Linguistics lens.
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How a focus on word choices can enhance the quality of the central idea

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The author of this article provides some pointers to aid the process including focussing on the word choices and arrangement when w riting a strong central idea. A unit of inquiry is only as strong as its central idea.

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co-constructing central ideas with your students

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co-constructing central ideas with your students

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Princess Artypants: Visual Arts in the PYP

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a Choice Based PYP art room in the land of sand

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Collaborative planning process for learning and teaching