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How might we intentionally design and teach for conceptual understanding within a transdisciplinary and inquiry-based context? Developing conceptual understanding enables learners to access many kinds of knowledge and develop understanding from multiple sources and diverse perspectives.

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• conceptual understanding is central to the aims of an IB education

• conceptual understanding is developed through the pedagogical approaches to teaching to support transdisciplinary learning within, across, and beyond subjects

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• the programme of inquiry and the PYP collaborative planning process frame opportunities that enable designing and teaching for conceptual understanding that connects meaningfully to the learner and the learning community

• concepts play a critical role in organizing, designing, and planning curriculum and learning.

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PYP Nano series one: Inquiry happens everywhere

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PYP Nano series one: Inquiry happens everywhere

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These resources provide support and understanding about key characteristics of the Primary Year’s Programme (PYP).

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PYP early years series: Concept based learning 

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PYP early years series: Concept based learning 

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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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PYP: From principles into practice - Learning and teaching (Conceptual understanding)

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PYP: From principles into practice - Learning and teaching (Conceptual understanding)

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PYP: From principles into practice - Learning and teaching (Conceptual understanding)

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PYP: From principles into practice - Learning and teaching (Conceptual understanding)

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Session 4 - Learning and teaching copy.pptx

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Padlet - Identifying Key and Related Concepts

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Padlet - Identifying Key and Related Concepts

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Learning and Teaching - Transdisciplinary learning

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Learning and Teaching - Transdisciplinary learning

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Learning and Teaching - Transdisciplinary Learning

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Confidence Chart Spider Curriculum questions

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Learning and Teaching - A transdisciplinary programme of inquiry

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Learning and Teaching - A transdisciplinary programme of inquiry

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An initiative of the Lien Foundation, How We Do School is a series of short films that explores how schools in British Columbia and Finland address diverse learning needs of its students and what we can learn from them. By showing what is possible, we hope this can in turn inspire Singapore and inform ways that we can go about making inclusion more of a reality. inclusionmatters.sg

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WHAT IS ‘HOW WE DO SCHOOL’ An initiative of the Lien Foundation, How We Do School is a series of short films that explores how schools in British Columbia an…

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· What strikes us as noteworthy about this scene?
· Our current education model was defined by the Committee of Ten over a century ago.  What skills and character traits did they want young adults to have for 20th Century assembly line jobs?
·  What skills and character traits are essential for students for career and citizenship in the 21st century?
·  Do we critique our assignments on the basis of which essential skills they’re developing?
·  How can we assess student progress on essential skills?  
·  What micro-innovations could we try to accelerate student development of essential skills?

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Programme standards and practices realized

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Programme standards and practices realized

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Programme standards and practices realized

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Programme standards and practices realized

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PSP realized strategies for conceptual understanding

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PSP realized strategies for conceptual understanding

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From surface to deep learning: The importance of knowledge

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From surface to deep learning: The importance of knowledge

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This article illustrates how the use of the SOLO Taxonomy allowed our students to progress from shallow to deep thinking.
Of the five essential elements in the PYP, is there one that often gets overlooked when planning units of inquiry?

The planner prompts us to think explicitly about attitudes, skills, action and concepts. But what about knowledge? It can sometimes be challenging for teachers to identify a body of knowledge for a particular unit; it can feel uncomfortable identifying specific knowledge to be learned because it can direct the inquiry in a way that takes control away from students. I would argue, however, that identifying some essential knowledge needed to understand a central idea gives more power to the students and encourages them to become self-directed, assessment capable learners.

In Making the PYP happen (2009), the section on whether it is possible to "identify a particular body of knowledge for PYP schools" is addressed by explaining that, although there are some "core commonalities" that represent shared human experiences (which led to the selection of the six transdisciplinary themes in the PYP framework), schools should develop their scope and sequences to reflect their unique circumstances. But do our scope and sequence documents always document the knowledge associated with units of inquiry?

Lynn Erickson's Structure of Knowledge (2002) is often used in the PYP workshops to illustrate how concepts and knowledge interact to help students form a principal generalization (similar to the central ideas we all have in our programmes of inquiry). The foundations of being able to form these principal generalizations (or understand a PYP central idea) are based on identifying the essential facts that will interact with the chosen macro and micro concepts (or, as we call them in the PYP, key and related concepts).

John Hattie and Gregory Donoghue (2013) define learning as:

The process of [students] developing sufficient surface knowledge to then [enable them to] move to deeper understanding such that one can appropriately transfer this learning to new tasks and situations.

Hattie states that there is a right time for interventions and the use of deliberate learning strategies. Based on his 800+ meta-analyses of now over 50,000 research articles, Hattie has argued that allowing students to inquire without structure too early does not work, having an effect size of only 0.31, less than an acceptable year's growth (the 0.4 'hinge point' which defines a typical year's growth).

This is where the SOLO Taxonomy can come in handy. Although it was developed by Biggs and Collis back in 1982 it seems to have had a resurgence of interest recently. Hattie (2012) describes it as "the most powerful model for understanding these three levels of understanding [surface, deep and conceptual]". In her new book entitled The Power of Inquiry (2015), Kath Murdoch writes that the SOLO Taxonomy "explicates the work of John Dewey, who wrote extensively about our understanding arising from our capacity to see connections". And Pam Hook (2012), who has released a variety of publications to help schools implement the model across a whole range of subject areas, states that it offers solutions to "ensure cognitive stretch for all students, build interest for all students, build confidence for all students and share power amongst all students."

In the SOLO model, there are four levels of thinking. At Seisen International School we have simplified the names of these levels for use with our students: unistructural (which we have renamed 'one idea'), multistructural (which we have renamed 'many ideas'), relational (which we have renamed 'connecting ideas') and extended abstract (which we have renamed 'going further'). The first two levels are surface level learning and require students to find information and collect ideas. The last two require deeper thinking where students have to process the information they gathered in the first two levels. If students are not at a stage where they have an idea about the concept, topic or subject, they are said to be at the pre-structural stage (which we renamed 'getting started').

At Seisen we have had some success adopting the SOLO Taxonomy. Students refer to the levels when reflecting on their progress and setting goals. It has become our language of learning, having aligned it with our own inquiry cycle (Getting Started - Investigating - Connecting Ideas - Going Further). Using a list of appropriate verbs at each level, learning engagements are designed across the continuum so that students can identify where they are and select their next steps. The students become evaluators of their own learning and teaching teams have a tool to use to answer the question posed in box 3 - What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?

By the time the students approach their exhibition year, consistent use of the tool is enabling students to plot their own learning progressions using the SOLO verbs at each stage of their independent inquiry. Isn't this our goal as teachers to structure inquiries in a way that encourages students to become independent, self-directed, assessment capable learners?

Here you can find links to some grade-level examples of the SOLO Taxonomies being used for units of inquiry on our blog.

Are you currently using SOLO in your PYP school? Are you interested in learning more about SOLO? Please contact us at pyp.curriculum@ibo.org.

-
Michael Hughes an experiences PYP Coordinator, currently into his fourth year at Seisen International School, Tokyo. Before this he worked in international schools in Singapore and Jordan and has ten years experience in the PYP. He is a work- shop leader in the Asia Pacific region.

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From surface to deep learning: The importance of knowledge

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This article illustrates how the use of the SOLO Taxonomy allowed our students to progress from shallow to deep thinking. Of the five essential elements in the PYP, is there one that often gets overlooked when planning units of inquiry? The planner prompts us to think explicitly about attitudes, skills, action and concepts.

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The Living Walls Project: Promoting student-centred learning, inquiry, action and reflection

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The Living Walls Project: Promoting student-centred learning, inquiry, action and reflection

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The Living Walls Project: Promoting student-centred learning, inquiry, action and reflection | SharingPYP Blog

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Documenting inquiry is hard. The process takes skill and commitment. This article describes how a group of educators were introduced to the emerging curriculum framework to enhance their understanding of guiding and documenting the inquiry process. Through an initiative called the Living Walls proje…

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PYP Early years series: Documenting Learning (ep. 3)

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PYP Early years series: Documenting Learning (ep. 3)

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PYP Early years series: Documenting learning (ep. 3) | SharingPYP Blog

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In the final episode 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, two early years educators who have worked in local and global contexts, to explore some of the opportunities and tensions for educators around the…

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The Learning Community - International Mindedness

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 The learning community - A community of learners

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Learning and Teaching - A transdisciplinary programme of inquiry

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Learning and Teaching - A transdisciplinary programme of inquiry

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Collaborative planning process for learning and teaching

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Collaborative planning process for learning and teaching

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Programme standards and practices (2020) - Cross-programme resources

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Programme standards and practices (2020) - Cross-programme resources

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PSP realized strategies for conceptual understanding

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PSP realized strategies for conceptual understanding

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Long-range plans for asynchronous session

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Long-range plans for asynchronous session

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Principles into Practice - Learning and Teaching

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Principles into Practice - Learning and Teaching

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Principles into Practice - Learning and Teaching

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Template for Asynchronous work (Creating a transdisciplinary unit of inquiry)

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Template for Asynchronous work (Creating a transdisciplinary unit of inquiry)

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Kelsey's enhanced example to reflect an assessment approach that focuses on feedback to feedforward

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Kelsey's enhanced example to reflect an assessment approach that focuses on feedback to feedforward

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Padlet - Children's literature and concepts

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Padlet - Children's literature and concepts

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Word Economic Forum - Top 10 skills of 2025

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Word Economic Forum - Top 10 skills of 2025

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Education

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These are the top 10 job skills of tomorrow - and how long it takes to learn them

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Critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills employers believe will grow in prominence in the next five years, according to the Future of Jobs report.

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Padlet - Formulating questions through the lens of the key concepts

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Padlet - Formulating questions through the lens of the key concepts

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Grade 3 Who we are unit of inquiry sample

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Grade 3 Who we are unit of inquiry sample

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kelsey.lewis.ca@gmail.com

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A slide show including some of our most popular images published from 2016 to 2020 in “What’s Going On in This Picture?”

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Images From Four More Years of ‘What’s Going On in This Picture?’ (Published 2020)

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A slide show including some of our most popular images published from 2016 to 2020 in “What’s Going On in This Picture?”

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Creating a concept-driven, transdisciplinary UoI

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Creating a concept-driven, transdisciplinary UoI

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Describe a learning experience to support a chosen unit of inquiry. Be sure to show and explain how it a) develops conceptual understanding and also b) how it embraces and reflect an inquiry-driven approach to teaching.

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Choose a UoI and brainstorm an assessment strategy/tool that would allow you to provide feedback and assess students' conceptual understanding

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Curriculum from within (What's worth needing, doing, experiencing and wondering?)

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Reflections on the Field of Curriculum—A Conversation with With Guest William Shubert, PhD - nexus

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This episode features curriculum scholar Dr. William Schubert, Emeritus Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to his teaching responsibilities at UIC, Dr. Schubert served as Chair of the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, Director of Graduate Studies, Coordinator of the Ph.D. Program in Curriculum Studies, and Coordinator of the M.Ed. in […]