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P43-45 Considerations for inquiry learning

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P43-45 Considerations for inquiry learning

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Learning in a transdisciplinary world

PDnano: Learning in a transdisciplinary world (d2sogmhdubry8r.cloudfront.net)

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This article showcases the concept of living things through the process of inquiry. It also reflects the constructivist approach where a child constructs knowledge through experiences gained by exploring the environment.
Play-based learning is always supported by inquiry. The entire process is led by the child, which is only possible when given space and time to explore, experiment, assess and ask the questions to augment knowledge.

My students were inquiring into a unit with the central idea: Living things have requirements in order to grow, change and stay healthy. We began the unit with a provocation corner with various seeds like kidney beans, chickpea, wheat and sunflower. The students soon questioned: "How will this small seed become a plant?", "How many days will it take to become one?", "We eat kidney beans, will they grow in our stomachs too?".

While playing in the garden, a group of students approached me with a ladybug which was still and had turned orange. The children were anxious as to why it had turned orange. "I think it is dead!" said one child.

For deeper understanding we invited parents to come to school to speak about caring for pets at home. Some parents also shared how they had lost their pets to sickness and age. Students soon theorized that all living things need care and why the ladybug may have died.

My students continued to stay fascinated with living things. For one of our mathematics engagements, students peeled pea pods and while peeling a child found a small green caterpillar, which triggered excitement and curiosity. Students spoke excitedly: "Hey, it is a caterpillar!", "It is a living thing, see it is moving!", "Is pea its food?".

The students decided to keep the caterpillar in a jar. We covered it with net to provide air and added some peas because they insisted that peas might be its favourite food as they had found the caterpillar in a pea pod. Slowly they found that the caterpillar had formed a cocoon around itself and thought it had died. This sparked a new question: "Why did it die when we gave it food and air to breathe?".

In order to help my students answer their question we read The Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle which helped them understand the life cycle of a caterpillar. To make a personal connection, I asked parents to send a set of 2 photos; one current and another from the time of birth. At first students were given photos from the time of birth, which only a few of them could recognize. When seeing their current photos, they were astonished that they had changed so much. They began to understand that they have a life cycle too, just like the caterpillar.

By just giving time and space, we can see students inquiring, questioning and struggling to reach understanding. This will not only strengthen their confidence, but also deepen their thinking and assessment skills. What my students learned from this inquiry will never be forgotten and will support them in applying these understanding in the future.

Reference:

Carle, E. (1969). The Very Hungry Caterpillar. United States. World Publishing Company.
Jessica Manglani is a PYP teacher at Pathways World School, Noida, India. She has over 3 years of experience as an educator, teaching Business Management to under graduates. Her desire to contribute at the foundation level landed me in primary teaching. Inquiry, experiment, instigate, curiosity words with different meaning and method to take on differently with age group of different levels, has expanded my thinking process and exposed me to new methods of teaching.

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This article showcases the concept of living things through the process of inquiry. It also reflects the constructivist approach where a child constructs knowledge through experiences gained by exploring the environment. Play-based learning is always supported by inquiry.

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Transdisciplinary Learning in the PYP presentation 

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Transdisciplinary Learning in the PYP presentation 

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Transdisciplinary Learning in the PYP presentation for parents

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PYP curriculum framework - International Baccalaureate® (ibo.org)

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The Primary Years Programme (PYP) offers a transdisciplinary, inquiry-based and student-centered education with responsible action at its core, enabling students to learn between, across and beyond traditional subject boundaries.

The framework serves as the curriculum organizer and offers an in-depth guide to achieve authentic conceptual inquiry-based learning that is engaging, significant, challenging and relevant for PYP students.

Through the programme of inquiry and by reflecting on their learning, PYP students develop knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills and the attributes of the IB Learner profile. Informed by constructivist and social-constructivist learning theories, the emphasis on collaborative inquiry and integrative learning honours the curiosity, voice, and contribution of the students,

The pillars of the PYP curriculum framework

The transdisciplinary model extends across all three pillars of the PYP curriculum framework- the learner, learning and teaching, and the learning community.

The learner: describes the outcomes for individual students and the outcomes they seek for themselves (what is learning?)

Learning and teaching: articulates the distinctive features of learning and teaching (how best to support learners?)

The learning community: emphasizes the importance of the social outcomes of learning and the role that IB communities play in achieving these outcomes (who facilitates learning and teaching?)

VIDEO: Glenn Davis, PYP Principal and Coordinator describes the process moving away from a textbook-based curriculum to an open-ended learning experience

Agency, self-efficacy and action

Agency and self-efficacy are fundamental to learning in the PYP. Throughout the programme, the learner is an agent for their own and others' learning. They direct their learning with a strong sense of identity and self-belief, and in conjunction with others, build a sense of community and awareness for the opinions, values and needs of others.

Action, the core of student agency, is integral to the PYP learning process and to the programme's overarching outcome of international mindedness. Through taking individual and collective action, students come to understand the responsibilities associated with being internationally-minded and to appreciate the benefits of working with others for a shared purpose.

VIDEO: PYP learners take ownership of their learning

Implementing the PYP in schools

The whole school benefits from using the PYP curriculum framework to organize their curriculum and community. In addition, the Programme Standards and Practice (PSP) framework supports schools with implementing and developing the PYP.

The PSP helps develop the environment, culture, policies and processes that support effective practice and exemplify the IB mission.

Read more about the PSP [2.2 MB]

What is an IB education?

This document explains the ideals that underpin all IB programmes, communicating what lies at the heart of an IB education.

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The Primary Years Programme (PYP) offers a transdisciplinary, inquiry-based and student-centered education with responsible action at its core, enabling students to learn between, across and beyond traditional subject boundaries. The framework serves as the curriculum organizer and offers an in-depth guide to achieve authentic conceptual inquiry-based learning that is engaging, significant, challenging and relevant for PYP students.

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The Important Book By Margaret Wise Brown

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This article summarizes how reflections help learners choose how they want to act. It shares a real-time example and utilizes an opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the PYP and how implementing it ties together all the elements!
As a committed PYP practitioner for five years, I keep appreciating the uniqueness of the programme. However, moving from theory to practice is not always an easy journey. The PYP stresses achieving a balance between acquisition of essential knowledge and skills, development of conceptual understandings, demonstrations of positive attitudes, and taking of responsible action. Making this a realty in a classroom and making it meaningful for learners will bring the outcomes of the programme to fruition.

The IB approaches to learning are unarguably the most important to acquire not only in the units of inquiry, but also for any learning and teaching that occurs within the classroom and in life outside the school. The five categories and their respective sub-skills encompass what is needed for a learner in the 21st century. In this dynamic, fast evolving world we need people who are not just knowledgeable but are critical thinkers and problem solvers.

Year after year I work with a new set of learners, each of them unique in their own way. This year I am working with learners who are highly energetic, curious and incredibly open-minded. We often engage in reflection sessions during which we discuss how we are learning in classroom, what is going well and what is not. Learners come up with sincere reflections including that we often fall short at displaying our skills.

Learners reflected that if they could work consciously towards displaying all the sub-skills, they would resolve most of the problems they face in and out of the classroom. In tandem with this thought process we as a class managed to develop a means to help assess our commitment to display these skills in classroom - The skills wheel.

This assessment model is based on Carol Dweck's theory of Growth Mindset and the idea of "NOT YET" (Dweck, 2014).

Learners set up a skills goal for a period of 2 weeks. We display all the sub-skills of that category in an accessible area so that students know what they will be assessed on. After the observation period, the class meets up to discuss how they displayed each sub-skill. Learners provide each other feedback and those learners who have consistently made efforts to display the particular skill will be placed in the pink circle and those learners who have "not reached there yet" will be placed in the yellow part. Gradually, learners who try to work on their goal areas will be moved to the pink area too.

I have experienced a positive change in learners' thinking and learning behaviour in the classroom while utilizing this tool. Learners evidently show more ownership to their actions as they are a part of this solution. It also encouraged learners to show commitment to their choice and be more open minded to feedback.

Although small, I feel this model acted as an effective means for me to make approaches to learning categories and sub-skills more meaningful for my learners. It gave our learners the opportunity to choose to act; to reflect and decide the course of their actions. That, I believe, is responsible action.

References:
https://www.ted.com/talks/carol_dweck_the_power_of_believing_that_you_can_improve

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Rachana Kothapally is a PYP facilitator at Silver Oaks School Bangalore, India. She has been an IB practitioner for 5 years and is passionate about developing critical thinking and problem-solving abilities of learners.

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This article summarizes how reflections help learners choose how they want to act. It shares a real-time example and utilizes an opportunity to appreciate the beauty of the PYP and how implementing it ties together all the elements! As a committed PYP practitioner for five years, I keep appreciating the uniqueness of the programme.

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Level 2-14 Stone Soup | e-future Classic Readers

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探究的力量（完整翻译版）(1)

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Level 2-14 Stone Soup | e-future Classic Readers