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Insight on Inquiry: Starting the Year in Kindergarten

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Task 2- Fill in a sample planner for your current unit.

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Task 2- Fill in a sample planner for your current unit.

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There's been a great deal of talk about agency lately. This isn't too surprising. After all, it's a major component of the new, enhanced PYP. However, with the explosion of conversations surrounding this topic, many seem to think that it's merely the latest buzzword in education.But agency is not merely a buzzword.It's much, much more.For most of us, agency is something that we have always valued. We became educators because we want to instill a lifelong love of learning in our students. We want our students to develop the skills they need to have agency over their own learning and over their own lives. Of course, in addition to this passion that we have for our students, we value agency in our own lives, too.Earlier today, I was invited by a brilliant friend into an intriguing conversation on Twitter. The topic was agency. More specifically: What components need to be in place for agency to exist? Should we measure and evaluate student agency?[embed]https://twitter.com/ms_fernweh/status/1050909913919025152[/embed]I was pleasantly surprised to find that the conversation also linked to a post written by a colleague of mine at Tokyo International School. He offered several thought-provoking points. I especially appreciated that he ended his post with a plea to keep the conversation going and to offer alternative viewpoints. It's wonderful to be a part of a community that values lifelong learning and inquiry. While I agree with some of the points made, I also hold an alternative view to several points as well.I certainly agree that the aspects in the tweet's visual-forethought, clear intention, execution, and self-reflection-are valuable. However, they still do not capture all that agency encompasses.There must be voice, choice, and ownership. All of those aforementioned aspects could be in place-but without voice, choice, and ownership, learners could still simply be going through the motions and doing those things because they "have to."As educators, we must provide an environment that cultivates a culture of ownership-a culture where students have choice and voice in what they are putting forethought towards, the intention they are setting, how they execute their intentions, and how they reflect upon their actions.What about measuring and evaluating agency? Can it be done? Should it be done?We cannot measure agency itself, but we can measure how we are doing at fostering learner agency in our schools and classrooms. It's not the students we should be measuring; it's ourselves as educators and the environment we provide. In fact, we have a responsibility to evaluate ourselves and our learning environments to ensure that we empower students to exercise their agency. What are we doing to provide students with opportunities to be authors of their own learning? In the conversation-sparking tweet, "I Can" statements were given as a potential way to measure and evaluate student agency. These included statements such as:

I can choose my own resources

I can access my own resources

I can explain the question I am investigating

I can describe what my finished product or performance will look like when it is a success

I can explain what I do not understand about _____ yet

I can explain what I am investigating

I can voice my opinion

Those above statements might measure knowledge, the ability to communicate, and perhaps even independence-but not agency. Agency is much more than independence. It's more than the ability to do something on your own. It's more than a skill. It's the opportunity to create, choose, take charge of, and own your knowledge, learning, and skills.Of course, another problematic aspect in attempting to measure and evaluate student agency is that you would then be communicating to students that they are either "doing agency well" or "doing agency wrong"-which only negates the agency we seek to edify.Agency is neither a skill that needs to be developed nor measured. It's something that all of us already have-the difference lies in whether others in our environments respect, value, and support it.This is a juicy topic with many, many layers. I'd love to hear your thoughts and perspectives on this, too, in the comments.

There's been a great deal of talk about agency lately. This isn't too surprising. After all, it's a major component of the new, enhanced PYP. However, with the explosion of conversations surrounding this topic, many seem to think that it's merely the latest buzzword in education.But agency is not merely a buzzword.It's much, much more.For most of us, agency is something that we have always valued. We became educators because we want to instill a lifelong love of learning in our students. We want our students to develop the skills they need to have agency over their own learning and over their own lives. Of course, in addition to this passion that we have for our students, we value agency in our own lives, too.Earlier today, I was invited by a brilliant friend into an intriguing conversation on Twitter. The topic was agency. More specifically: What components need to be in place for agency to exist? Should we measure and evaluate student agency?[embed]https://twitter.com/ms_fernweh/status/1050909913919025152[/embed]I was pleasantly surprised to find that the conversation also linked to a post written by a colleague of mine at Tokyo International School. He offered several thought-provoking points. I especially appreciated that he ended his post with a plea to keep the conversation going and to offer alternative viewpoints. It's wonderful to be a part of a community that values lifelong learning and inquiry. While I agree with some of the points made, I also hold an alternative view to several points as well.I certainly agree that the aspects in the tweet's visual-forethought, clear intention, execution, and self-reflection-are valuable. However, they still do not capture all that agency encompasses.There must be voice, choice, and ownership. All of those aforementioned aspects could be in place-but without voice, choice, and ownership, learners could still simply be going through the motions and doing those things because they "have to."As educators, we must provide an environment that cultivates a culture of ownership-a culture where students have choice and voice in what they are putting forethought towards, the intention they are setting, how they execute their intentions, and how they reflect upon their actions.What about measuring and evaluating agency? Can it be done? Should it be done?We cannot measure agency itself, but we can measure how we are doing at fostering learner agency in our schools and classrooms. It's not the students we should be measuring; it's ourselves as educators and the environment we provide. In fact, we have a responsibility to evaluate ourselves and our learning environments to ensure that we empower students to exercise their agency. What are we doing to provide students with opportunities to be authors of their own learning? In the conversation-sparking tweet, "I Can" statements were given as a potential way to measure and evaluate student agency. These included statements such as:

I can choose my own resources

I can access my own resources

I can explain the question I am investigating

I can describe what my finished product or performance will look like when it is a success

I can explain what I do not understand about _____ yet

I can explain what I am investigating

I can voice my opinion

Those above statements might measure knowledge, the ability to communicate, and perhaps even independence-but not agency. Agency is much more than independence. It's more than the ability to do something on your own. It's more than a skill. It's the opportunity to create, choose, take charge of, and own your knowledge, learning, and skills.Of course, another problematic aspect in attempting to measure and evaluate student agency is that you would then be communicating to students that they are either "doing agency well" or "doing agency wrong"-which only negates the agency we seek to edify.Agency is neither a skill that needs to be developed nor measured. It's something that all of us already have-the difference lies in whether others in our environments respect, value, and support it.This is a juicy topic with many, many layers. I'd love to hear your thoughts and perspectives on this, too, in the comments.

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What is Agency? Should It Be Measured? - Tonya Gilchrist

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There's been a great deal of talk about agency lately. This isn't too surprising. After all, it's a major component of the new, enhanced PYP . However, with the explosion of conversations surrounding this topic, many seem to think that it's merely the latest buzzword in education.But agency is no

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1) How is my understanding of PYP principles and practices evolving?

2) In what ways can I apply learning from this workshop in my own learning and teaching?

3) How is agency supported and nurtured through this workshop?

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Provocation Option 2 (Design Thinking Process)

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Provocation Option 2 (Design Thinking Process)

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Design Thinking: A Problem Solving Framework

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Nurturing Student Agency in a Virtual Setting

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Nurturing Student Agency in a Virtual Setting

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With the release of the Enhanced PYP, many schools and educators have started to develop their understanding of PYP: From Principles to Practice, with an emphasis on Agency! To this end, you may have created Professional Learning Communities or study groups to empower teachers to have agency. Your planning meetings may have transformed from feedback-focused to reflection and feedforward-driven, with the intention of keeping an eye on formative reflection and assessment of learners and teachers, alike. In this blog and through my webinar, I discuss how our school community has adapted to these changes and how we are empowering students to have agency - be it in-school or at-home.

How can we transfer "our learning" and implement it in a virtual setting?

We started experimenting with new practices in August of 2019. Reading different publications from the Teacher Support Material section of the PRC, our essential question was: how can we involve students as agentic learners in co- constructing the unit?

To develop as learners, students should feel in control of things happening around them and feel that they can influence events. They should feel a sense of ownership of their own learning and the action that comes from that learning. Students develop deep understanding when they design their learning; they begin to understand the why. This naturally leads them to think about the what, the how and the so what.

As PYP educators, we thought about how we could continue to enhance agency, deliberate autonomy and leadership in our students in a virtual setting? During this academic year, we experimented on how we can make students 'leaders' in designing their learning.

The role of the PYP teacher in a virtual setting

With this sudden move to emergency remote learning some of us had the spring break to prepare for, and some, just a weekend, many of us focused on tasks. What concept should our students explore, what math skill should we reinforce,what tasks can I give the students to cover an objective, what do we have planned for next week and can we keep our plans?

Just reflecting about it, we can see that there are similarities between both scenarios: core principles and practices. There are practices that I would not say change; there are practices that we need to extend.

The role of the student in a virtual setting

In a school setting, the child feels safe, he knows his teacher, his class, his cubby...

In a virtual setting, all these things are " unknown" and we expect our learners to react and respond the same way as they would in a regular setting. As educators, we need to relook at who our students are as learners in a virtual setting and avoid generalizing what their setting could be and what resources they might have access to. When planning, think about your learners in this new setting.

Co- constructing a unit of inquiry in a virtual setting

Carefully designed provocations and varied resources are key. Our guiding questions were:

How can we maintain students' leadership in designing the unit of inquiry?

What tools do we have to promote agency?

How can we make sure that all students can be part of this teaching and learning process?

In what ways can we collect student responses?

How can they design the different elements of the unit?

How we started

We started by providing students with provocations focused on key concepts and related concepts. Students reflected on the provocations through guided concept-based questions by the teacher.

To collect student responses, students were directed to use a digital note-taking tool, to jot down words or phrases that they thought about as they responded to the provocations.

For example, for our Grade 4 Unit, How we Express Ourselves, students were given picture prompts, and videos that focus on different forms of media, the story behind some ads. Students jotted their concepts and related concepts on the note-taking tool. After the provocations, the teachers took screenshots of the responses and shared them with students on Microsoft Teams. With a comprehensive platform like Toddle, you could do this within Toddle too, both in physical and remote learning environments.

In groups, students reflected on their responses to construct a possible central idea for the unit of inquiry.

Using the place mat activity, and one collaborative document that all groups could access, each group had to write the central idea they came up with.

As a class, the students joined the homeroom teacher and came up with a central idea which came very close to the one that we already had in our programme of inquiry.

Moving forward

Teachers created a survey for students which students accessed independently to design the elements of the unit. Results were then shared with students and a discussion helped frame the conceptual understanding that was then explored under the transdisciplinary theme.

As we continue to teach in the remote setting, it's integral to ensure that we keep asking ourselves how we can give students the opportunity to co-construct the unit, to ensure it's at the heart of how we teach. By giving students a voice in constructing their learning and taking ownership of their learning, we will also likely be better supporting them as learners during these unprecedented times.

Watch Ola's deep-dive into ideas and strategies to promote student agency here.

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Nurturing Student Agency in a Virtual Setting - Key Learnings from Toddle Talks Webinar - Toddle Learn

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With the release of the Enhanced PYP, many schools and educators have started to develop their understanding of PYP: From Principles to Practice, with an emphasis on Agency! To this end, you may have created Professional Learning Communities or study groups to empower teachers to have agency.

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A room with a view to learning

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Importance of the planning process and not the planner

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Importance of the planning process and not the planner

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Developing Approaches to Learning

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Arts Integration: Deepening Understanding of Core Content

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Concept based teaching and learning

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What is Differentiated Instruction?

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Supporting agency through planning and assessment

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Supporting agency through planning and assessment

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An early years approach to global issues

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The inquiry approach requires educators to think about their role and their students in a different way. It creates conflict among some educators, as it is a change not only in their practice, but also in their belief (Short & Burke, 1996). It was very enlightening when I understood that my role had shifted from delivering information, to consulting and working with the students on their lifelong learning journey.

During our unit of inquiry People make choices about how they move from place to place, under the transdisciplinary theme Where we are in place and time, the students began to explore the transport systems they used over the holidays. We asked the students various questions to prompt their thinking and they communicated their experiences as well as asked each other questions. It became clear to us that this unit of inquiry was relevant and meaningful to the students, as it tapped into their personal experiences and prior knowledge.

From these conversations and explorations, we created different transport systems in the classroom using recycled materials. The students were active participants in their learning as they investigated different systems and decided how to make parts of a system. In the classroom, the students were seen engaging in dialogue with their peers or with the teachers. This was a demonstration of their commitment to learning and respect for one another.

During the unit, a student told me he had seen a plane crash on TV. I realized that the students are exposed to all sorts of media outside of school, which exposes them to unfortunate events such as the Trans-Asia flight 235 in Taipei. I wondered, "What do they think about this event? How does it make them feel?"

Undoubtedly, it is a sensitive topic and not all educators would agree that we should talk to our young learners about certain events in the world. However, what if our students raised it? Is it right to not explore the new direction of the inquiry with students in the early years?

At many points in our teaching career we find ourselves in the midst of a sensitive conversation and we are uncertain about how to tackle it. What do we say? What if we offend someone? Or we may come across challenging behaviours and realize that there is a cultural context, which we may not be aware of, or we do not agree with.

The TransAsia flight 235 was a real issue for one of the students and I question if comforting my student was the appropriate response. It may be a sensitive topic for educators; however, thinking about the IB mission statement, we need to equip ourselves with strategies to work with our young learners.

At a young age students begin to form their opinions and beliefs; this is evident from the choices they make. Therefore, I wonder if we want our students to be on the path of international-mindedness, should we give our young learners a chance to explore different perspectives? Thinking back to the classroom inquiry and the authentic direction it was going, I recognized that it could have been explored further.

I feel these observations of students and professional reflections raised valuable questions for me. I invite other PYP educators to do the same the next time you face tension in your teaching.

When thinking about the educator's role in approaching different perspectives, I recalled Merryfield's (2002) article on The difference a global educator can make. Merryfield states, "Everyday, teachers make instructional decisions that affect how students perceive their own culture, their nation, the lives of people around the world, and the issues and conflicts facing the planet."

So I ask, how can we, as Early Childhood Educators, make the right instructional decisions in an early years classroom?

Sources:

Davy, I 2011, 'Learners without borders: a curriculum for global citizenship', IB Position Paper, pp. 3-10.

Merryfield, M 2002, 'The Difference a Global Educator Can Make', Educational Leadership, no. 60, 18-21.

Short, K & Burke, C 1996, 'Examining our beliefs and practices through Inquiry', Language Arts, no. 73, pp. 97-104.

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The article was originally published in The Red Dot, Issue 4, June 2015 - a Singapore/Malaysia PYP Network Newsletter.

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Maninder Johal is passionate about the early years and enjoys teaching young learners. Since working and learning about the IB, she has taken a personal interest in international-mindedness and exploring how this looks in the classroom and the school community. She strives towards teachers sharing their practice, extending ideas with students and teachers and encouraging teachers to reflect on their practice.

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An early years approach to global issues

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The inquiry approach requires educators to think about their role and their students in a different way. It creates conflict among some educators, as it is a change not only in their practice, but also in their belief (Short & Burke, 1996).

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How to Create an Inclusive Classroom: 12 Tips for Teachers

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What does inclusion actually mean, in the context of schools and education? What does inclusion look like in the classroom? And most importantly, how can teachers create an inclusive classroom that benefits all students, no matter what their individual needs?

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Station Rotation: Differentiating Instruction to Reach All Students

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Insight on Inquiry: Celebrating student work in kindergarten

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The International Baccalaureate (IB) is a global leader in international education-developing inquiring, knowledgeable, confident, and caring young people. With more than 7,700 programmes being offered worldwide, across over 5,600 schools in 159 countries, an IB education is designed to develop well-rounded individuals who can respond to today's challenges with optimism and an open mind.

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Reteach and Enrich: How to Make Time for Every Student

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Show and Tell: A Video Column / Co-Constructing Success Criteria

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Students' participation in defining success strengthens learning.

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Language-rich learning communities

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Learning Environment Circle Time in the morning. Socio Emotional Learning

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Learning Environment Circle Time in the morning. Socio Emotional Learning