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About

Much is known about the importance of play in children's development, yet little research has explored what it might mean to put play at the heart of schooling. In 2015, the Pedagogy of Play (PoP) research project began exploring just that.

Paradoxes

Perhaps the simplest way to understand PoP is through these paradoxes of playful learning. ISB is a school and, therefore, must be safe and orderly. At the same time, we want our students - and teachers - to take risks, make messes, and get lost in the moment. How to put more PLAY in SCHOOL: that is the driving question behind PoP.

Indicators

At ISB, we want learning to be playful. But how do we know when we're succeeding? One of the first developments to come out of PoP was the "indicators of playful learning," a graphic overview of what we're hoping to see (and feel) in the classroom. It's the basis for almost everything we do.

Practices

If the indicators are the what of playful learning, then the practices are the how. Developed through years of research and experimentation, these are practical strategies for promoting playful learning in schools. Check out our What if booklet for inspiration and examples of how we're putting these practices into action at ISB.

Empower learners to lead their own learning (see how we do it)

Build a culture of collaborative learning

Promote experimentation and risk taking

Encourage imaginative thinking

Welcome all emotions generated through play (see how we do it)

Teacher toolbox

These tools for playful practitioners have been created by ISB teachers. We also use a variety of other tools for reflection, documentation, and discussion, created by our friends at Project Zero. You can find them here.

Pictures of Practice

These case studies offer in-depth illustrations of what a pedagogy of play looks like in action, from the classroom to the playground, to school-wide rituals, and the adult learning community.

Blog

Popatplay is a mental playground (aka blog) administered by Project Zero, highlighting some of the current thinking around the Pedagogy of Play project. As the blog grows, you'll find posts written by Project Zero researchers, ISB staff and teachers, and researchers and teachers at some of the other schools collaborating with PoP, for example in South Africa.

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Pedagogy of Play - PoP - International School of Billund

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Home Academics Pedagogy of Play Much is known about the importance of play in children's development, yet little research has explored what it might mean to put play at the heart of schooling. In 2015, the Pedagogy of Play (PoP) research project began exploring just that.

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Session 8 - BCAIBWS Developing your PYP framework_ Early Years

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Session 7 - BCAIBWS Developing your PYP framework_ Early Years

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Session 6 - BCAIBWS Developing your PYP framework_ Early Years

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Session 5 - BCAIBWS Developing your PYP framework_ Early Years

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Session 3 - BCAIBWS Developing your PYP framework_ Early Years

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Session 1 - BCAIBWS Developing your PYP framework_ Early Years

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Session 2 - BCAIBWS Developing your PYP framework_ Early Years

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Jamboard - What are the ways you  currently observe and document?

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Jamboard - What are the ways you  currently observe and document?

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What are the ways you currently observe and document? - Google Jamboard

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What are the ways you currently observe and document?

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Session 4 - BCAIBWS Developing your PYP framework_ Early Years

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Leading Learning in the Early Years: Collaboration and Emergent Curriculum

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Leading Learning in the Early Years: Collaboration and Emergent Curriculum

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This article looks at how one Early Years team of teachers reimagined the design of the learning in their grade level. Teachers revisited the roots of their own personal philosophies before building a culture of collaboration and inquiry within their teaching team. This changed their programme and student interactions.
Pre-Nursery at Suzhou-Singapore International School caters for our youngest learners at two and three years of age. I am writing this article as the grade level coordinator of this programme, leading a team of four teachers. We have revised our programme and moved towards a model of emergent curriculum which places student voice and agency at the centre.

This article explores the collaboration that brought my team together around a shared vision of authentic, child-centred practice with children as agents of their own learning. This involved confronting our own thinking about the beliefs we hold true to as individual teachers, and investment in the vision of our students as capable, co-creators of discovery, innovation and learning.

Our school tasked each teaching team to unpack the IB publication "The Learner", which views the early learner as an agent with voice, choice and ownership. This process set in motion a domino effect of talking, learning and reflecting which has reshaped our programme.

Laying the groundwork for potential change was an essential first step. With support from the senior leadership team, I was able to facilitate professional development for my Pre-Nursery team alongside our weekly planning meetings. The aim at the beginning was to cultivate a shared mindset: to create a space where we could speak without judgement, share thoughts without censor and ultimately connect as educators through the common ground we shared.

Reimagining our programme by co-constructing the learning with students not just in theory, but in actual practice, was the risk we decided to take. To achieve this, it would involve becoming vulnerable as we stepped away from 'how it's always been done' and tried something different. Up until this point, the programme had followed a yearly planner with recurring themes. Susan Stacy notes that "when teaching methods are held over from previous teachers and remain unexamined, curriculum becomes stale. Such a situation serves neither the children... nor their teachers" (2009, p.10). An emergent approach with inquiry and agency at the centre would involve turning this on its head and starting from scratch: letting the children guide us instead of teachers solely charting the course. It would leave us open to fail. The essence of this first step in our collaboration is captured in Brené Brown's observation on vulnerability: "Vulnerability is not winning or losing. It's having the courage to show up when you can't control the outcome" (2018, p.19)

Building trust, and creating a safe space in which to be vulnerable, was key to begin. We got excited as we shook off the habitual thinking that is ingrained within us and dared to imagine what our ideal curriculum would look like. We chatted and scribbled, letting ideas flow.

Excited children, unhurried teachers and that most elusive of teacher wishes, time, were talked about at length.

From this initial deep dive into our own thinking I led my team through 'bite-size' upskilling in emergent practice through our weekly collaboration meetings. These amazing teachers, in turn, brought their own books, pictures and insights to share, so we all learned from each other. We examined features of inquiry and authentic play-based practice from around the world, seeking their commonalities, challenging their differences, and adding to our own understanding of emergent practice each week. In tandem with our inquiry, we actively sought to be compassionate, open-minded listeners, reserving judgement and seeking to respectfully learn from and challenge each other.

The development of our emergent programme happened by running two tracks parallel to each other. Track one was teacher professional development with time for active discussion and reflection in our collaboration meetings.

Track two was taking theory to practice, which required careful planning and meticulous observation of our students. By documenting our observations on their developmental trajectory and emergent socialization, we came up with two overarching themes for our first semester. The first 6 weeks emerged as an exploration of identity and belonging: separating from parents and negotiating new relationships outside of the home. Our emergent central idea was "I belong at home and school." This shaped our interactions, how our room was set up, and the learning engagements we planned. Each step was taken from the cues of our students. Once children had settled, we observed a trend for emergent communication which was a natural next place to explore. We used the emergent central idea of "I use sounds, words and movement to communicate" as an encompassing statement within which observations and learning engagements could be documented and framed. We deliberately chose "I" statements for our central ideas because, simply, our children are developmentally in the "I" phase.

As a team we used the Microsoft Office tool Sway. This enabled us to access a shared digital space which each teacher could contribute to. This was a central space where significant learning and social observations could be documented, building up a picture of each child or small group of learners. These observations became the basis for our planning meetings and professional discussions- what have we seen this week? How can we extend the learning, or collaborate with our students to enrich their discoveries?

Each Sway board included an explanation for teachers which outlined the purpose and expectations for collaboration. This kept each team member accountable and sure of their role in weaving the fabric of our learning together.

This is a sample post from our Sway. It illustrates how I built on the ideas of my co-teacher. This post shows multiple benefits for any PYP team: a teacher documenting student learning, how one teacher's work can inspire another's thinking and the potential for this kind of documentation in forward planning and reflection.

In taking time at the beginning of the year to build our shared philosophy, rooted in the PYP and play-based emergent learning, we began to connect as professionals with our students at the very heart. In documenting our thinking and observations in a centrally accessible space through Sway, we could each influence and grow each other's thinking. All decisions were made in the best interests of the learner, based on clear and documented evidence of their interests, progress, challenges and attainment.

In "The Learner" we read that "our understanding of the learner is the foundation of our approach to learning and teaching" (p.1, 2018). This article proposes that in leading grade level teams in the Early Years PYP setting, we lead bravely. Transitioning to a more reflective planning and documentation model, with the learner at the heart, ensures that these children are ready to join the PYP programme at 3 years of age as confident, competent beings who are experts at guiding their teachers and leading the way for their own learning.
Bibliography

Brown, B. (2018). Dare To Lead: Brave Work, Tough Conversations, Whole Hearts. Random House, New York.

International Baccalaureate Organisation (2018) The Learner. Peterson House, United Kingdom.

Scott, S. (2009). Emergent Curriculum in Early Childhood Settings: From Theory to Practice. Readleaf Press, St Paul, MN 55117

Niamh Price is a Pre-Nursery teacher and Coordinator at Suzhou-Singapore International School, China. She is in her 8th year at this school. Prior to this, Niamh enjoyed teaching and working with children and families in different areas of Dublin, Ireland. Niamh holds a Masters degree in Drama in Education, with a research specialization in play and creativity in the early years classroom. She believes in the importance of establishing relationships with every student who crosses the threshold of her classroom, and is committed to finding out not just what each child can do, but who they are. Creating environments that invite beauty, curiosity and collaboration is an essential feature of her practice.

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Leading Learning in the Early Years: Collaboration and Emergent Curriculum

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This article looks at how one Early Years team of teachers reimagined the design of the learning in their grade level. Teachers revisited the roots of their own personal philosophies before building a culture of collaboration and inquiry within their teaching team. This changed their programme and student interactions.

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Meeting Student Diversity in the Classroom

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Meeting Student Diversity in the Classroom

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Learning Diversity and Inclusion in IB Programmes

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Learning Diversity and Inclusion in IB Programmes

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Kindling Inclusion Part 1: Singapore's First Inclusive Preschool

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Padlet - Making observation and documentation a sustainable practice

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Padlet - Making observation and documentation a sustainable practice

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Padlet - Using thinking skills to define your view of early learners

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Padlet - Using thinking skills to define your view of early learners

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Padlet - Central Features of Early Learning and Aims of an IB Education

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Padlet - Central Features of Early Learning and Aims of an IB Education

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Job Advertisement - Ideal PYP Early Years Teacher

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Job Advertisement - Ideal PYP Early Years Teacher

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Supporting Children’s Agentic Identities Padlet

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Supporting Children’s Agentic Identities Padlet

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About the talk What might we need to destroy in order to make space for innovation? How might questions help us create this space? What might we learn by turning our questions inside out? Instead of asking what works, what might happen if we ask what doesn't work?

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Learning and teaching - Approaches to Learning

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This piece draws from experiences in an early childhood PYP context in Switzer l and . Reflections are shared on ways the Approaches to Learning have the potential to be powerful tools for supporting children's agentic identities with a particular focus on environments, experts and teacher talk.

"Maybe if I get the idea of something. Maybe I get it in a book or maybe I tell [my sister] I'm going to be the one who knows it. Who found it out." - D., aged 4

These reflections by three- and four-year-olds are ideas that have been thoughtfully cultivated as part of in-depth inquiries and a classroom culture that actively seeks to nurture a sense of agency. We educators have found that thinking deeply about the Approaches to Learning as tools for sup porting children's identities as scientists, makers, artists, and in the example above, RESEARCHERS has framed how we plan for explorations connected to inquiries.

The young children's reflections on what it means to be a researcher make clear that they are quite capable of developing a strikingly self-actualized sense of themselves . Without hesitation, they identify THEMSELVES as the researchers-citizens of our community who are highly capable as active participants in meaning-making with strong images and identities as learners.

Many children in our school community are developing English as an additional language, so we educators also bring in other ways for children to share thinking and tell us about who they are as learners. A confident scientific drawing, ease with using materials to represent ideas-these traces of learning give us lots of information about agency, identity and learning.

But getting back to those articulately shared ideas about what it means to be a researcher...  As teachers, we have been considering how lines of inquiry and connected proposals to support learning outcomes might be optimized through the lens of the Approaches to l earning (ATLs). Playing with the idea of developing the skills of Researcher (or Thinker/Communicator, etc.) as central to planning, we have identified three areas which have had a significant impact, including: Learning Environments , Experts and Language (Teacher Talk).

"Children are natural scientists, and an open-ended outdoor setting inherently promotes a sense of wonder and a space ripe for questioning, inquiring and theory-building."

Learning Environments

For an inquiry into ways of how ' exploring and caring for the natural environment leads to discovery ' (Sharing the Planet), much of the "fieldwork" happens in outdoor environments. Dedicated time learning outdoors in the forest, pond and garden provides inspiration for observing, questioning and collecting data. Children are natural scientists, and an open-ended outdoor setting inherently promotes a sense of wonder and a space ripe for questioning, inquiring and theory-building. The outdoors is the ultimate space for developing research skills, but there are others. Classrooms, for instance, have endless potential to support identity and agency. More on that from my far more knowledgeable former colleagues and me he r e.

Experts: A Different Approach

Opportunities to connect with members of the wider community have been important components of many of our inquiries. A visiting musician, an engineer and a professional dancer are just some examples of experts we have hosted. These visits often promote a meaningful exchange of dialogue, sharing of skills and connection. As a team, we have thought a lot about how to optimize these visits. Instead of the traditional invitation to come in and share expertise, we wondered how we might rethink these experiences with a view to reframe the relationship between the children and visiting experts.

Recently, we were fortunate to have a scientist visit as part of a science focused inquiry. Before the visit, we shared that " Dr. O" was interested in hearing about the children's work/projects/research and that a professional scientist might have interesting ideas to share back with us. The children were extremely motivated to share an ongoing color mixing project. Dr. O was able to make connections to his work by sharing, among other things, about how his research also takes place in a lab much like our classroom. Of course, this took some preparation and "frontloading" for our guest but he was grateful to have the teachers provide direction and shared how impressed he was with the children's work and how it made a lot of sense for him to connect to their work and not the other way around. Our aim was to actively cultivate the children's identities as Researchers/ Scientists by valuing their work in real time as opposed to something precluding the work they might someday aspire to - a sh ift in the role of expert toward a dialogue between researchers.

"In thinking about words we use to describe children, we asked ourselves as teachers how this strong image of children as learners might inform the way we speak to children and each other in our classroom communities."

Language (Teacher Talk)

PYP teachers do lots of thinking about how to support the development of the Learner Profile. In my context, some of us have spent dedicated time developing a shared understanding of young children as capable, curious and motivated to be active participants in their learning. In thinking about words we use to describe children, we asked ourselves as teachers how this strong image of children as learners might inform the way we speak to children and each other in our classroom communities. Circling back to those self-actualized young children/researchers at the beginning of this post, we see that their words are weighted heavily with a sense of agency. They spontaneously employed action verbs like investigating , discovering , finding out . They identified themselves as the researchers . They knew what "tools" they required. As teachers, we hope that our conscious use of empowering language contributed to the childrens '  metacognition-their ideas about themselves-as learners.

For most educators, the day-to-day planning for teaching/learning is a practical, often creative, but usually time-consuming labo u r of love. The time we set aside to consider the impact our choices have on children's agentic identities for lifelong learning is also time to appreciate the beautiful work of early childhood education.

Andrea Mills  currently works as both a Primary Teacher and Atelierista /Arts Specialist at The Inter-Community, Zurich. She is from the US, and has a range of international school experiences. Passionate about play based learning, she is also a trained Forest School Leader and is inspired by the educational projects of Reggio Emilia.

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Supporting Children's Agentic Identities through the Approaches to Learning

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This piece draws from experiences in an early childhood PYP context in Switzer l and . Reflections are shared on ways the Approaches to Learning have the potential to be powerful tools for supporting children's agentic identities with a particular focus on environments, experts and teacher talk. "Maybe if I get the idea of something.

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Jamboard - Indicators of Agency in the Early Years

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Jamboard - Indicators of Agency in the Early Years

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Indicators of Agency in the Early Years - Google Jamboard

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PYP Early Years   Learner Agency 20170511 0614 1 copy

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Indicators of Agency in the Early Years - Google Jamboard

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Listening to learning: Agency in the early years

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Listening to learning: Agency in the early years

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This article is based on an example of listening to learning within a pre-kindergarten classroom and how teachers tuning into student voices helped to shape the direction of our inquiry into the transdisciplinary theme of 'How we express ourselves'.
Within our school in Suzhou, China, our pre-kindergarten learners shine brightly as leaders in their quest for understanding and experts in their play. As a co-teaching partnership, my colleague Anna and I understand that often our job is to listen to learning and to take our cues from what we hear.

As we began our inquiry into the central idea that "imagination extends our ability to think, create and express ourselves", Anna and I were supervising outside morning play and talking about how to get started. What provocations might we set up? What stories might we share? As we were talking, a most extraordinary thing was taking place, not five feet from us. One of our students had bent down in concentration, another had joined, and another, until a little group huddled closely, and the buzz of their excitement was reaching us. As I approached, one of our students exclaimed: "Look! Look what we found! It is a blanket from a fairy!" The "blanket" was a golden sweet wrapper, cradled carefully in the hands of a 4-year-old child. As I examined this treasure, our students began to add to the fabric of the tale. "There must be a fairy house nearby! Where could it be?", said one learner. "I hope the fairy is not cold without her blanket!", add another one. Little voices erupted around Anna and I, brimming with excitement and ready to seek out magic.

In The learner in the enhanced PYP communication, it is said that "agency is present when students partner with teachers and members of the learning community to take charge of what, where, why, with whom and when they learn" (IB, 2017). Student agency is supported when teachers marry the interests, talents and skills of the children to the inquiry. Samuellson (2008) notes that play, initiated by children, is often separate to learning, initiated by the adults around them. Within the early learning framework of the PYP, there is a strong case to be made for teachers leveraging students' play and making it the foundation of inquiry, enhancing the status of play and celebrating the competency of children.

Immediately, we realized that the provocation we were seeking had come straight from the perspective and imagination of our learners. Immediately we sought books about fairies from the school library. Supporting our line of inquiry, which was to bring stories we read, share and know to life, we became consumers of fairy mythology. Designing clothes and homes, making beds and blankets, we gave life to our theory of fairies in our playground through shared belief. We naturally began to explore our second line of inquiry, imaginative use of everyday materials, as we played and built.

That evening, I painted a small fairy door and hung it on one of the trees. The next day at play, a shriek of excitement told Anna and I that it had been found. We began to sketch fairies, talk about who might live behind the door, and whether we could only see it now because the fairies knew we believed in them. When the fairies sent us a letter with ingredients for a magical potion, we mixed the ingredients and began to wonder if a small fairy school existed behind the door, where making potions and flying lessons were taught. Students talked, played, drew, sculpted and danced their ideas of what magic might exist around us. We effortlessly explored our final line of inquiry, which was different ways to express ideas.

It may be said that often times, we unpack our central ideas through looking at the words on a page or through a conversation without context. Had Anna and I ignored the voices beside us that fateful day in the playground, we could have had a very different inquiry. Our lesson that day was that the possibilities for magic and wonder that exist when we listen, trust and follow the leads of our students is simply phenomenal.
References:
Pramling Samuelsson, I. & Asplund Carlsson, M. 2008. "The Playing Learning Child: Towards a Pedagogy of Early Childhood". Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research. Vol. 52, issue 6.

Primary Years Programme. The Learner in the enhanced PYP. December 2017. http://blogs.ibo.org/sharingpyp/files/2017/12/2017-December-The-Learner.pdf
Niamh Price is from Ireland and has been teaching for ten years. She has been a pre-kindergarten teacher at Suzhou-Singapore International School in Suzhou, China for 6 years. Prior to this, Niamh enjoyed 4 years of teaching and working with children and families in different areas of Dublin, Ireland. Niamh holds a Masters degree in Drama in Education, with a research specialization in play and creativity in the early years classroom. She believes in the importance of establishing relationships with every student who crosses the threshold of her classroom and is committed to finding out not just what each child can do, but who they are. Creating environments that invite beauty, curiosity and collaboration is an essential feature of her practice.

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Listening to learning: Agency in the early years

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This article is based on an example of listening to learning within a pre-kindergarten classroom and how teachers tuning into student voices helped to shape the direction of our inquiry into the transdisciplinary theme of 'How we express ourselves'.

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Supporting learner agency in the early years

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Supporting learner agency in the early years

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This article illustrates the importance of listening to students' voices and the powerful learning that can happen when allowing them take the lead. Planning for inquiry
As we made our way through the first year of our Primary Years Programme (PYP) journey, teachers at Summerhill International School shifted their focus from planning a unit of inquiry with their teams to a collaborative process that included the learners' voices in the planner.
Listening to the students' voices
Our five-year-old class was exploring the central idea, Members of a community can cooperate to achieve their common goals under the transdisciplinary theme How we organize ourselves. During circle time, the students discovered that their teacher had gotten engaged during the break and were excited to hear about her wedding plans. Upon hearing that their teacher had not yet had the time to plan for her wedding, one learner said, "It's ok; we can help you plan". Everyone was very excited about that idea and the Wedding Project was born.
Letting students lead

One way of thinking of learner agency is when learners have the 'power to act'. When learners move from being passive recipients to being much more active in the learning process, and actively involved in the decisions about the learning, then they have greater agency.
~ Derek Wenmoth, CORE Education 10 Trends

The students started by thinking about what they needed to plan for the wedding. As they started to share their ideas, they decided that they needed some way to record and remember their thoughts. They recorded their ideas on cards and stuck them on the wall. A system to organize all the ideas and everyone's roles and responsibilities soon emerged as the students were readying to put their ideas into action. After a group discussion, the students decided to organize their ideas into categories and delegate who would be doing what.

As they got started, they began to take on roles within their wedding plan. The students negotiated their responsibilities with their friends, managed their own materials, and then chose a space to store their on-going project. They also used the calendar to manage their own time by counting how many days were left until the wedding party.
Putting it all together
After all of the wedding preparations for the bride, the students turned their attention to the ceremony and celebration events. They had decided that since they would not be able to attend the actual wedding, they would have a class wedding party with their teacher. This launched a new query into how people celebrate their weddings. The children took on roles as wedding planners by planning and organizing the schedule of events, the guest list, what to wear, and how to set up and decorate the room. They even found a way to make sure that the groom was present at the wedding!
What we learned
Throughout this unit, we witnessed the power of learner agency when we involve students in the planning process. Both students and teachers learned a great deal during this inquiry. With reflective dialogue the teachers realized the power of following the students' lead and how empowering this is when students have ownership over the direction of the inquiry, and are truly invested in what is going on. As teachers became more comfortable with the capacity of young learners to steer the inquiry, the depth and quality of the inquiry rose substantially.

At the beginning of our PYP journey, we tried to plan for student-led inquiry by filling in all the boxes in the planner without leaving room for the learners' voices in the planning. As a school that is new to the IB Primary Years Programme, we felt comfort in knowing that the unit was planned for and in a sense, "completed" before we began the learning. Now we have shifted our thinking to a having a planner that starts off with just a few good provocations and an inviting environment. This means that there is space for children's ideas in the planner. Student-led inquiry can only happen when we listen to and honor the children's ideas and take the time to plan the unit together.

Reference:

Wenmoth, D. (2014) "Ten trends 2014: Agency ". Edtalks. http://edtalks.org/#/video/ten-trends-2014-agency
Jenny Yan is the PYP Coordinator at Summerhill International School, and IB candidate school. She has been a PYP educator for seven years and is passionate about supporting the development of critical and creative thinking in learners.

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Supporting learner agency in the early years

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This article illustrates the importance of listening to students' voices and the powerful learning that can happen when allowing them take the lead. Planning for inquiry As we made our way through the first year of our Primary Years Programme (PYP) journey, teachers at Summerhill International School shifted their focus from planning a unit of inquiry with their teams to a collaborative process that included the learners' voices in the planner.

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[Inclusive Education in Canada] HOW WE DO SCHOOL B.C. Ep4: Teaming Up

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[Inclusive Education in Canada] HOW WE DO SCHOOL B.C Ep1 : Bridging the Special Needs Divide

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School choice in the "stratilingual" city of Vancouver

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School choice in the "stratilingual" city of Vancouver

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Reading - MT Orientation 2022 - Sealey-Ruiz Critical Literacy of Race (2021)

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How Every Child Can Thrive by Five | Molly Wright | TED

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This piece draws from experiences in an early childhood PYP context in Switzer l and . Reflections are shared on ways the Approaches to Learning have the potential to be powerful tools for supporting children's agentic identities with a particular focus on environments, experts and teacher talk.

"Maybe if I get the idea of something. Maybe I get it in a book or maybe I tell [my sister] I'm going to be the one who knows it. Who found it out." - D., aged 4

These reflections by three- and four-year-olds are ideas that have been thoughtfully cultivated as part of in-depth inquiries and a classroom culture that actively seeks to nurture a sense of agency. We educators have found that thinking deeply about the Approaches to Learning as tools for sup porting children's identities as scientists, makers, artists, and in the example above, RESEARCHERS has framed how we plan for explorations connected to inquiries.

The young children's reflections on what it means to be a researcher make clear that they are quite capable of developing a strikingly self-actualized sense of themselves . Without hesitation, they identify THEMSELVES as the researchers-citizens of our community who are highly capable as active participants in meaning-making with strong images and identities as learners.

Many children in our school community are developing English as an additional language, so we educators also bring in other ways for children to share thinking and tell us about who they are as learners. A confident scientific drawing, ease with using materials to represent ideas-these traces of learning give us lots of information about agency, identity and learning.

But getting back to those articulately shared ideas about what it means to be a researcher...  As teachers, we have been considering how lines of inquiry and connected proposals to support learning outcomes might be optimized through the lens of the Approaches to l earning (ATLs). Playing with the idea of developing the skills of Researcher (or Thinker/Communicator, etc.) as central to planning, we have identified three areas which have had a significant impact, including: Learning Environments , Experts and Language (Teacher Talk).

"Children are natural scientists, and an open-ended outdoor setting inherently promotes a sense of wonder and a space ripe for questioning, inquiring and theory-building."

Learning Environments

For an inquiry into ways of how ' exploring and caring for the natural environment leads to discovery ' (Sharing the Planet), much of the "fieldwork" happens in outdoor environments. Dedicated time learning outdoors in the forest, pond and garden provides inspiration for observing, questioning and collecting data. Children are natural scientists, and an open-ended outdoor setting inherently promotes a sense of wonder and a space ripe for questioning, inquiring and theory-building. The outdoors is the ultimate space for developing research skills, but there are others. Classrooms, for instance, have endless potential to support identity and agency. More on that from my far more knowledgeable former colleagues and me he r e.

Experts: A Different Approach

Opportunities to connect with members of the wider community have been important components of many of our inquiries. A visiting musician, an engineer and a professional dancer are just some examples of experts we have hosted. These visits often promote a meaningful exchange of dialogue, sharing of skills and connection. As a team, we have thought a lot about how to optimize these visits. Instead of the traditional invitation to come in and share expertise, we wondered how we might rethink these experiences with a view to reframe the relationship between the children and visiting experts.

Recently, we were fortunate to have a scientist visit as part of a science focused inquiry. Before the visit, we shared that " Dr. O" was interested in hearing about the children's work/projects/research and that a professional scientist might have interesting ideas to share back with us. The children were extremely motivated to share an ongoing color mixing project. Dr. O was able to make connections to his work by sharing, among other things, about how his research also takes place in a lab much like our classroom. Of course, this took some preparation and "frontloading" for our guest but he was grateful to have the teachers provide direction and shared how impressed he was with the children's work and how it made a lot of sense for him to connect to their work and not the other way around. Our aim was to actively cultivate the children's identities as Researchers/ Scientists by valuing their work in real time as opposed to something precluding the work they might someday aspire to - a sh ift in the role of expert toward a dialogue between researchers.

"In thinking about words we use to describe children, we asked ourselves as teachers how this strong image of children as learners might inform the way we speak to children and each other in our classroom communities."

Language (Teacher Talk)

PYP teachers do lots of thinking about how to support the development of the Learner Profile. In my context, some of us have spent dedicated time developing a shared understanding of young children as capable, curious and motivated to be active participants in their learning. In thinking about words we use to describe children, we asked ourselves as teachers how this strong image of children as learners might inform the way we speak to children and each other in our classroom communities. Circling back to those self-actualized young children/researchers at the beginning of this post, we see that their words are weighted heavily with a sense of agency. They spontaneously employed action verbs like investigating , discovering , finding out . They identified themselves as the researchers . They knew what "tools" they required. As teachers, we hope that our conscious use of empowering language contributed to the childrens '  metacognition-their ideas about themselves-as learners.

For most educators, the day-to-day planning for teaching/learning is a practical, often creative, but usually time-consuming labo u r of love. The time we set aside to consider the impact our choices have on children's agentic identities for lifelong learning is also time to appreciate the beautiful work of early childhood education.

Andrea Mills  currently works as both a Primary Teacher and Atelierista /Arts Specialist at The Inter-Community, Zurich. She is from the US, and has a range of international school experiences. Passionate about play based learning, she is also a trained Forest School Leader and is inspired by the educational projects of Reggio Emilia.

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Supporting Children's Agentic Identities through the Approaches to Learning

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This piece draws from experiences in an early childhood PYP context in Switzer l and . Reflections are shared on ways the Approaches to Learning have the potential to be powerful tools for supporting children's agentic identities with a particular focus on environments, experts and teacher talk. "Maybe if I get the idea of something.

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We’re here to convince the grown-ups. Because play is something every child, everywhere in the world can do. It fuels curiosity, sparks creativity, and inspires a lifelong love of learning. Children who play pick up all kinds of skills to thrive today – and lay the foundations for a happier, healthi…

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The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children

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The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children

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The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children

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The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children: Gopnik, Alison: 9781250132253: Books - Amazon.ca

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Child psychologist and philosopher Alison Gopnik challenges the modern concept of "parenting" as a goal-oriented task focused on producing a particular kind of child (i.e., the “carpenter” model).

Instead, she draws on developmental science to propose a more responsive and open-ended model - the “gardener” approach - where the focus is on creating a nurturing environment that allows children to grow in their own unique ways.

Gopnik argues that children are naturally curious, exploratory, and adaptive. Rather than controlling or shaping them, adults should focus on providing rich, safe, and varied experiences that encourage learning and development.

1. Gardening vs. Carpentry as Metaphors for Parenting

Carpenter parents aim to mold children into a specific shape or outcome (e.g., a future doctor or musician).

Gardener parents create a safe, enriched space that supports natural, unpredictable growth.

Gopnik advocates for the gardener model, which respects children’s autonomy and individuality.

2. Children Are Natural Learners

Children are not passive recipients of knowledge—they actively explore, experiment, and learn through play and observation.

Gopnik emphasizes the evolutionary value of childhood as a period of intense learning and flexibility.

3. The Problem with “Parenting” as a Verb

"Parenting" implies a set of strategies or outcomes, like a job or craft.

This modern notion can create anxiety and pressure for parents, and can limit children’s freedom to develop organically.

4. Exploration Over Exploitation

Children’s learning is driven by exploration (figuring out how things work) rather than exploitation (getting rewards or achieving goals).

Adults tend to focus on outcomes, but young children benefit most from open-ended experiences.

5. The Role of Language and Culture

Language, storytelling, and cultural transmission play a crucial role in human development.

Parents and caregivers help children navigate these cultural landscapes through social interaction, not instruction.

6. Teaching by Example, Not Control

Children learn more from observing and participating than from being told what to do.

Routine experiences, family life, and relationships offer powerful teaching moments.

7. Love and Security Are Central

Children thrive when they feel loved, safe, and supported.

Emotional security is the foundation for curiosity, confidence, and independence.

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Storybooks on exploration can nurture children’s curiosity

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Storybooks on exploration can nurture children’s curiosity

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Most very young children are insatiably curious, constantly exploring and questioning their world. This openness to new discoveries can make them better learners than adults. But research shows that by about the age of six, their unbridled curiosity starts to wane, and this can hamper their ability to learn and solve problems.

Surprisingly, there's been little research into whether it's possible to intervene to stop this decline, write the authors of a new paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. But in their new work on young children, aged three to six, they found that simply varying the messages that were embedded in a storybook could make a difference.

Julie Vaisarova at Arizona State University and colleagues studied 138 participants in the US and, to broaden the cultural background of the sample, another 88 in Turkey. In the first stage of the experiment, the children listened to an experimenter reading one of two versions of an illustrated 10-minute-long story over Zoom.

Both stories featured a character called Scuba Sam. With the help of a map and some hints, Sam searched a group of islands for treasure. In one version of the story, designed to reflect traditional educational approaches, Sam carefully followed a number of rules and instructions about what to do, and when experimenter asked the child a question, the potential responses were always limited. (For example, 'Do you see Sam's binoculars?')

In the other version of the story (the 'strategic curiosity' condition), however, Sam embraced uncertainty as a cue to explore - they chose to explore a new island, rather than to return to one they had already visited, for example - and they responded flexibly to new information. Sam also kept an eye on the time allowed for the treasure hunt, and made sure they had enough time to visit all of the islands marked on the map. In this version of the story, the experimenter asked the children open-ended questions, such as 'What do you think Sam should do to find out if this is the treasure island?'

After the story, a different experimenter took over. They introduced the child to a game, which featured a virtual aquarium consisting of five fish tanks, some of which contained more concealed sea creatures than others. The children were told that there were different creatures hiding in each, and that they had a total of 15 minutes to find them. They were also encouraged to play the game 'like Sam'. For the group that had heard the 'traditional' story, this meant "following the rules and checking for all your clues". For the other, it was "staying curious and paying careful attention to everything around you".

The team found that overall, the two groups found about the same number of sea creatures. However, there were some differences in how they performed the task. While the children who had listened to the 'traditional' story often ran out of time to explore all of the tanks, those in the 'curiosity' group prioritised visiting multiple tanks over deeply exploring individual ones, and were more likely to get through them all. This group also spent longer searching tanks that appeared to contain relatively more creatures, even if it took some time to find those creatures; this demonstrated greater 'strategic persistence', the team writes.

The researchers found no differences between the children from the US or Turkey, suggesting that children from different cultures would respond on a similar way. However, there were a few limitations to the study. The design meant it was not possible to tell whether the 'curiosity' story really did enhance the children's willingness to explore more broadly - or whether the 'traditional' story reduced it. Also, the children played the game immediately after listening to the story, so we don't know how long the impacts on their thinking and strategising might last.

However, given the evidence that children's thinking starts to narrow by about the age of six, "finding ways to broaden children's exploration is critical", the team writes. Their results do suggest that adjusting the messages that children hear in stories may help with this. "This shift in the verbal messages children hear could have important implications for their learning and problem solving," the team concludes.
Read the paper in full:
Vaisarova, J., Kiefer, S. L., Şen, H., Todd, P. M., & Lucca, K. (2024). Where should I search next? Messages embedded in storybooks influence children's strategic exploration in Turkey and the United States. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 153(8), 2174-2192. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0001619

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Storybooks on exploration can nurture children's curiosity | BPS

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Children's strategies for exploration can be influenced by the kinds of stories they hear, according to new research.

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Article: Where should I search next? Messages embedded in storybooks influence children's strategic exploration in Turkey and the United States.

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Article: Where should I search next? Messages embedded in storybooks influence children's strategic exploration in Turkey and the United States.

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Our K/1 Team collaboratively developed this model at Southridge over the 2023-4 school year.

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Google Folder with template and planners

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Google Folder with template and planners

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Strategies for using/supporting symbolic expression and/or exploration in your classroom

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Strategies for using/supporting symbolic expression and/or exploration in your classroom

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1. Use more board games through play to build ATLs

2. Classroom meeting - more focus to SEL lens (e.g. what was sticky for you today?)

3. Documentation (timely and being captured in the moment)

4. New routines/transitions as opportunity for learning opportunities for language development and problem-solving

5. Opportunities for real-life investigations and inquiries

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ATLs in action - Back to back with 6 bricks

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ATLs in action - Back to back with 6 bricks

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Social

Help others to succeed

Listen actively

Communication

Exchanging ideas

Clarifying and using precise vocabulary

Giving clear instructions

Using new/sophisticated vocabulary (descriptive)

Self-Management

Practicing failing well

Dealing with disappointment

Practicing focus and concentration

Controlling emotions

Planning strategies

Perseverance

Practicing empathy

Thinking

Think about how to describe from another person's perspective

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Do you fancy a LEGO® building game? Can you explain how to create a model you've designed without letting the other player see it first? Build your social, emotional and flexible thinking skills with this fun LEGO building game.