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How am I embedding the learner profile into my teaching and learning?

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How has my understanding the PYP's Principles and Practices evolved?

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How has my understanding the PYP's Principles and Practices evolved?

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Follow this guide to set goals for yourself.

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Follow this guide to set goals for yourself.

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How can I create inclusive learning environments that celebrate diversity?

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How are the approaches to learning developing skills for students to think, research, communicate, socialize, and manage themselves effectively?

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What new ideas could you bring to the collaborative planning process at your school?

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How are you using inquiry as a pedagogical approach that encourages students to be responsible for and actively involved in their own learning?

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How are you promoting agency by encouraging student voice and choice?

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How are you using concepts to help students make meaning and connections in their learning?

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What are you learning about the key elements of the PYP framework that could promote transdisciplinary learning and teaching in your school?

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How am I developing international-mindedness in my students? How can I get them to engage in local and global issues?

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Here you will find multiple strategies that promote collaborative thinking and construction of meaning.

https://www.thinkingcollaborative.com/strategies/

http://www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html

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Useful planning guide!!

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Detailed research cycle by Kath Murdoch.

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Optional: Listening to Learning: Agency in the early years

https://blogs.ibo.org/sharingpyp/2018/05/01/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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A short reading about the need for Concept-based learning 

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A short reading about the need for Concept-based learning 

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My work takes me into all kinds of schools with all kinds of curriculum frameworks designed to support inquiry learning. Some frameworks allow teachers a great deal of latitude when it comes to selecting and planning contexts for inquiry and others provide pre-determined contexts for inquiry that may be repeated from year to year as part of a broad, more structured curriculum map. Some schools expect a high degree of accountability to system curriculum standards while others approach the links to curriculum more loosely. Whether a context for inquiry is fully emergent, negotiated or more tightly predetermined does not, in itself, make it more or less worthy. It is, of course, what teachers and students do with these context that counts. And what teachers and students do is, in turn, connected to the quality of the conversations had around the planning table.

For me, the most potent element of the planning process for inquiry is the conversation about conceptual understanding. Regardless of whether a school's framework already identifies a 'central idea' , an 'enduring understanding', 'lines of inquiry' or 'essential questions' ...we are never 'off the hook' about the bigger picture. Every journey of inquiry is a new one. The simple question, "what is it that we hope students will come to understand more deeply?" has to be asked EACH TIME an inquiry is developed....even if this context for inquiry has been explored before. Similarly, the questions "How is this inquiry relevant/important to this group of students, this year?" and "Why does this matter?" helps us keep the teaching and learning fresh, authentic and purposeful. Of course, the conversation at the planning table will always be fresh and relevant to students' interests and needs if we are careful to invite their voices in.

When we take time to discuss the 'understanding goals' of any inquiry, we clarify our own thinking. When we have clarity - we ask better questions of our students and are better able to see opportunities to take their thinking further and deeper. Establishing conceptual (rather than knowledge-level) goals further enriches the quality of this professional conversation. As soon as the inquiry is more concept-driven, the conversation is energized - and the possibilities for transfer and connection present themselves more clearly. As well as giving the team greater clarity and intention, this conversation nurtures ownership. Nothing kills collaborative planning (and indeed inquiry itself) more quickly than the feeling that the plan is a 'done deal'. For teachers new to the team, in particular, participation in developing the plan from 'bottom up' - with each other and with students - is critical.

How do you ensure your inquiry journeys remain fresh and relevant to the current group of students?

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concept based - JustWondering - KATH MURDOCH

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My work takes me into all kinds of schools with all kinds of curriculum frameworks designed to support inquiry learning. Some frameworks allow teachers a great deal of latitude when it comes to selecting and planning contexts for inquiry and others provide pre-determined contexts for inquiry that may be repeated from year to year as part of a broad, more structured curriculum map.

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Using books to teach Learner profiles and ATLs.

https://sites.google.com/view/childrens-literature-group-1b/home?authuser=0

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University of the People EDUC 5271 Group 1B Dr. Tiffany Purnell May 2021

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http://bcsbestyearever.weebly.com/uploads/3/7/7/2/37728865/ib_linesofinquirychecklist.pdf

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How to optimize the learning environment. 

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How to optimize the learning environment. 

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Optional: A video detailing the importance of developing 21st-century skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=937iCwJd3fI

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https://blogs.ibo.org/blog/2020/12/01/ib-teams-up-with-jacobs-foundation-to-inspire-curiosity-and-creativity/

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Here is a great resource from Ron Ritchhart on how to speak to students and push their thinking.

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Journeys of inquiry: Entry points  (Kath Murdoch) Student agency or Teacher led

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Journeys of inquiry: Entry points  (Kath Murdoch) Student agency or Teacher led

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Kath Murdoch's blog post on the need for Concept-based learning. 

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Kath Murdoch's blog post on the need for Concept-based learning. 

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"There are never complete answers. Or rather, if there is an answer, it is to remind myself that there is uncertainty in everything."" - Amy Tan

Over the last few years, a small but significant shift has occurred in many teachers' practice in relation to "naming" a journey of inquiry for or with their students. For a long time, we delighted in coming up with fun, snappy titles for units of inquiry: "May the force be with you" (for an inquiry into force and motion); "Getting around" (an inquiry into transport); "Skin, scales, feathers and fur" (an inquiry into animals) and so on. While these titles were engaging in their own way, they were problematic. The classroom discourse was more about "doing" a topic rather than investigating. On asking students what they were actually inquiring into, it became clear that there was a divide between the perceived focus of the unit and the learning intentions the teacher had in mind. These units were most often thematic rather than deeply integrative; topic rather than concept based; narrow rather than broad and driven by activities rather than inquiry and understanding.

There are a number of strategies we can use to reframe a journey of inquiry so that the focus is conceptual and investigative. Identifying a powerful, overarching "big idea" is now more commonly used to identify the broader territory in which the inquiry exists. A big idea runs 'through' the learning journey and helps students (and teachers) see the connection between the specific tasks they are undertaking and a more substantial, enduring concept. Like the shades on a paint sample strip, student understanding gradually deepens over the journey. Clarifying the 'big idea' (or ideas) that drive an inquiry is a critical element in the planning process. In its development, teachers themselves become inquirers - thoughtfully identifying what lies beyond the "topic" - what significant, unifying and transferable ideas makes this learning journey worthwhile.

Another strategy I have found very useful over the last decade, is to devise (and display) a compelling or rich QUESTION to drive the inquiry. This doesn't take the place of the big idea or understanding goal but can serve a similar function. The thing I most like about driving inquiry through a compelling question is the way it immediately positions that learning as an investigation. We are not "doing" - we are investigating. The journey of inquiry is about exploring this question and thinking about/responding to it in new ways. We know that the question will live on beyond our temporary findings. A compelling, overarching question invites many more questions to support it. This is where the thrill of inquiry teaching lies - we start out driven by an interesting and compelling question - but we don't really know where that journey will take us.

Sharing or constructing a compelling question with students is a great way to activate prior thinking and experience before further investigation. The question travels the arc of the inquiry - being returned to again and again with new thinking, new perspectives. As students embark on the journey, I encourage them to walk the world with that question in their head - not trying to answer it as such but to use it as a kind of filter through which the information they gather and the experiences they have can be sifted, sorted and reflected upon. My ultimate aim, of course, is that this disposition - walking the world with questions in our heads - is something my students will embrace as a way of being. By framing teaching and learning through questions, I elevate the status of curiosity, I value the unknown and I emphasise learning AS inquiry.

This way of thinking about a driving question was really crystallized for me a few years ago when I listened to Amy Tan's amazing 2008 TED talk on creativity:
"When I have the question, it is a focus and all these things that seem to be flotsam and jetsam in life actually go through that question....and what happens is that these things become relevant...you are noticing it more often"
Many educators have identified some of the key elements or characteristics of essential/powerful questions for inquiry. These include:

The question can be investigated in multiple ways using a wide variety of sources

The question invites multiple responses and perspectives

The question connects to the world beyond me right now - it matters and is relevant

There is 'intellectual bite' in the question - or it is unsettling and thought provoking.

There concept/s within the question can be transferred to other contexts/situations even time periods.

I am so fortunate to work in a wide range of inquiry classrooms. This experience gives me an insight into compelling questions that 'work' for shared inquiry. I love seeing students tackle these questions across time and the increasing depth in which they respond to them as they explore. Over the next few weeks - I intend to 'tweet' a compelling question each day - something that may trigger an idea for inquiry or help some of you re-frame current units that might be constrained by 'topics' rather than opened up by big picture throughlines and compelling questions. Here are just a few examples:

What does it mean to be healthy?

Can war be justified?

Who's got the power?

Why do we eat what we eat?

Are we more the same or more different?

How do we know if it is true?

What does it mean to belong?

What does it take to make?

How does where we live affect HOW we live?

Why Earth?

Can art change us?

Do compelling questions drive inquiry in your classroom? What questions have worked for you?

Just wondering....

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Walking the world with questions in our heads... - KATH MURDOCH

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Provocation: The importance of understanding different cultures and how to communicate efficiently with people from different world views

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Intercultural communication and understanding is important

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Edna Sackson
https://whatedsaid.wordpress.com

Tasha Cowdy: Reggio + petite enfance
http://www.tashacowdy.com/blog/

Yuni Santosa
https://inquiryintolearningblog.wordpress.com

https://www.cultofpedagogy.com

and more...

http://pjsibpyp.weebly.com/pyp-blogs-to-follow.html

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Creating a Positive Learning Environment

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Identify all ATL sub-skills targeted by this boy's learning 

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Identify all ATL sub-skills targeted by this boy's learning 

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Further Readings with a forward by Kath Murdoch

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Further Readings with a forward by Kath Murdoch

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Short presentation on the history of the IB.  

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Short presentation on the history of the IB.  

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Dear Teacher: Heartfelt Advice for Teachers from Students

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Série de vidéos sur les écoles du monde de l’IB : les compétences de pensée dans le cadre du PP

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Video on how to navigate the Programme Resource Center. 

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Video on how to navigate the Programme Resource Center. 

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20 Differentiated Instruction Strategies and Examples [+ Downloadable List]

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As students with diverse learning styles fill the classroom, many teachers don't always have the time, or spend additional hours to plan lessons that use differentiated instruction (DI) to suit students' unique aptitudes.

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Using books to teach Learner profiles and ATLs.

https://sites.google.com/view/childrens-literature-group-1b/home?authuser=0

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University of the People EDUC 5271 Group 1B Dr. Tiffany Purnell May 2021

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This sample is from the American International School of Kuwait.

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40 Creative Writing Prompts to Foster the IB Learner Profile

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Engage and inspire every child to be a writer with these creative, open-ended prompts and foster the IB learner profile attributes in your PYP classroom.

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This Twitter account has some easy-to-follow Math Talk examples that can get you started teaching Math through Inquiry.

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Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.

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Key findings from research on the impact of the IB Primary Years Programme

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Key findings from research on the impact of the IB Primary Years Programme

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This sample is from the American International School of Kuwait.

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I often use strategies from this book, not only for Math!

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This sample is from the American International School of Kuwait.

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Formative and Summative assessment ideas that can serve as accommodations to students with different learning needs. 

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Formative and Summative assessment ideas that can serve as accommodations to students with different learning needs. 

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Children’s Stories on Global Goals and The PYP Learner Profile

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I point out and highlight students who are showing a particular attribute. We talk about characters in stories who show a particular attribute.

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In our PK class, we are learning about different communities from around the world, different kinds of families...

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In our PK class, we are learning about different communities from around the world, different kinds of families...

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It is essential to keep returning to the UOIs to revise and adapt to promote this kind of learning.

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Student-led inquiry can absolutely be done with supported students. To be able to learn about something they are truly interested would spark and motivate them just like any other child.

There will be times when you directly teach subject specific knowledge and skills in order to support their cognitive processing.

As teachers, we scaffold connected opportunities to develop their skills, and we value our students as capable inquirers. We can model and support thinking and thinking about thinking and generate routines to help their understandings.

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I have opportunities for students to ask questions and choose what they want to learn about, as well what they want to do as a result of what they learned

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How to get parents on board with inquiry based learning and the IB approach to education in general...
I would tell them that...We must prepare our children to live in the 21st century with all the skills that will enable them successfully meet the demands that will be placed on them in the workplace and beyond.  Leaders in business and higher education across the world agree that people must have:
CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
COLLABORATION SKILLS
CREATIVITY
These skills are built and developed within IB schools through inquiry and concept based education. The IB mission statement embodies what 21st century learning is all about! (I could go on and on...to me it is so obvious but not everyone understands.)

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I don't know if my ideas would be considered new but I would suggest that our weekly collaborative planning time would actually be used for doing that, rather than working alone in our individual classrooms. So more focus on actual collaboration between teachers as they work on units of inquiry, etc.