Knowledge

The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program is a framework for international education. There are five essential elements at the heart of the  PYP. They are:

• Knowledge
• Skills
• Concepts
• Attitudes 
• Action

  

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My last post focused on the action cycle. Action is one of the essential elements of the program. I wrote about it first because, at the time of my posting, teachers were just wrapping up their first units of inquiry and I wanted parents to be on the lookout for student initiated action. It is the student experiences that take place during a unit of inquiry that often lead to student initiated action, so I'd like to backtrack with this post and write a little about how we get students to that point.

Knowledge is an essential element that addresses the question What do we want students to know about? The IB Organization believes that educating students in a set of isolated subject areas, while necessary, is not sufficient. Of equal importance is the need to acquire skills in context, and to explore content that is relevant to students, and transcends the boundaries of the traditional subjects (Making the PYP Happen, 2009).

Like all schools in Council Bluffs, we teach the district adopted curriculum which aligns with the Iowa Common Core Curriculum. Like all IB world schools, we help students make connections within and across disciplines in order to help them develop a deep understanding of important concepts.

IB provides a six transdisciplinary themes that are considered essential in a program of international education. According to the IB organization, these themes:

• Have global significance- for all students in all cultures
• Offer students the opportunity to explore the commonalities of human experience
• Are supported by knowledge, concepts and skills from the traditional subject areas but utilize them in ways that transcend the confines of these subjects, thereby contributing to a transdisciplinary model of teaching and learning
• Will be revisited throughout the students’ years of schooling, so that the end result is immersion in broad-ranging, in-depth, articulated curriculum content
• Contribute to the common ground that unifies the curriculums in all PYP schools

Each grade level engages in a unit of inquiry in one of each of the following transdisciplinary themes:

1. Who we are- An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human.
2. Where we are in place and time- An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories; homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.
3. How we express ourselves- An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.
4. How the world works- An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment.
5. How we organize ourselves- An inquiry into the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the structure and function of organizations; societal decision-making; economic activities and their impact on humankind and the environment.
6. Sharing the planet- An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

Transdiciplinary theme descriptions taken from Making the PYP Happen, 2009

This framework allows College View teachers to provide students with the knowledge they need to be educated as citizens of a global community.

Action Cycle

As many of you know, College View is a candidate school for the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program. One of the essential elements of this program is for students to take action as a result of their learning. We believe that successful inquiry will lead to responsible action, initiated by the student as a result of the learning process.

Our hope is that students will move through the action cycle as a result of their learning. After each unit of inquiry, we hope to give students the opportunity and power to choose to act, to decide on their actions, and to reflect on their actions in order to make a difference in the world. 

IB PYP Action Cycle

Student initiated action can take many different forms. Action can be taken by an individual student, groups of students or as a school community. Action may take place at home, at school or in the community.

Action can be big or small. Last year, at College View, we had quite the range of student initiated action. After learning about how people rely on one another, a group of 4th grade students raised money for the Red Cross. This was a rather large project that included many students and impacted the community. On a smaller scale, we had a kindergarten student who had learned about life cycles, choose not to pick dandelions on the playground because she knew it would stop the life cycle. Both examples demonstrate how students took action as a result of their learning.

As parents, you can help your child's teacher by letting her know if you see your child taking action as a result of his/her learning. Our hope is that the units of inquiry are not just something they are learning, but that they are something that changes the way they think about our world. 

Teachers are just wrapping up their first units on the following concepts. Please let your child's teacher know if you see your child taking action as a result of his/her learning.

• Preschool:  Making and keeping friends
• Kindergarten:  Rules and routines in the school community
• 1st Grade:  Individual rights and responsibilities
• 2nd Grade: Personal Coices
• 3rd Grade: Survival in inter-related systems
• 4th Grade: Interdependence among groups of people
• 5th Grade: Personal, physical, social, spiritual and mental health