| Close |
International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program IB PYP |
|
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS What is the IBO? The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) was founded in 1968 and is a nonprofit educational foundation based in Geneva Switzerland. It grew out of international schools’ efforts as early as 1924 to establish a common curriculum and university entry credential. The schools were also motivated by an idealistic vision. They hoped that critical thinking and exposure to a variety of points of view would encourage intercultural understanding by young people. They concentrated on the last two years of school before university studies in order to build a curriculum that would lead to what they called a “baccalaureate” administered in any country, recognized by universities everywhere. Grants from UNESCO, the Twentieth Century Fund, the Ford Foundation and other groups made it possible to develop the Diploma Program. The balanced curriculum and high standards of assessment for the Diploma Program led to its rapid growth. The Middle Years Program (MYP) and Primary Years Program (PYP) were adopted in 1994 and 1997, respectively. What is the PYP? The school’s own curriculum is developed on an ongoing basis within the framework of the Primary Years Program (PYP), which is designed for students between the ages of 3 and 12 years. The PYP curriculum framework is international in outlook and provides for the development of the whole child, not just in the classroom but also through other media of learning, encompassing social, emotional, physical and cultural needs in addition to academic welfare. The PYP combines the best research and practice from a range of national systems with a wealth of knowledge and experience from international schools to create a significant, relevant, engaging and challenging educational framework for children. Why has CDS decided to implement the PYP? The PYP’s commitment to structured, purposeful inquiry, which engages students actively in their own learning is in concert with CDs’s mission and philosophy of education. The school’s administration and the teachers fully support the implementation of the program. Based on an extensive study of literature and educational research and combined with practical experience, the school and the PYP are committed to relevance and quality rather than to quantity and we further believe that coverage is often the enemy of understanding. As an authorized International Baccalaureate World School, PYP provides CDs with an internationally authorized framework on which to plan, implement and evaluate the quality of the education we provide for our students. How is it different from other educational developments? A major problem in past attempts to improve schools and educational systems has been the mentality where we got rid of the old to implement the new. The PYP is a framework that synthesizes educational research, brain research, best practice and educational reforms happening around the world both from within national education systems and from the experience of international schools. It guides teachers to work collaboratively to organize and deliver effective planning, teaching and assessing by melding effective “traditional” practices and effective “new” approaches to educating children. In melding these practices and approaches, the PYP differs from textbook led and thematic unit teaching in a variety of ways. The learning emphasis is not on coverage of content or in gathering facts. Instead it is on constructing meaning through carefully designed activities, relating assessment tasks to learning experiences and using a variety of methods (visual, oral, written etc.) to communicate understanding. Knowledge is regarded as not merely the acquisition of “basic” facts but also it is recognized as someone else’s answers to prior questions. Understanding is paramount and is seen as an ongoing process that involves the formation of new inquiries and the creation of more solutions. Through research, students look for connections and coherence. Students and teachers utilize a wide range of resources and strategies to develop knowledge, skills and concepts. Through this process students see inquiry and ultimately learning as an ongoing process. What are the benefits of being an authorized IBPYP school? The benefits of being an authorized IB PYP world school are as follows:
What is a program of inquiry? The philosophy of the PYP is based on a commitment to structured inquiry as an ideal vehicle for learning. The program of inquiry is the school’s framework for the PYP. It is based on six organizing themes that provide the structure for the exploration of knowledge. Students explore subject disciplines through these questions and are challenged to engage in important ideas. These themes are:
The program of inquiry strives for a balance within our written curriculum. The written curriculum incorporates five essential elements of learning:
What are units of inquiry? Within the program of inquiry, each grade is involved in exploring four to six units of inquiry depending on the age of the children. These units are transdisciplinary and engage the students as active participants in their own learning. Thus, the exploration of such units focuses upon facilitating the inquiry in the classroom and beyond. The units studied range from comparisons of ancient civilizations to the solar system and migration, to name but a few. As stated above, each unit of inquiry may contain a variety of subject disciplines. How do we maintain a balance between the program of inquiry and subject-specific content? Our school’s program of inquiry fluctuates between 50% and 60% of the total classroom time dependent on the year level. In the younger classes where there is an increased demand for a skill development component, the percentage of time devoted to the program of inquiry may decline to between 40% and 50% of classroom time. During this time, the students and teachers are constructing meaning through purposeful transdisciplinary inquiry. This means that the concepts, knowledge, skills, attitudes and actions being developed relate to more than one subject discipline. The remaining time (between 40% and 60%) is spent delivering concepts, knowledge and skills related to the curriculum outcomes identified for each of the subject domains. These are considered “stand–alone” areas and they may include multiplication tables, spelling etc. unrelated to the unit of inquiry being investigated in the classroom at the time. What does inquiry look like in the classroom? Inquiry begins at the boundary between knowing and not knowing. It uses a variety of investigations and strategies to construct meaning and it is driven by the human need to make sense of the world. Inquiry takes many forms. These forms include:
To enable this our classrooms provide a nurturing, challenging and creative environment by:
To summarize this list, a PYP classroom is a place of variety and balance. Balance is seen in the attention given both to the pursuit of understanding and to the acquisition of knowledge and essential skills. Variety is there because the teachers and students can utilize a range of teaching and grouping strategies. Parents are welcomed, informed and involved. Students are actively engaged in planning and assessing their own learning. A PYP classroom is a lively place, characterized by collaborative and purposeful activity. It is also a reflective place, where thoughtful consideration of issues, problems and successes is valued highly. How will consistency in implementation be achieved? Each campus has a PYP Coordinator to ensure that curriculum development and implementation is progressive and thorough. Our PYP coordinators meet regularly with classroom teachers and each other to monitor classroom practices and assure continuity throughout our entire program. The faculty works in collaborative and cooperative grade level or specialist teacher teams. This ensures consistency from the planning through to the assessing phase of each learning episode across year levels. It also encourages teachers to share examples and knowledge of “best practice” horizontally, among their teams, and vertically, throughout the entire school. How are children assessed? Assessment at CDs is defined as the process of collecting, analyzing and reporting data. It is the gathering and analysis of information about student performance and program effectiveness. Assessment is integral and crucial to the curriculum and to all teaching and learning. It is the means by which we analyze student learning and the effectiveness of our teaching. Assessment acts as a foundation on which to base our future planning and practice. It is central to our goal of guiding the child, from novice to expert, through the learning process. As we are concerned with assessing a wide range of learning outcomes and expectations, it is obvious that we need a range of assessment strategies and this is consistent with current thinking on assessment. Assessments are both formative and summative and viewed as authentic, essential, rich, engaging and feasible, allowing the student to become part of the evaluative process. Formative assessment is interwoven within the daily learning and helps teachers and students find out what they already know in order to plan the next stage of learning. Formative assessment and teaching are directly linked; neither can function effectively or purposefully without the other. Summative assessment takes place at the end of the teaching and learning process and gives students the opportunity to demonstrate what has been learned. We employ a variety of tools to form the basis of a comprehensive approach to assessment and represent the school’s commitment to provide a balanced view of each of its students. These assessment tools include:
Other tools currently in use at CDs include:
Is PYP for academically gifted children only? Absolutely
not. The philosophy and methodology of the PYP attempt to give all students the
opportunity to construct their own meaning. This curriculum framework offers teachers
and students an opportunity to strengthen all students’ ability to learn. Top 07/06 | |