Primary Years Programme

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Primary Years Programme

• The unique benefits of the PYP

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Contents

• IB mission statement
• IB Learner profile
• What are the IB programmes?
• PYP definition
• PYP curriculum definition
• Essential elements synthesis model
• Written curriculum
• Transdisciplinary themes
• Concepts
• Skills
• Attitudes
• Action
• Overview

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Organization What is the IB mission and legal
status? The IB is a not-for-profit foundation,
motivated by its educational mission, focused on
the student.
Mission
Core values
The International Baccalaureate aims to develop
inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people
who help to create a better and more peaceful
world through intercultural understanding and
respect. To this end the organization works with
schools, governments and international
organizations to develop challenging programmes
of international education and rigorous
assessment. These programmes encourage students
across the world to become active, compassionate
and lifelong learners who understand that other
people, with their differences, can also be right.
Motivated by a missionWe aim to create a
betterworld through education PartnershipsWe
achieve our goals byworking together QualityWe
value our reputation for high standards Participa
tionWe actively involve our stakeholders Internat
ional mindednessWe embrace diversity
Legal status
The IB is a non-profit making Swiss Foundation
registered in 1968. The activities of the
organization are determined by an Act of
Foundation approved by the Swiss authorities.

• Further resources
• The Annual Review including accounts is available
  on www.ibo.org.

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Programmes What is the learner profile? Its
the IB mission statement translated into a set of
learning outcomes for the 21st century.
IB learners strive to be Inquirers Knowledgeable
Thinkers Communicators Principled Open-minded Cari
ng Risk-takers Balanced Reflective
The attributes of the learner profile express the
values inherent to the IB continuum of
international education these are values that
should infuse all elements of the three
programmes and, therefore, the culture and ethos
of all IB World Schools. IB programmes promote
the education of the whole person, emphasizing
intellectual, personal, emotional and social
growth through all domains of knowledge.
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Programmes What is the PYP programme?
Primary Years Ages 3 - 12
School authorization programme evaluation
Curriculum Assessment
Professional development
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Definition How is the PYP defined?Primary
Years Programme summarized into a single paragraph

• The IB Primary Years Programme, for students aged
  3 to 12 focuses on the development of the whole
  child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and
  in the world outside. It is a framework guided
  by six transdisciplinary themes of global
  significance, explored using knowledge and skills
  derived from six subjects areas, as well as
  transdisciplinary skills, with a powerful
  emphasis on inquiry- based learning.

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Learners constructing meaning How is the PYP
curriculum defined? Three interrelated
components expressed in the form of three
open-ended questions.

• Written curriculum
• Taught curriculum
• Assessed curriculum
• This is a model whereby all three
• components inform each other.

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The PYP essential elements What makes up the
synthesis model?As represented in the IB
learner profile
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Essential elements How are they illustrated or
described in the written curriculum?A balance
is sought between the five essential elements
below

• Knowledge
• Significant, relevant content we wish the
  students to explore and know about, taking into
  consideration their prior experience and
  understanding
• Concepts
• Powerful ideas that have relevance within the
  subject areas but also transcend them and that
  students must explore and re-explore in order to
  develop a coherent, in-depth understanding.
• Skills
• Those capabilities the students need to
  demonstrate to succeed in a changing, challenging
  world, which may be disciplinary or
  transdisciplinary in nature.

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Essential elements How are they implemented in
the written curriculum?

• Attitudes
• Dispositions that are expressions of fundamental
  values, beliefs and feelings about learning, the
  environment and people
• Action
• Demonstrations of deeper learning in responsible
  behaviour through responsible action a
  manifestation in practice of the other essential
  elements

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Themes What are the PYP transdisciplinary
themes? Transdisciplinary themes provide a
basis for discussion interpretation within a
school

• Who we are
• Inquiry into what it means to be human
• Where we are in place and time
• Inquiry into orientation in place and time
  local and global perspective
• How we express ourselves
• Inquiry into the ways in which we discover and
  express ideas

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Themes What are the PYP transdisciplinary
themes?

• How the world works
• Inquiry into the natural world and its laws, the
  interaction between the natural world and human
  societies
• How we organize ourselves
• Inquiry into the interconnectedness of
  human-made systems and communities.
• Sharing the planet
• Inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the
  struggle to share finite resources with other
  people and with other living things.

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Example 1 Sharing the planet (for students
aged 8-9)

• Finite resources infinite demands.
• To understand better the central idea that
• Our planet has limited resources that are
• unevenly distributed, water provides a
• good example. We would inquire into
• Where water comes from
• How different people and countries use water
• How much water we use and what happens after we
  have used it
• Distribution of usable water around the world
• How human activity has affected the availability
  of water
• Our responsibility for water conservation.

• To support this inquiry students would
• develop knowledge and acquire skills
• derived from science and social studies,
• in addition to developing
• transdisciplinary skills such as critical
• thinking, communication and time
• management.

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Concepts What are the PYP concepts?The PYP
commits to a concept-driven curriculum,
supporting all inquiry framing the learning

• Form - What is it like?
• The understanding that everything has a form
  with recognizable features that can be observed.
• Function - How does it work?
• The understanding that everything has a purpose,
  a role or a way of behaving that can be
  investigated.
• Causation - Why is it like it is?
• The understanding that things do not just
  happen, that there are causal relationships at
  work, and that actions have consequences.

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Concepts What are the PYP concepts?

• Change - How is it changing?
• The understanding that change is the process of
  movement from one state to another. It is
  universal and inevitable.
• Connection - How is it connected to other things?
• The understanding that we live in a world of
  interacting systems in which the actions of any
  individual element affect others.
• Perspective What are the point of view?
• The understanding that knowledge is moderated by
  perspectives. Perspectives may be individual,
  group, cultural or disciplinary.

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Skills What are the PYP transdisciplinary
skills?The construction of meaning
understanding, is complemented by the acquisition
application of skills

• Thinking
• Comprehension Grasping meaning from material
  learned communicating interpreting learning.
• Social skills
• Resolving conflict Listening carefully to
  others compromising reacting reasonably to the
  situation accepting responsibility
  appropriately being fair.
• Communication skills
• Reading Reading a variety of sources for
  information pleasure comprehending what has
  been read making inferences drawing
  conclusions

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Skills What are the PYP transdisciplinary skills?

• Self management skills
• Time Using time effectively and appropriately
• Research skills
• Collecting data Gathering information from a
  variety of first and second-hand sources such
  as maps, surveys, direct observation, books,
  films, people, museums and ICT.
• Communication skills
• Reading Reading a variety of sources for
  information pleasure comprehending what has
  been read making inferences drawing
  conclusions

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Attitudes What are the PYP attitudes?Attitudes,
as an essential element of the PYP, make a
commitment to a values-laden curriculum

• Appreciation
• Commitment
• Confidence
• Cooperation
• Creativity
• Curiosity

• Empathy
• Enthusiasm
• Independence
• Integrity
• Respect
• Tolerance

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Action How is the PYP action defined?Through
the action cycle the students are able to grow
both personally socially

• Action in the PYP can involve
• service.
• It is intended that the person taking
• the action will grow from the
• experience, and that the process of
• taking action or not will contribute to
• each student establishing a
• personal set of values.

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Overview of the PYPThe holistic PYP visually
represented