IB Primary Years Program [PYP]

A Model for Learning through Inquiry

Inquiry is the foundational approach to teaching and learning in the PYP because it allows students to be actively involved in their own learning and to take responsibility for that learning. Inquiry allows each student’s understanding of the world to develop in a manner and at a rate that is unique to that student.

The intention of the PYP is to support students’ efforts to construct meaning from the world around them by drawing on their prior knowledge, providing provocation through new experiences, and providing time and opportunity for reflection. This constructivist philosophical approach respects the students’ developing ideas and understandings of the social and natural world; it continually stimulates students’ revision and refinement of their models of how the world works. Therefore, it is critical that the written curriculum designed by the teachers incorporates a range of learning experiences that acknowledges the diversity of the students’ prior knowledge.

Inquiry is the learning process initiated by the students or the teacher that moves the students from their current level of understanding to a new and deeper level of understanding.

An expectation of both TCIS and the PYP is that successful inquiry will lead to responsible action initiated by the students as a result of the learning process. This action may extend the students’ learning, or it may have a wider social impact. Both inquiry and action will clearly look different within each age range and from one age range to the next.

What is the PYP Exhibition?

The PYP Exhibition represents a significant, culminating event in the life of a PYP school and its students. The Exhibition unit synthesizes the essential elements of the PYP and requires the students to share their inquiry process and findings with the school community. It is an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the IB Learner Profile that have been developing throughout their engagement with the PYP.

In the final year of the PYP, elementary students explore five units of inquiry in addition to the Exhibition unit. All students are required to engage in a collaborative, transdisciplinary inquiry process that involves them in identifying, investigating, and offering solutions to real-life issues or problems. The central idea selected by the students must be of sufficient scope and significance to warrant a detailed investigation.

Throughout all IB programs, emphasis is placed on careful analysis of the learning process, not only the product. The Exhibition provides many opportunities for student leadership and ownership. Students use a variety of methods and technology to collect, to reflect on, and to keep evidence of their ongoing questions and solutions to problems throughout the collaborative inquiry process. Student empowerment is at the center of the Exhibition, from the time the students have direct input in selecting a significant world issue to developing the central idea and, finally, to planning for the presentation of the inquiry to the community.

PYP Subject Areas

The PYP curriculum framework enables students to develop essential intellectual skills in engaging and challenging learning environments where deeper understanding of key concepts is nurtured. PYP educators design six specific units using a common PYP planner with a balance of the acquisition of essential knowledge and skills, development of conceptual understandings, demonstration of positive attitudes, and an expectation for responsible student action.

Teachers build on students' prior experiences and knowledge and provide opportunities for students to steadily move to more complex levels of creative and critical thinking. Using structured inquiry, the students engage in purposeful learning as they develop an understanding of the world around them. Simultaneously, they learn valuable communication and collaborative skills so they will be able to engage fully with our ever-evolving world.