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PYP Making the PYP happen: Implementing agency Workshop (May 2022)
OUTCOMES
I will integrate transdisciplinary and disciplinary concepts, knowledge, and skills in a way that supports a coherent learning experience for students.
I will situate learning in global contexts that support students' understanding of human commonalities (e.g. through transdisciplinary themes).
I will support students to initiate and engage in their own inquiries.
I will promote student reflection and action in response to their learning.
I will establish, engage and maintain collaborative relationships that support the wellbeing of the learning community.
I will select teaching approaches, resources, technologies, learning experiences and assessments that are inclusive and effective for diverse students.
REFLECTION ON MODULE 1 - LOCAL AND GLOBAL CONTEXTS
How is my understanding of PYP principles and practices evolving?
I think the biggest takeaway is the Learner Profile and the fact that it is used as the key tool to be used by both the learner and the teacher for measuring success and planning activities to assist the learner in achieving their goals. Through this lens both teacher and student reflect upon how the attribute leads the learner to independent, effective, honorable, and responsible global citizens. Multilingualism and international-mindedness need to be considered in each learning unit to give students a rich environment in which to reach this goal.
In what ways can I apply learning from this workshop in my own learning and teaching?
Collaborate more with the EAL and world language teachers to see how scaffolds could be provided to students at the beginning of each learning unit.
I think I will incorporate the learner attribute scavenger hunt and evidence collection from now on as adjuncts to my classroom agreements.
In each unit connect international or global concerns and encourage students to think beyond their local environment and take action where they see a need.
How is agency supported and nurtured through this workshop?
Just as how we should promote independent thinking and ownership over the learning in our classrooms, this workshop gives us both structure and choice to learn and present our thinking in our own way. Getting feedback from other educators around the world gives us insight into new perspectives and situations. Plus it is always a boon to see how others find creative ways to interpret and present ideas.
In addition, here are some specific reflection questions for module 1.
How am I developing international-mindedness in my students?
In my current setting where the student population comes from all corners of the globe, simply getting to know each other sets us on the road of international-mindedness. We further this by discussing any cultural celebrations or traditions during our morning circles. We often greet each other in multicultural ways that originate either in a student's home tradition or in some other language/culture of the world. We often reference the world map when discussing characters in the stories we read or delving into units that can lead to more global perspectives, such as trade, geology, or immigration.
How do I get the learning of language to encompass being international minded?
Collaborating with world language teachers. Encouraging English Language Learners to utilize their mother tongue for reading, research, writing, etc. so the students know their home language is honored and provides them
How am I embedding the learner profile into learning and teaching?
My school currently uses four expert learner skills (self-regulation, collaboration, organization, and reflection) which are slightly similar to the learner profile attributes. These appear on our report cards and teachers and student reflect on strengths and areas for growth twice a year, but this pales compared to how the learner profile attributes should be utilized all year as evidence is collected for the year end exhibition. I aim to incorporate the learner profile attributes at the very least internally as lenses through which students reflect upon their growth as a learner.
How am I encouraging students to engage with local and global issues and challenges?
This year we tackled water conservation by canvassing the students in the upper school, challenging them to reduce water usage by placing a full water bottle in their toilet basins and thus reducing use of water with each flush. Students did some basic math estimations to discover the impact of their "taking action" locally. Globally, students in our Grade 4 classrooms ran a bake sale to raise money for student refugees fleeing Ukraine. The money was donated to the International Red Cross. In our immigration unit, we read the book Seedfolks and analyzed where each character came from in the world. We then looked for current immigration issues that related to that region of the globe, looking for reasons why people immigrated to or from that country/city.
REFLECTION ON MODULE 2 - TRANSDISCIPLINARITY AND CONCEPTUAL LEARNING
How is my understanding of PYP principles and practices evolving?
In what ways can I apply learning from this workshop in my own learning and teaching?
How is agency supported and nurtured through this workshop?
In addition here are some specific reflection questions for module 2.
What is your learning about the key elements of the PYP framework that promote transdisciplinary learning and teaching?
KEY IDEAS TAKEN FROM THE PYP TEACHING AND LEARNING DOCUMENT:
A well-designed program of inquiry ensures students experience a balance of subject-specific knowledge, conceptual understandings and skills, alongside opportunities to develop the attributes of the IB learner profile and to take action.
Transdisciplinary learning in the PYP refers to learning that is not confined within the boundaries of traditional subjects, but is supported and enriched by them.
Transdisciplinarity “concerns that which is at once between the disciplines, across the different disciplines, and beyond all disciplines” (Nicolescu 2014: 187). Nicolescu notes that a key imperative of transdisciplinary learning is to unite knowledge for the understanding of the present world. In transdisciplinarity, the disciplines are no longer distinguishable, like the ingredients in a cake, and the result is something completely different (Choi and Pak 2006). Transdisciplinarity transgresses subjects. It begins and ends with a problem, an issue or a theme. Students’ interests and questions form the heart of transdisciplinary learning.
The transdisciplinary model aims to move students beyond looking for a “correct” solution towards a model that reflects the changing times (Mishra, Koehler and Henriksen 2011). It encourages the integration of many forms of knowledge and perspectives from all members of the learning community to make sense of a world that has become “too big to know” (Weinberger 2011).
How you are applying your learning about transdisciplinarity in your school?
How are you using concepts to help students make meaning of and connections to their learning?
How are the approaches to learning contributing to student agency as they develop their skills to think, research, communicate, socialize and manage themselves effectively?
What teachers do:
Thinking skills
Model the language of thinking and reinforce the processes of thinking.
Ask open-ended questions.
Provide sufficient thinking time.
Implement and model a range of “visible thinking” techniques.
Explicitly ask students to discuss and reflect on the value and limitations of the resources used through their inquiries.
Provide time for reflection at all stages of learning—before, during and after inquiries.
Promote a range of tools for reflection and ensure that reflection activities are responsive and varied.
Reflect on existing competencies, co-create learning goals.
Research skills
Plan transdisciplinary and subject-specific inquiries in which students can develop, apply and reflect on their research skills.
Provide a range of tools for students to organize their research so that all stages are documented.
Model academic integrity by providing proper citations and references for materials and ideas that are shared with students.
Collaborate with, for example, the librarian and technology specialists support students to build research skills and to learn how to identify reliable sources of information.
Communication skills
Plan opportunities for students to practise and apply these skills in meaningful contexts.
Provide time for students to plan and prepare communication activities.
Encourage students to consider potential challenges and opportunities arising from shared ideas.
Encourage physical cues.
Encourage communication using different languages.
Ask open-ended questions.
Put thinking ahead of knowing.
Have informal conversations.
Encourage students to explore a variety of perspectives and modalities.
Social skills
Provide explicit opportunities for students to practice and develop social skills.
Provide opportunities for students to reflect on their social skills.
Reflect and feedback on different interactions they observe.
Offer students opportunities to see that “other people, with their differences, can also be right”.
Use the language of the learner profile in conversations and discussions, and in the development of essential agreements.
Model the social skills.
Self-management skills
Provide opportunities for students to monitor and manage their learning to make progress.
Involve students in planning.
Build resilience by ensuring that learning goals co-constructed with students are challenging but achievable.
Create an atmosphere where students regard learning as a process of gradual improvement.
Continually reflect on how they are supporting student agency as an intrinsic motivation to success.
Support students to manage distractions.
REFLECTION ON MODULE 3 - ACTION, INQUIRY, AND COLLABORATION
Some questions that may help your reflection specifically for module 3.
How are you using inquiry as a pedagogical approach that encourages students to be responsible for and actively involved in their own learning?
How are you promoting agency by encouraging student choice and decision making?
How are you encouraging your students to act in response to their learning?
What ideas could you bring to the collaborative planning process at your school?
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