Established in 1968,the International Baccalaureate describes itself as ‘education for a better world’.
Now offered in 160 countries, the non-profit foundation has developed a continuum of education that begins with the Primary Years Programme for children aged three to 12 – an inquiry-based educational framework, which is informed by research and international best practice. Its aims are to support holistic development, develop competencies for the future and support contribution to a more peaceful world and intercultural understanding.
Nursery World brought together a panel of education and early years experts to discuss what an effective early years curriculum should include, and what the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP) can offer to the early years sector.
CORE ASPECTS OF THE PROGRAMME
The webinar began with an overview from Dr Peter Fidczuk, outlining that the programme is comprised of six transdisciplinary themes and ten attributes that make up learner profiles (see box, overleaf). Central to its approach is the premise that children are agents of their own learning and should take action in their learning community.
Fidczuk emphasised that the PYP is a framework for teaching and learning and doesn’t prescribe specific content or assessments. Its flexibility enables adaptations for local context and for it to meet other statutory requirements and be taught in any language.
‘Education is more than simply knowledge,’ Fidczuk stated. ‘It’s skills, values and attitudes.’ He went on to explain, ‘Transdisciplinary means we’re not teaching subjects, we’re teaching across big areas that all subjects can be involved with, that are important themes … those themes are the vehicles for the content, but also promote student agency, conceptual understanding, development of communication skills, development of enquiry and, most importantly, understanding each other and other cultures.’
WHAT SHOULD EY EDUCATION INCLUDE?
Jan Dubiel said curriculums need to be owned and designed by whoever is using them, and therefore the flexible approach of the IB PYP was appealing, as curriculums should be individualised for the children and context that people work within.
He also talked about the importance of a clear sense of progression, covering all elements including learning behaviours, which should be central to any curriculum. ‘Learning behaviours don’t just happen,’ he explained. ‘They have to be explicitly taught and explicitly supported and made aware of by the educators.’
He went on to say learning behaviours such as metacognition develop as children become older, and being able to talk about progression of metacognition in thesame way that we talk about mathematical development should be central to any 21st Century curriculum.
Dubiel emphasised that the children we are working with now will face specific environmental challenges andso need to be made aware that ‘we are citizens of the world and we have finite resources’. He also felt that the curriculum should reflect the digital world and the need to understand heritage and different cultural practices.
ENHANCING QUALITY
Ingrid McCormack and Kelsey Winocour, who have both taught using the programme, agreed that the domains and principles described by Dubiel were well reflected in the IB PYP.
The programme ‘takes you into the world of information literacy, media literacy and ethical use of these, as well as thinking skills, social skills and social self management’, said McCormack. ‘Those latter two are so important in an early years setting and it’s very well laid out for you, all the sub-skills and how we use those across the year.’
Winocour described how in her school, a project around recyclable art led to children deciding to write a petition to recycle more products in school and presenting their ideas to the executive board. She commented that since implementing the IB PYP, the students were ‘even more engaged … because these conceptual understandings are more transdisciplinary, there’s a lot more project-based learning and the children are choosing the direction of the projects … so there’s so much ownership, and these real-world contexts where the children feel empowered to really make a difference in their community.’
She added, ‘The children are constantly in a state of playful inquiry and it feels so alive.’ She suggested that we can sometimes get too caught up in what we are teaching, but the IB PYP provides a framework to think about ‘the how and the why of everything’ so that the children ‘are developing that critical thinking at such an early age’.
According to McCormack, it is achievable to do this by introducing concepts in their simplest forms and building complexity gradually as children get older. For example, the learner profile attribute of being ‘principled’ can be explained to three- and four-years-olds as meaning ‘being honest and true’.
She commented that children are often very egocentric in the early years, and the IB PYP is ‘a beautiful programme to expand the horizon of thinking and learning, and a way to become very socially astute’.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A broad range of online and face-to-face support and training opportunities were also described by McCormack and Winocour, including advice from consultants and CPD units specifically for early years staff on play-based practice, implementing agency and developing community. They also referenced the ‘huge global network of educators to connect with’.
‘Collaboration is key,’ said McCormack. ‘You’re not on your own, you’re planning with other people and you’re required to have a programme co-ordinator so that person becomes a centre of expertise to initially lead the team, but then they’re your cheerleader as the team gets more experienced.’
The panel discussed whether the PYP could help to attract and retain early years staff. ‘For those educators that are here to really make a difference in the world … the PYP gives you such meaningful existence and an impact that you can make,’ said Winocour.
‘When you’re collaborating using the PYP language as your framework for conversation, it really creates a community of shared language and shared values and understanding, and that’s something that makes you feel connected. And at home in your school. The PYP has also helped to upskill staff and shift the focus of their role.’
McCormack outlined that the role of teachers in the programme is to be ‘facilitators, they’re researchers, they’re participants in learning with their students, they’re provocateurs who challenge thinking … they’re observers, documenters and reflectors – reflection is key, and those are the milestones as to what your role as a practitioner becomes when you’re immersed in the PYP.’
Q&A
In the final part of the webinar, attendees posed questions to the panel. One attendee asked whether the IB PYP could support The Characteristics of Effective Learning (CoEL), which she felt were poorly understood currently. Dubiel agreed that the CoEL are important and need an uplift.
Another attendee asked how enquiry can work with very young children, given that they don’t have the independent research skills and knowledge base that older students can draw upon. This raised the debate of whether enquiry can be truly child-led when so much adult input is required. The panel discussed how the essence and principles of enquiry can be introduced with younger children at an age-appropriate level and will become more sophisticated over time.
The panel
Dr Peter Fidczuk
manager for the International Baccalaureate
Jan Dubiel
specialist in early childhood education and former head of national and international development at Early Excellence
Ingrid McCormack
education consultant who has worked in schools in the UK, Africa and the Middle East
Kelsey Winocour
educator who has worked in the USA, Spain, Japan and Hong Kong and has used the IB PYP in Texas
Gemma Goldenberg
early years researcher, education expert and co-founder of Nestkids.co.uk
- Access the webinar recording at: https://bit.ly/3RvyQSz
Profiles and themes
The IB Learner Profile
- Inquirers
- Knowledgeable
- Thinkers
- Communicators
- Principled
- Open-minded
- Caring
- Risk Takers
- Balanced
- Reflective
Transdisciplinary themes
- Who we are
- Where we are in place and time
- How we express ourselves
- How the world works
- How we organise ourselves
- Sharing the planet
MORE INFORMATION
- Information about the IB PYP: https://www.ibo.org/programmes/primary-years-programme
- Evidence of impact: https://www.ibo.org/research
- Contact: james.heath@ibo.org
