Learning and teaching

The PYP is a transformative learning and teaching experience and represents a commitment to student learning in an authentic and transdisciplinary context.

Transdisciplinarity transcends subjects

Transdisciplinary learning in the PYP conveys learning that has relevance between, across and beyond subjects and transcends borders connecting to what is real in the world.

PYP students learn to appreciate knowledge, conceptual understandings, skills and personal attributes as a connected whole. They can reflect on the significance of their learning to take meaningful action in their community and beyond.

Through this process of learning in the PYP, students become competent learners, self-driven to have the cognitive, affective and social tools to engage in lifelong learning.

Concept driven inquiry

A conceptual inquiry approach is a powerful vehicle for learning that values concepts and promotes meaning and understanding. It challenges students to engage critically and creatively with significant ideas beyond the surface level of knowing. PYP teachers use powerful, broad and abstract concepts as a lens to organize learning within units of inquiry and subject-specific learning.

Inquiry is a process that can be framed and represented in many ways. In a PYP context the process can involve:

Approaches to learning skills

The IB approaches to learning skills (ATL) are grounded in the belief that learning how to learn is fundamental to a student’s life in and out of a school context. In broad terms, IB programmes support learners in developing:

• Thinking skills
• Communication skills
• Research skills
• Self-management skills
• Social skills

The approaches to learning and associated sub-skills support students of all ages in being agentic and self-regulated learners. Through a variety of strategies, PYP teachers collaboratively plan for implicit and explicit opportunities to develop ATL both inside and outside the programme of inquiry.