Learning (curriculum)
Ensuring effective education
Designing a coherent curriculum
As a coordinator facilitates collaborative planning across teaching teams, one result will be the designing and implementation of the programme of inquiry (POI). A school’s POI is the collective transdisciplinary units of inquiry from each grade level.
There are many responsibilities and considerations for the coordinator to manage in regard to ensuring that the POI is a balanced and articulated documentation of holistic learning for students.
The coordinator may support teachers in selecting a unit planner template that best matches their needs. There is not one required unit planner template and schools have agency in deciding how the written curriculum is documented (see planner templates provided by the IB). The coordinator may have discussions with school leadership and/or teaching teams to determine if a common template will be used across the school.
Support teachers in ensuring that local and national learning requirements are included in the scope of the programme of inquiry.
To support the transdisciplinary nature of the programme, consider how learning requirements across disciplines (subject areas) connect to the unit goals, central idea, related concepts and the transdisciplinary theme. These components can provide a reference point for authentically connecting subject areas into each unit of inquiry.
Once the programme of inquiry has been developed, schedule regular and systematic opportunities for both horizontal and vertical articulation to ensure a balanced and holistic experience for students. This can take place over time and may include the following engagements:
Review how each unit connects to the chosen transdisciplinary theme descriptor.
Ask: Are all aspects of the theme addressed at some point along the POI?
Review the chosen learner profile attributes that will be explicitly practiced within each unit.
Ask: Are all attributes represented horizontally across each group of students? Is there a vertical balance within each transdisciplinary theme?
Review the chosen key concepts that will help serve as a vehicle for inquiry within each unit.
Ask: Are all key concepts represented horizontally across each group of students? Is there a vertical balance within each transdisciplinary theme?
Review the subject areas represented horizontally within the POI.
Ask: Are all subjects represented?
The school’s programme of inquiry and unit planners are meant to be documents that will continuously evolve and change over time. It is inevitable that aspects of the planner will change upon reflection, articulation, and as a deeper understanding of PYP pedagogy develops.
Consider how revisions to grade/age level planners impact the horizontal and vertical balance of the POI. Some schools develop systems and agreements around communicating changes within the programme of inquiry, as these changes may impact future learning within the POI.
Developing a unit planner for the first time can be time intensive and challenging. Support teachers as they consider each component of the planning process and how it will lead to deeper conceptual understanding for their learners. This can lead to disequilibrium amongst teachers and is a very common part of the collaborative planning process.
The support of the PYP coordinator is vital for the development and growth of the programme.
Consider providing opportunities for ongoing reflection throughout the unit planning process and think about how unit reflections will be documented upon the completion of each unit.
For those teachers who are implementing a planner that has been previously developed, it is important to provide time to review the planner prior to beginning the inquiry.
Review the reflection from the previous iteration of the unit. Ask: How might this insight help improve the inquiry?
Review the identified resources that are needed and support teaching teams in acquiring these resources.
Review the foundational components of the unit so that teachers have a sense of purpose and direction.
Invite discussion regarding any potential revisions that may be attributed to:
Student needs and interests
Local and global contexts
Changes in learning requirements
While subject specific specialists may not (yet) have developed units of inquiry, it is crucial to involve them in the development and review of the school’s POI. This can provide for intentional planning around authentic connections to units of inquiry, which further supports the transdisciplinary nature of the programme.
As the programme of inquiry is developed, consider how it will be shared with the school community.
As it is intended to be a constantly evolving collection of documents, think about how what is being shared will reflect the most up-to-date revisions and changes.
Throughout the development and refinement of curriculum development, think about the interplay and regular cross referencing between IB documents, school policies and unit planners. All should complement each other in the implementation of the PYP.
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