Primary Years Programme Making the PYP happen - ITARI

Making the PYP happen
! When viewed as a set of questions, the concepts form a research tool which is both manageable
and open-ended. The concepts are not only key in the sense of important. They also provide a
key—a way into a body of knowledge through structured inquiry. They place no limits on
breadth of knowledge or depths of understanding and therefore provide access to every student,
regardless of particular aptitudes.
! These questions should not be interpreted in any restrictive sense, as the only questions, to be
used in strict order, or to be given equal weight in every unit. Rather, they represent an
approach, a springboard, an introduction to a way of thinking about teaching and learning.
The PYP therefore presents the concepts which are central to the curriculum in the form of key questions. It
is these questions, used flexibly by teachers and students when planning an inquiry-based unit, which shape
that unit, giving it direction and purpose. It is in this sense that the key questions, and the ideas to which
they relate, are said to drive the PYP curriculum.
It is also recognized that these concepts have different applications and interpretations within each
discipline. The concepts, with their generic and discipline-specific definitions, are presented in figure 6.
© IBO 2000 15