Primary Years Programme Making the PYP happen - ITARI

Making the PYP happen
How can I make sure it is happening
While implementing new curriculum is a multi-faceted and gradual
process, it does involve some definite steps which should be part of
the plan of any principal wishing to enhance the quality of
education in his or her school.
Hewitt, 1988
To ensure that using PYP materials has a real impact in classrooms, it is essential to guide the process.
Guidelines for implementation
! Make sure that the PYP planners are used.
! Develop the library/media centre collection around units of inquiry, so that teachers have the
resources they need.
! Visit classrooms to see inquiry in action.
Most significantly:
! evaluate what you value: since we value risk taking, critical thinking and the use of a range of
teaching and assessment strategies, make them the focus of any job description, professional
appraisal or teacher evaluation system, and professional development programme.
The logic of this approach to professional appraisal and development is:
! the school’s philosophy should clearly express a set of beliefs and values about student learning
! these beliefs and values can be well expressed through the PYP student profile which serves to
drive the curriculum
! these outcomes must be the major shaping force for classroom practice, the taught curriculum
! if these outcomes are to shape practice then they must shape the description of that practice.
The PYP has therefore designed a job description which is a direct reflection of the practices described in
this volume.
The job description:
! focuses solely on activities relating to student learning (as other professional duties would be
described in a staff working agreement/staff handbook/contract)
! encompasses practices which represent observable activities (the job description forms the basis
for a system of professional appraisal or teacher evaluation)
! enables the professional appraisal system to form the basis for a programme of professional
development
! enables professional development to be linked, through a series of logical steps, to the school’s
beliefs and values about student learning, as shown on page 102.
© IBO 2000 101