Abstract:
Last year our team from The University of Auckland won funding to do an independent evaluation of the PYP Programme in New Zealand from the International Baccalaureate Regional Office in Singapore. There are three core elements to the evaluation: curriculum comparisons; review of student achievement and progress data; school case studies. In this presentation, I will explore the elements from our evaluation and case studies of the PYP Programme.
At the heart of the PYP is the development of a set of personal dispositions, summed up in the Learner Profile. This is a fundamental alternative to behavioral outcomes. The latter prescribe the pace and speed at which learning is to happen, no matter the personalized capabilities or preferences of the student. In the PYP, dispositions will be developed in the student according to their own level of insight and according to the quality of interactions with their peers. The Learner Profile is, as it were, a longitudinal project that is unlikely to be linear in shape, and speaks to personal as well as societal priorities.
The PYP as we are currently observing it in action, is based around enquiry as a site for the development of these dispositions. During their enquiries students will be confronted at each step of the way with challenges to their self-concept and how they see themselves in relation others. This is through the particular challenge of interacting with evidence. What happens if they find a truth that is unpalatable to them? What happens if they want to believe something said by a person they do not like, and mistrust something said by someone they do like? What if the evidence (e.g. on the environment) persuades them to change their mind? These ‘learning encounters’ – as opposed to learning ‘objectives’ (Eisner, 1967) – expose the student and the teacher to a Constructivist approach to pedagogical interactions (a variation of a process curriculum). These are where the teacher’s input is not to impose a theory or an explanation on a student, but to create the conditions within which a student will discover a theory or explanation (Von Glasersfeld, 1989). Once again, the NZC does not deny Constructivist interactions and there are accounts of their practice in New Zealand schools. This is part of the ‘mix’.
At the heart of the PYP is the development of a set of personal dispositions, summed up in the Learner Profile. This is a fundamental alternative to behavioral outcomes. The latter prescribe the pace and speed at which learning is to happen, no matter the personalized capabilities or preferences of the student. In the PYP, dispositions will be developed in the student according to their own level of insight and according to the quality of interactions with their peers. The Learner Profile is, as it were, a longitudinal project that is unlikely to be linear in shape, and speaks to personal as well as societal priorities.
The PYP as we are currently observing it in action, is based around enquiry as a site for the development of these dispositions. During their enquiries students will be confronted at each step of the way with challenges to their self-concept and how they see themselves in relation others. This is through the particular challenge of interacting with evidence. What happens if they find a truth that is unpalatable to them? What happens if they want to believe something said by a person they do not like, and mistrust something said by someone they do like? What if the evidence (e.g. on the environment) persuades them to change their mind? These ‘learning encounters’ – as opposed to learning ‘objectives’ (Eisner, 1967) – expose the student and the teacher to a Constructivist approach to pedagogical interactions (a variation of a process curriculum). These are where the teacher’s input is not to impose a theory or an explanation on a student, but to create the conditions within which a student will discover a theory or explanation (Von Glasersfeld, 1989). Once again, the NZC does not deny Constructivist interactions and there are accounts of their practice in New Zealand schools. This is part of the ‘mix’.