We all can play science

Nowadays many educators know the importance of Play-based learning. Science is the one which can be done as play-based. Actually, young children are exploring new elements and experimenting natural phenomenon everyday.
But how do we know what they "learn", or how much they "understand"?

One of the ways of assessment must be documenting with constructive feedback, as well as reflection. Photos and videos are quite useful for documenting younger students learning.

Snow became ice. What’s the difference? Which melts faster? Outside play is a great science lesson. #scientificinquiry #playbasedlearning #pypchat #WISPYP @ibpyp pic.twitter.com/0lwSThRaFL

— Kaai Iz (@iz_kaai) 20 March 2018

A 4year-old girl found something while she was squashing a flower. Rushed to pick some equipment then ground petals with a stone on a wood. Aha! Got orange liquid! With a big smile, she opened her nail salon. Tuning-in for science! #WISPYP @ibpyp #playbasedlearning @kjinquiry pic.twitter.com/hiHE8KoRLx

— Kaai Iz (@iz_kaai) 8 June 2018

 We may need to have some lectures by our students. Children are scientists.

PoI - How can we be balanced?

Today we are looking at the current PoI to see the sequence in the curriculum.
We would reveal if our curriculum covers the all area, and follows the appropriate
gradation according to the age/grade.

*The Activity

1. Divide all teachers into grades.
2. Each group analyses our current PoI sheets. 
3. Find the conceptual lens (what exactly students learn) from the central idea. 
4. List up the related concepts (see the examples)
5. Check if any units are not reflected the key concepts
6. Check if any units are overlapping 
7. Analyse the sequence of the conceptual lens. Are they following the student growth? 
8. Add/delete if some related concepts should be in the unit but not covered
9. Add if new collaboration opportunity is found

Findings:

Related concepts NOT covered

• Resources (6)
• Authority
• Citizenship
• Competition
• Context
• Equity
• Ethics
• Exploitation
• Peace
• Scarcity
• Wealth
• 
  
• Related concepts MOST covered
• Systems (10) -------- overlapping in HWOO
• Chronology (7)
• Communication (7)
• Culture (7)
• Influence (7)
• Process (7)
• Community (6)
• Organisation (6)

Examples of related concepts adaptation authority balance beliefs biodiversity choice citizenship chronology classification community communication competition conflict conservation continuity context cooperation consequences creativity culture cycles development discovery distribution diversity empathy employment energy equality equity erosion ethics evolution exploitation exploration expression family finite force friend governance growth heritage history health identity independence influence inspiration interaction interdependence interpretation invention justice lifestyle living location media metamorphosis migration motivation movement networks order organization orientation ownership pattern peace perception power prediction prejudice preservation process progress relationships religion representation resources rights scarcity self-expression self-fulfillment settlement share stability stereotype stewardship structure supply and demand sustainability symbolism systems technology time tradition transformation trust values waste wealth well being

Inquiry-based Process of Self-study of PYP Evaluation -

In October 2020, our school will have programme evaluation. So now this is the time for kicking-off.

Tuning-in session at staff meeting for the IB cross-curriculum evaluation. Keywords: “deepen” “collaborate” “reflect” “evidence in teaching&learning” @ibpyp @iborganization #WISPYP pic.twitter.com/xPqcEySQrP

— Kaai Iz (@iz_kaai) March 19, 2018

The process we take

The IB evaluation is a reflective exercise involving the whole school community. It is on-going process and the evaluation is to assess the school continual progress in teaching and learning. Therefore, here I would like to introduce the process with inquiry-cycle phases.

	Timeline	Contents
Tuning in	March 2018 - May 2018	Prior knowledge Inception sessions Setting groups Getting to know more about IB Standards and Practices
Finding out	May 2018 - September 2018	Self Study in groups Reflecting on the previous report Clarifying what evidence needed Collecting/recording evidence
Sorting out	September 2018 - November 2018	Collecting/recording evidence Clarifying the issues
Going further	November 2018 - January 2019	Survey Analyzing the data
Making connections	January 2019 - March 2019	Documenting Reflecting Each group presents information
Taking action	March 2019 - May 2019	Opening the information to the community Action plan

Principled - Is this the right thing to do?

Principled

“They act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences that accompany them.”

Good judgment and moral behaviour don’t come naturally – they have to be learned. Children need to learn discernment in all situations for developing the moral intelligence to know right from wrong. This takes practice and lots of interesting conversations about real, as well as hypothetical, ethical dilemmas.

At the assembly, PYP students listened a story “Farmer Duck” by Martin Waddell (https://vimeo.com/56772821). The story is: A poor duck is overworked by a lazy farmer--until the duck's farm friends mete out their own brand of barnyard justice.

After reading, we discussed what was wrong in this story. Some found a problem of being lazy. Some found the unfairness in the relationship. Some found the action of making change for better. The discussion went very interestingly - When we convey to children how much we respect their ethical choices and moral behaviour, we give them incentive to keep choosing what is right. When they make mistakes and feel badly about themselves, we can teach them that righting their course is the way to authentic self-esteem. Children want to do good and they want to be good. So this time, we practiced one phrase: “Is this the right thing to do?” This simple question can be self-help as well as stop other’s wrong behaviour. 

Inquiry-based learning: My way?

Sorting-out 

Sorting out is actually underestimated Kath said. That was a surprise for me, as this is the easiest to do in the inquiry cycle for me. Sorting out is the great way of organising thinking, as well as leading thinking to analyzing. I love analyzing an that's why it's easy for me. 

As a Japanese educator

I met a teacher whose wife is Japanese. He used to work in Japan. He asked me how I feel about the inquiry-based learning, as it is very far away from Japanese learning culture. But I answered different point.
Inquiry-based learning is new for Japanese school culture. Like other national curriculum, we have textbooks, particular guidelines, and standardized tests. But if we think inquiry-based learning as the way of teaching&learning, not the programme we have to follow, is its concept too different from any national curriculum?
I think, basically Japanese are very flexible. Look at how we celebrate Christmas. Valentine's Day. Even Halloween recently. It must come from Shinto-mind. Shinto is a multitude of 'spirits' and 'essences' suited to various purposes such as harvest festivals, and it applies as well to various sectarian organizations. We are very open to different culture, so I believe the inquiry-based learning will be accepted more in Japan - if it is introduced correctly. 

Inquiry-based learning by Kath Murdoch

I went to the workshop "Inquiry-based learning" by Kath Murdoch with other PYP teachers.

"Being PYP school is not the guarantee of being an inquiry-based school"

This is by Kath and it's shocking to me. 

Today we talked about how do inquiry teacher look like. One of the 10 practices of the inquiry teacher is "think big". If we are here to teach the student living in the future, what are we teaching now? it is important to understand the contents/skills/topics of course, but, as PYP teachers we need to guide students to build their own foundation of learning at primary age. You may not be able to see the student improvement in the subject in a year. But since you are doing for sure the inquiry based teaching, the students should be learning by their learning style/pace. if you do not trust your students who would? 

I would put "time" as an element for inquiry teacher. Even I can say "patience" instead. We need to wait more until the inquiry comes out from the students. We always tend to hurry. 

Creating and writing better planners

We are always working on writing better planners. This time at the curriculum meeting, I brought up one of the collaborative ways of planning.

“Rethink the way we plan” - writing one planner collaboratively 

This time we write planners of Music stand-alone unit. We are now writing planners for 2 school concerts.

Planning is not coming up with a range of activities or developing a series of lesson plans. 

The direction we would like the unit to take: 

1. The PYP transdisciplinary theme - read the whole description of the theme. Which part of the theme are you looking at?

• Who we are; An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human.
• How we express ourselves An inquiry into the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

2. The key concepts that will drive the inquiry 

3. The requirements of the WIS Standard - Performance (Singng, Instruments and Performance)

4. Brainstorm the big ideas

• Start from the end. What do we want students to understand? Don’t talk about activities till we know where we are going and why. And yet it’s more about the process than the end result.

5. Decide collaboratively on the desired conceptual understandings - lines of inquiry

• It’s concept driven, not content based. Begin with a conceptual central idea, an enduring understanding that is broad, significant, engaging and transferable to other contexts.

6. Come up with one conceptual word that defines the essence of the unit 

• Plan a powerful provocation to hook students in, get them thinking and asking questions about the big ideas.

7. Write the central idea

• This needs to be a broad conceptual understanding, globally significant, relevant and engaging, which invites inquiry.

8. Central idea

• Within the framework of our central idea, students are encouraged to take ownership of their learning, explore their own inquiries and build conceptual understandings.

9. Assessment

• Consider what evidence we will look for that learning has taken place. We keep in mind the variety of ways students may express their learning.

10. ATL

• Although inquiry is embraced as a stance, there is explicit teaching of skills. Plan what we would like to see demonstrated in terms of transdisciplinary skill (ATL) development.
• Reflection and metacognition are essential components for all learners, both teachers and students.