The Learners Inside PYP

The Unit of Inquiry is not just one subject. It is not ONLY Science. It is not ONLY English. The Unit of Inquiry or UOI is tansdisciplinary and very integrated. This was made clear during my oppurtunity to sit in with the Kinder A class as well as the classes up until Grade 4.

Kinder A and B's UOI for the remaining weeks was "Natural Environment". Although I was not able to witness the Tuning-In process first hand, I was able to observe the many visual aids and products that were put up around the classroom. On the left is the picture of the students' mindmap of what they know about the Natural Environment. You can see that this activity absolutely reeled in the thoughts of students. Of course, I assume that prior to this mindmap activity, the students engaged themselves in a brainstorming activity through "Think-Pair-Share" as written on the activity description.

According to Murdoch's structured inquiry, the next step that the students did was Finding out. They made spider maps (see picture below) about the features of the natural environment as well as the man-made

environment (which is more evident in the urban setting here in Manila). From this, the classroom setup divided the class into "expert groups" which will now focus on the needs that WE have: clothing, shelter, food. What I love most about this part of the UOI is the art of questioning. Teachers do not actually lecture the students about 'this' and 'that'. Instead, questions are thrown to the students for them to use their own knowledge as well as exercise the PYP learner profile (thinker, knowledgeable, etc.).

In the process of inquiry, an evidence of a challenging, engaging and significant learning is when students' have the initiative of learning more by asking questions. Likewise, teachers habitually challenge the students while telling them, "Write questions of the things you don't know or you can not answer." I really saw how the students respond and it made me value the inquiry-based learning.

#inquiry #UOI #naturalenvironment #pyp #learnerprofile