Enhancements to the PYP

The first announcement regarding the enhancement was made in 2017 and launch took place in
October 2018 with an emphasis on transitioning in a phased manner.

The first thing one noticed, upon launch of the enhanced PYP in 2018, was that the new digital
experience replaced ‘Making the PYP Happen’ and most other supporting PDF documents. Principles
to practice (under PRC) connects one directly to the content most relevant to their needs, with links to
the new glossary, teacher support materials and relevant Programme Standards and Practices.

The enhanced PYP framework emphasizes the central principle of agency that is threaded
throughout the new organizing structure of the programme (the 3 pillars): the learner, learning and
teaching and the learning community. Augmenting the focus of the “written, taught, and assessed”
curriculum with the human elements—the learner and the learning community—underlines that
everyone connected to the school community has voice, choice and ownership to impact learning and
teaching.

Informed by research, analysis and school feedback, multiple elements of the framework have been
strengthened and enhanced, to offer increased alignment across IB programmes and greater
flexibility for our global community of learners, to become

The Learner
Agency

Agency is the power to take meaningful and intentional action, and acknowledges the rights and
responsibilities of the individual, supporting voice, choice and ownership for everyone in the
learning community. Agency is an area where schools can demonstrate ongoing development and
exemplary practice and is supported by the revised Programme standards and practices.

The Early Learner

The early years age range is extended from ages 3–6, instead of 3–5 years. Schools design a
programme of inquiry that consists of six units of inquiry—one for each transdisciplinary theme—at
each year or grade level, except for students from 3–6 years, where the school may choose to offer a
minimum of four units at each year or grade level, two of which must be within the themes of "Who
we are" and "How we express ourselves". The four central features of the early years are:

• play as the primary vehicle for inquiry with planning for uninterrupted time for play

• building strong relationships with students and their families

• creating and maintaining responsive/interactive learning spaces for play

• offering many opportunities for symbolic exploration and expression.

Learner Profile

As the IB mission in action, the learner profile remains central to all IB programmes. In line with other
IB programmes, reporting on the learner profile attributes is no longer required. This moves the focus
away from summative assessment towards monitoring and documenting students' development of
the attributes of the learner profile over time, with an emphasis on self-reflection.

The dispositions earlier referred to as “attitudes” are subsumed within the descriptors of the learner
profile and are no longer a separate element. The whole learning community plays an important part
in developing, valuing, appreciating, monitoring and demonstrating the learner profile in action.

Action

Student-initiated action is considered as a dynamic outcome of agency, and an integral part of the
learning process that can arise at any time, within or outside the programme of inquiry. Action
might come in the form of: participation, advocacy, social justice, social entrepreneurship, and
life choices.

Exhibition

Schools may start by developing a guided exhibition and move towards a student led exhibition as
their experience with the PYP deepens and their expectation for student agency increases.

The exhibition is repositioned as a powerful demonstration of student agency. Schools can

choose to use the optional exhibition planner or design their own way to support students to
document the exhibition.

Learning & Teaching

Concepts

Key Concepts are renamed as Specified Concepts and Related Concepts are renamed as
Additional Concepts. There are seven specified concepts. Reflection is embedded throughout the
programme in multiple ways and is no longer positioned as a key/specified concept.

A transdisciplinary program of inquiry

Your unique, programme of inquiry will continue to map the transdisciplinary themes across the year
groups and ensure that units of inquiry connect learning across, between and beyond subjects.

For learners in the age group 6-12 years, schools design a programme of inquiry consisting of six
units of inquiry—one for each transdisciplinary theme—at each year or grade level.
Collaborative planning teams have the flexibility to decide the most appropriate time frames and
duration for each unit of inquiry. To allow for depth and breadth of investigation, a minimum
timeframe of three to four weeks is recommended.

Greater flexibility on starting points and time frames for your units of inquiry will create a range of
learning opportunities, for example, one unit could run throughout the whole year, while others could
be revisited once or numerous times, with some overlap where appropriate

Image taken from Learning & Teaching in the enhanced PYP Part 2 under PRC, MYIB

Schools will have the option to design their own planner, providing they follow the new collaborative
planning process, which outlines clear steps and expectations to plan a transdisciplinary unit of
inquiry. Alternatively, schools may use the newly designed PYP planning template customized for
early learners, year level and subject specialist teachers.

TD theme descriptors (most recent enhancement)

The TD theme descriptors are updated to make them more flexible and conceptual. The intention
is to provide schools with more flexibility to map their local, national and regional curricula, as the
descriptors are broader and balanced.

Designed with an opening statement that captures the essence of the TD theme; and three bullet
points that unpack, broaden and deepen the theme. They are connected as well as distinct enough
to stand on their own and to be read as a whole narrative.

Approached to learning

The original set of transdisciplinary skills were renamed as “approaches to learning” to align with
other IB programmes. Approaches to learning sub-skills can be adopted from the PYP guidance, or
schools may identify, adapt and extend sub-skills to support students in the context of their own
learning community.

Inquiry

Inquiry remains the main pedagogical approach to learning and teaching.

As inquiry is a dynamic process, it is no longer represented in programme documents by the

previous linear inquiry cycle model. An explicit focus on agency–voice, choice and ownership–will
encourage active, inquiring students to take responsibility for their own learning. The planner was
redesigned to include student agency through inquiry, action and reflection. Flexible, open-ended
timeframes for units of inquiry allow for more sustained, in-depth inquiry. In the early years, inquiry
is approached through play.

Play is not limited to the early learners but has significance for all ages, supporting learning and
development among children at any age.

Assessment

Assessment embodies a holistic design, incorporating both a backward and forward-looking

approach in which feedback is integral to learning and teaching.
Schools build a schoolwide assessment culture which focuses on developing assessment
capable students and teachers.
Teachers monitor, document, measure and report on learning using an integrated, ongoing
process.
The exhibition is no longer required to be a summative assessment. Instead, it is seen as an
opportunity to support student growth through the means of formative assessment.

Language

Language will be embedded throughout “the learner”, “learning and teaching” and “the learning
community” to support a school culture of language learning and international mindedness.

Multilingualism, the use of two or more languages, will be encouraged and supported through the
development of multilingual learning environments and multilingual communities, affirming student
identity and agency

The Learning Community

A community of learners

There is an increased focus and guidance on inclusion and well-being to foster positive and trusting
relationships, self-efficacy and agency across the school community.

International Mindedness

The improved guidance supports the integration of international-mindedness through action, agency,
language, the learner profile and the shared responsibilities of the learning community.

Leadership

Students, teachers and all members of the learning community take on formal and informal
leadership roles, to discover new ways to reach shared aspirations together. Leadership draws on a
range of capabilities to innovate and encourage agency in a PYP school.

Technology
Students are immersed in the interplay between learning technology, learning about technology and
learning through technology. Guidance includes the possibilities offered by multiliteracies and
multimodalities, alongside computational learning, design and systems thinking to integrate learning.

Learning Environments

Schools create flexible, inviting and intentional learning spaces that support agency, inquiry, physical
and emotional well-being

Policies

All stakeholders and staff in schools will work collaboratively to develop policies that reflect and
support their own learning community and context using guidelines from the IB. In addition to
Assessment, Inclusion and Language, required policies will now also include - Access and/or
Admissions policy, Academic integrity, Child protection policy

References

LEARNING AND TEACHING IN THE ENHANCED PYP—PART 1—March 2018

LEARNING AND TEACHING IN THE ENHANCED PYP—PART 2—March 2018

TRANSITION GUIDE FOR THE PYP PROGRAMME—June 2018