The Primary Years Program (PYP) presents schools with a comprehensive plan for high quality, international education. It provides schools with a curriculum framework of essential elements — the knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes, and action that young students need to equip them for successful lives, both now and in the future. Tesfa willwork with the five elements to construct a rigorous and challenging primary curriculum for international education.
The Program of Inquiry
The PYP Program of Inquiry is a matrix made up of six Transdisciplinary Themes (Who we are; Where we are in time and place; How we express ourselves; How the world works; How we organize ourselves; and Sharing the Planet).
Each Transdisciplinary Theme is accompanied by an extended description that explains what students will be inquiring into under this theme. It is used as a tool to ensure the balance of the Units of Inquiry under each theme.
Central Ideas
Each of the units of inquiry has a central idea. Each central idea will support students’ understanding of the particular transdisciplinary theme it is connected to, and challenges and extends students’ prior knowledge. The central idea is engaging, relevant, challenging and significant.
Our Program of Inquiry will provide opportunities for deeper exploration of all eight
PYP key concepts:
- Form
- Function
- Causation
- Change
- Connection
- Perspective
- Responsibility
- Reflection
The central idea is designed to promote conceptual development. The concepts help the students to develop their conceptual understanding and to extend their critical thinking capacity.
Lines of Inquiry
Each unit will contain three or four lines of inquiry. The lines of inquiry clarify the central idea and define the scope of the inquiry. These contributing aspects of the central idea extend the inquiry, give focus to students’ research, and deepen students’ understanding. Connections are made, as appropriate, between the lines of inquiry as well as with the central idea.
Click here to view Tesfa International School’s Program of Inquiry!