What is IB PYP?

Since the implementation of 2013 curriculum which was officially launched on July 15, 2013, English subject for elementary schools was removed. Attitude has more priority than skill competencies and knowledge in this curriculum. It makes English no longer subject list for primary school. It can only learn in an extracurricular subject with time allocation 2 hours in a week. In 2013, English classes were phased out for students in grade one to three. In 2014-2015 school year, English classes was phased out  for students in grade four. Then, in 2015-2016 there were no longer English classes for students in grade five and six in the curriculum.

While government schools scrap English subject, many of private sector schools still use English as compulsory subject and as medium of instruction at primary level. They intend to go beyond the minimum government requirements. They use international-based curriculum even though they still have to follow national examination.

Tunas Bangsa school is the only school in Pontianak which use international-based curriculum in the teaching learning process. It is SPK (Satuan Pendidikan Kerjasama) – Cooperative Education Unit school which offer IB (International Baccalaureate) PYP (Primary Years Program) but still use the element of national curriculum.

Two years ago, when I walked in to this school for the first time, I had no idea about what IB was. I did not realize the difference of IB and national curriculum. But then, after 2 years teaching in this school I have learnt a lot of things about IB. There are many things that can not be found in public school.

What is IB?

The IB, including the IBPYP, can be viewed as being positioned within the field of international education (Dolbi and Rahman, 2008) in (Ledger, 2014, p. 17)

The International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP) refers to “the particular programme developed by the IBO for students in the primary years and which is outlined in terms of its ideology, underlying beliefs, mission, values, paedagogy, and required resources.” (Hill 2007) in (Ledger, 2014, p. 2) It is designed for students aged from 3 to 12 years old.

“The IBPYP aims to promote ‘international mindedness’ in students and educators through what is called the IB Learner Profile (IBO, 2003B). In learner profile it is belived that the students should be inquirers, be knowledgeble, be thinkers, be communicators, be principled, be open-minded, be caring, be risk-takers, be balanced, and be reflective. All of those attribute can be seen in the IB mission statement:

The international baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

This programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right. (IBO, 2009)

IB-PYP is a trans-disciplinary programme designed to foster  child development. The curriculum framework for IBPYP is structured in a transdisciplinary way around three types of curriculum: written curriculum, taught curriculum, and assessed curriculum.

1) The written Curriculum (What do we want to learn?)

In written curriculum, the is identification of a framework of what’s worth knowing. The acquisition of essential knowledge should be balance with development of conceptual understanding, demonstration of positive attitude, and taking of responsible action. This is what is expected from PYP. In order to get this balance, the five essential elements are emphasized. They are knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes, and action.

a.       Knowledge

It is about the content which is significan and relevant to the students and is expected to be explored and known by them. In creating the content,  students prior knowledge and understanding are taken into consideration.

In traditional subject areas, there are language, mathematics, social studies, science; personal, social and physical education; and the arts. Eventhough teaching students in a set of isolated subject area is necessary, it is not appropriate for education because one subject has connection to others subject which cannot be separated. The students need to study and get the skill within context. Besides, they need to explore the content of knowledge that relevant to them which is more than traditional subjects boundaries. They have to be able to make integration among separate subject and relate what they have learnt to the real life. In this point, a set of themes that represents shared human experiences and membership in  group was proposed by rnest Boyer. These are called “core commonalities.” From the idea of commonalities, the six transdisciplinary themes are selected. Those theme have many benefit for the students since the students can get the opportunity to explore the commonalities of human experience. Here are the six PYP transdisciplinary themes and its description:

PYP transdisciplinary theme:

Who we are

Where we are in place in time

How we express ourselves

How the world works

How we organize ourselves

Sharing the planet

a.       Concept

Concept is important in PYP because there is belief that teacher can begin to improve the real understanding of the students by starting with their prior knowledge and by facing and developing their earlier conception and constructs. Besides, the students can deepen their conceptual understanding because of different range perspective they use on the concept. “The key concepts, also expressed as key questions, help teachers and students to consider ways of thinking and learning about the world, and act as a provocation to extend and deepen student inquiries” (IBO, 2009, p. 16)

There are 8 key concept in PYP: form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility, reflection.

b.      Skills

There are 8 transdisciplinary skills that suggested by PYP: thinking skill, social skill, communication skill, self management skill, and research skill.

c.       Attitudes

The development of personal attitudes is important to be international minded person. There are 12 attitudes that encouraged by PYP: appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect, and tolerance. The attitudes are not part of hidden curriculum but instead it is part of vernacular of PYP classroom.

d.      Action

Action is the result of the inquiry. The action is initiated by the students as a concequence of learning process. The students’ learning will be extended. That is why teacher has responsibility to enable the students in choosing their action carefully, facilitate their action, and to encourage them to reflect on the action they undertake.

2) The Taught Curriculum (How best will we learn?)

“The taught curriculum is the written curriculum in action” (IBO, 2009, p. 28)

3) The assessed curriculum (How will we know what we have learned?)

Assessment is essential in PYP because it can provide feedback  on the learning process. In the school’s curriculum, the school component can be subdivided into three: Assessing, recording, and reporting.

a.         Assessing

Assessment is important to discover what students have learnt. It is divided into formative assessment and summative assessment. According to Brown (2003)  formative assessment is “evaluating students in the process of “forming” their competencies and skills with the goal of helping them to continue that growth process.” Formative assessment can provide information about what students already know and can do. The teachers can use this information to plan the next stage in learning.

On the other hand summative assessment “aims to measure, or summarize, what a student has grasped, and typically occurs at the end of a course or unit of instruction” (Brown, 2003, p.6). Summative assessment takes place at the end of the instructional unit or after the learning has been completed so that the students learning can be evaluated by comparing it against standard. Summative assessment is different with formative assessment which focus on the process toward completing the product because summative assessment is more product oriented and assesses final product. In summative assessment, rubric can be used. For the students, this rubric can help them to know about the criteria that are expected from them. That is why this rubric is given to the teacher before they begin to work on particular object. For the teachers, this rubric can help them to be more objective when deriving the summative by following the same criteria students used for completing the project. The examples of summative assessment are examination, final examination, final project, presentation or report, and portfolios.

In the classroom evidence of students’ understanding and thinking will be collected. The learning processes of group and individuals will also be documented. All of them will be used to provide the information about students’ learning. By using this information the teacher can make judgement about whether the purpose or objectives have been met.and decide whether the assessment procedure should be changed or not.

For the students, the assessment is said to be effective if it allows students to share their learning and understanding with others,  demonstrate a range of knowledge, conceptual understanding and skills, and participate in reflection, self assessment, and peer assessment. For the teacher, assessment can be said as effective assessment if it can inform about the teaching learning process in every stage and allow the teacher to develop criteria for producing a quality product or performance. Not only for students and teacher, assessment which can give make the parents to have an understanding about the students’ progres can also be said effective for parents.

“The assessment of the development and learning of young students is an essential component of the curriculum, and helps to inform continued development, learning, and teaching” (IBO, 2009, p. 47). It is clear that young students need to be observed using a wide range of assessment to identify what and how the students is thinking and learning.

b.      Recording

In order to know what the students have learnt, the teacher needs to use assessment strategy and tools. Assessment strategies that can be used to gather the information are observations, performance assessment, process-focused assessment, selected responses, and open ended task.

·         Observation

In observation the teacher observes all students regularly. The teacher can focus to observe one students and later on focus to the whole class. He can also become the participant or non-participant.

·         Performance assessment

In performance assessment the students are required to perform a task rather than to choose the answer from the list given. “Performance assessment should be basen on curriculum rather than constructed by someone unfamiliar with the particular state, district, or school curriculum” (Sweet, 1993)

·         Process-focused assessment

Process-focused assessment will be beneficial to the students as the students will be encouraged to be aware about the process that they are using in completing the assessment. Besides, the students will be more creative and be brave to take intellectual risk. Not only that, the students also get freedom in completing the assessment in condition that they will do the same process but still can have different product.

·         Selected response

In selected response each question has a right and wrong answer which makes it easier to be scored. The examples of this assessment are multiple choice, matching, and true/false.

·         Open-ended task

Open-ended task has multiple answers and approaches to the solution.

The tools are used to collect the data about students’ learning. The example of the tools that can be used are rubrics, exemplars, checklist, anecdotal record, and continuum.

c.       Reporting

Reporting is about the way to communicate the information about the assessment. The communication can be used in two ways. First, communication through conference. Second, communication through the written report.

English Language in IB PYP Curriculum

There are three language strands in PYP: oral language, visual language, and written language. Those strands are learned across and throughout the curriculum. Each of the strand is an integral part of language learning. There are two aspects for each strand: receptive and expressive. Receptive aspect means receiving and constructing meaning while expressive aspect means creating and sharing meaning.

In Tunas Bangsa school which adopt IP BYP curriculum, English language becomes medium of instruction. So all subjects are taught in English. Almost all students do not have problems in language. They can communicate well with their teachers and their students. It means that English can be taught since the early age so that they can speak English well. Personally, I think it is not wise if the students can not get English lesson in school and have to postpone it until they are in secondary school with a very limited time. The older they learn English the more difficult learning language for them.