Now that you took your first steps as a coordinator at your school, it is time to take on the important task of creating a Programme of Inquiry (POI) that aligns with your school's curriculum and vision.
Creating a POI can be a daunting process, but it is a crucial step in establishing a sustainable and effective curriculum that supports student inquiry and growth. While the IB's sample POI can be a helpful starting point for your first year(s), developing your own POI will allow your school to have a programme that reflects the unique needs and goals of your school community.
In this guide, we will provide you with practical strategies and processes to help you create and refine your POI. Whether you're starting from scratch or revising an existing POI, this guide will equip you with the tools and knowledge you need to create a comprehensive and effective programme of inquiry for your school.
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Checklist for creating a strong POI
As you create your Programme of Inquiry (POI), there are a few key elements to keep in mind to ensure its effectiveness and alignment with the PYP requirements. Here's a handy checklist of important considerations:
Students aged 6 and above have six units of inquiry each year, one for each of the transdisciplinary themes.
Early years students (aged 3-6) have at least four units per grade, with two units focused on the "Who we are" and "How we express ourselves" themes every year.
The school has documents outlining what students will learn in each subject area, which can be the PYP scope and sequence, a national/state/regional curriculum, or one created by the school.
Science and social studies are taught within the units of inquiry, while other subjects (language, math, PSPE, and arts) should be integrated whenever possible.
Each unit of inquiry integrates two or more subjects. While all subjects should be represented in the POI for each grade level, they do not necessarily need to be integrated in every unit.
There is a balance of subjects to support each theme.
By keeping these checklist items in mind as you develop your POI, you can create a well-rounded and effective curriculum that supports student growth and inquiry.
Getting started: who will be involved?
Designing a programme of inquiry (POI) is a complex task that requires careful planning and collaboration. One of the first decisions you'll need to make is who will be involved in the process and what documents will inform your decisions.
There are different approaches to developing a POI for your school. You could choose to involve all teaching staff and create the POI as a whole school, or you could work with small groups, such as grade-level teams, to create a draft for their specific grade level. It is also possible to work with a selected group to create a basic outline that can be refined over time.
However, it is highly recommended that you do not go through this process alone. Creating a POI is an overwhelming task for one person, and you likely won't be an expert in all subject areas involved. Additionally, the teachers who will teach the units of inquiry will need to understand how and why each unit was created in order to build meaningful and intentional learning experiences that connect to the curriculum and are relevant to the students' experiences, so it is important that they are involved in the process to a certain extent.
Selecting the right curriculum for your school
Selecting the right curriculum to inform your decision is a critical part of creating a successful programme of inquiry (POI). As mentioned above in the checklist, the PYP scope and sequence, a national/state/regional curriculum, or a curriculum created by the school can all be appropriate.
For new PYP schools, I would not recommend to create your own curriculum from scratch. If your school isn't mandated to use a particular curriculum, you have the choice to select the PYP scope and sequences or any other curriculum that aligns with your school's vision. While this choice can be challenging and time-consuming, there are several curriculums that work well with the PYP framework, including the EYFS, the Creative Curriculum, Te Whāriki, Early Learning for Every Child Today, and many others.
When selecting a curriculum, it is important to choose one that is play/inquiry-based, as play is a key aspect of the PYP framework. By doing so, you can ensure that your curriculum supports student inquiry and growth and helps them develop a love of learning that will serve them well throughout their lives.
Some documents to consider when selecting a curriculum for your school: EYFS, Creative Curriculum, Te Whāriki, Early Learning for Every Child Today. Of course, the PYP scope and sequence are a good choice too!
Developing a basic outline
Explore your curriculum
In order to ensure that the POI includes social studies and science curriculum (which is one requirement), one effective strategy is to begin by utilizing these standards to form the initial structure of the POI. In this example, we will work with the Creative Curriculum.
The first step in designing a comprehensive POI is to take the time to thoroughly explore the standards and understand how they are organized. Doing so can reveal a natural structure to build the POI around, providing a strong foundation for effective inquiry-based learning.
For example, the Creative Curriculum organizes its science and social studies objectives into 3 and 4 strands respectively:
Identify the concepts in your curriculum
To create a truly concept-based POI that is still rooted in the curriculum, it is important to identify the concepts in your curriculum and build upon them. By reading through the objectives for each strand, you can identify the related concepts or "big ideas" and connect them with the most relevant transdisciplinary theme.
For example, let's take a look at how this might work for EY1 (3-4 years old).
You can see that we have identified the big ideas or concepts for four themes:
Who we are: self, preferences, community, characteristics of people
How we organize ourselves: rules, routines, community, jobs
Where we are in place and time: (other) places, time (past-present-future)
How the world works: materials properties, substances, living things needs, non-living things
Designing a POI is a creative process, and there is no one-size-fits-all approach to it. Even working from a same curriculum, each school may approach it differently, based on their context, experience, and understandings. Identifying concepts from a curriculum and organizing them under the most relevant transdisciplinary theme requires critical thinking and decision-making, and there is not really a correct or wrong way to do this.
Ultimately, you will have to make some choices, but, the goal is to create a POI outline that is concept-based and rooted in the curriculum, while being relevant and meaningful to the students and the school local context.
In our example, we could for example have connected the objectives related to "The characteristics of living things" or "Earth's properties" to Sharing the planet, but in this case I intentionally chose to group them under How the world works. The reason is that in the early-years we want to have no more than 4 units, and that Sharing the Planet is a theme that could be addressed in the next years of the programme, with older students.
Additionally, two units must be focused on "Who we are" and "How we express ourselves" for each grade, so we have decided to make a unit about Stories for How we express ourselves. This unit will be a good opportunity to integrate subjects areas such as arts and language.
The objectives that relate to "Where we are in place and time" in our example could be adressed in other units, or they will be easily adressed outside of the POI (i.e. not directly linked to any unit), so we can focus on the other themes for this grade.
Once you have gone through the process of identifying and connecting concepts to transdisciplinary themes for each grade, you will have a rough outline to work with. This first draft will be grounded in science or social studies disciplinary concepts and serve as a starting point for developing units throughout the year.
Not all the concepts identified will be used in the final programme of inquiry (POI). Ultimately, you will have to make some choices, but, the goal is to create a POI outline that is concept-based and rooted in the curriculum.
Check for balance and continuity
When designing a POI for the entire school, it is important to ensure a balance and continituty of concepts across all grade levels. This means that you may need to rearrange units or concepts to avoid any gaps or overlaps:
Vertically: Be mindful of repeating concepts or teaching similar units multiple times within the POI.
Horizontally: Ensure concepts connect and build on each other without major repetition.
When analyzing each transdisciplinary theme, begin with lower grades and move up to the final grades, and ask yourself the following questions:
Are the units progressing from simpler to more complex ideas?
Are the concepts moving from concrete to more abstract ones?
These questions can help ensure a coherent and logical progression of concepts throughout the school's POI.
A learning process!
After creating a strong outline for your POI rooted in your curriculum, it is important to approach your first year as a learning process. Avoid getting bogged down by details or trying to finalize all aspects of the POI immediately. Instead, prioritize collaborative planning and building a strong foundation for future years:
During your first year, work with each grade team to develop units collaboratively and one at a time. Check out this article on creating new units for your POI.
Try to complete all sections of the PYP planner for each unit. Completed planners provide valuable data when reviewing your POI and refining your units at the end of the school year. Check out how AI can support unit planning.
Reflect on your POI on an ongoing basis. Consider which units worked well and which did not, whether any connections with single subjects felt forced or missing, wether the units connect to local issues or not, and wether they spark student interest. Continue reading this blog to learn more about reviewing your POI annually.
Related articles:
Final words
Creating a Programme of Inquiry (POI) is a crucial step towards establishing a successful and sustainable curriculum that supports student growth and inquiry. While it may seem like a daunting task, with the right strategies and collaboration, you can create a well-rounded and effective POI that aligns with your school's vision and unique needs.
Remember to involve all necessary stakeholders in the process, choose a curriculum that supports play-based and inquiry-based learning, and identify the concepts in your curriculum to create a truly concept-based POI.
By taking the time and effort to create a strong POI, you are setting your students up for a lifetime of love for learning and growth. As you embark on this journey, keep in mind the words of Nelson Mandela:
"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela
With a strong POI, you can empower your students to become the change-makers our world needs!
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