PYP Around the School 

The PYP and transdisciplinarity

You will often hear that the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) is a transdisciplinary concept-based approach to curriculum. While this is certainly a mouthful, in essence, it means that within the PYP structure we, as a community of learners, look for ways to understand big ideas that transcend subject boundaries.

For example, later this term under the transdisciplinary theme ‘How we organise ourselves’, students in Year 1/2 will be exploring the idea of the organisation of markets and how markets rely on meeting consumer needs and wants (please note that we take the word market in its broadest sense - as places where people gather to make purchases). During this unit of inquiry, the students will draw upon many subject areas from the Victorian Curriculum, all of which will help them to understand the central idea of the unit.

These include:

• The Design and Technologies curriculum - exploring product production and using materials to make goods.
• The English Curriculum - through exploring persuasive texts and advertising which connects to the idea of markets needing to promote goods and services. Within this unit, students may also engage in reading information texts around different places where things are sold with a focus on literal comprehension and locating key vocabulary.
• The Geography Curriculum - specifically where activities take place and how location affects needs and wants
• The Intercultural Capability curriculum - investigating diverse cultural needs and wants and experiences of marketplaces
• The Mathematics curriculum which will feature heavily within this unit. In order to understand markets and sales students will need to build their understanding of money, giving change, counting coin collections etc. There will also be a focus on data and graphing as students survey the school and community around their wants in preparation for their own marketplace.
• Depending on the market stalls/goods students may also engage in Media Arts, Visual Arts, Music Dance and Drama.
• The Personal and Social Capability curriculum - developing skills in communicating in a team and with others and listening to others ideas open-mindedly

A transdisciplinary approach helps learners understand subject knowledge in context. It focused on understanding concepts rather than just memorising facts. A transdisciplinary approach also allows students to view the learning they are doing as being connected, significant, relevant, and engaging.