Broadening the interpretation of PYP Requirement C3.1.

b
Information Brief
March 2017

Whats changing?

The IB is broadening the interpretation of requirement C3.1.b in the standards and practices of the Primary Years
Programme (PYP).

PYP C3.1.b requirement:

The classroom teacher takes responsibility at least for the language of instruction, mathematics, social studies and science, to
support the PYP model of transdisciplinary teaching and learning.
Broadened interpretation:

The classroom teacher is responsible for ensuring that all teachers in the year level teaching team take responsibility at least for the
language of instruction, mathematics, social studies and science through the PYP model of transdisciplinary teaching and learning.

This can be achieved by the classroom teacher facilitating the collaborative design, planning and delivery of the subjects included
in each unit of inquiry with specialist teachers.
The delivery of such a collaboratively planned unit of inquiry, or subjects included in each unit of inquiry, is a shared
responsibility within the teaching team.

This broadening of requirement C3.1.b clarifies the collaborative roles of both classroom and subject specialist
teachers but does NOT change the transdisciplinary learning approach of the PYP OR require schools to change
their current teaching structure.

The IB will now recognize that responsibility for subject integration among teachers can take many forms, for
example:
a classroom teacher serving as a single teacher of multiple subjects
a classroom teacher co-planning and co-teaching with specialist teachers
a specialist teacher co-planning with the year level teaching team to lead a unit of inquiry
a specialist teacher supporting subject knowledge acquisition within the programme of inquiry.

Specifically, any one teacher, a pair of teachers, or all teachers in the year level teaching team can take
responsibility for ensuring that the PYP model of transdisciplinary teaching and learning is implemented in
schools.

Why is it changing?

Informed by feedback from our schools and leading research; this clarification/reinterpretation is designed to
refocus schools attention on the importance of subject disciplines within transdisciplinary learning.

there is no opposition between disciplinarity and transdisciplinarity, but a fertile complementarity. In

fact, there is no transdisciplinarity without disciplinarity. Nicolescu 2014, an early theorist on
transdisciplinarity.

Success in providing students a transdisciplinary experience does not reside in a schools faculty formation, but
its shared understanding that responsibility for supporting student well-being and transdisciplinary learning
belongs to the entire learning community.

This refinement aims to strengthen the PYP to become:

better for studentsby deepening their transdisciplinary learning experience and supporting their
transition to the MYP/next stage of education

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 easier for teachers to implementby enabling them to draw on the pedagogical and subject expertise of
a collective teaching team to support subject knowledge and skills acquisition
more flexible for schoolsby allowing them to adapt implementation of the PYP to their local context.

How will this refinement affect transdisciplinary learning in the PYP?

This clarification will ensure that the PYP encourages a deeper relationship between disciplinary and
transdisciplinary learning.

Regardless of which teacher leads the unit of inquiry, collaborative planning and subject integration remain a
requirement, as does the expectation that continuous streaming and setting does not happen in a PYP school.

The transdisciplinary learning approach of the PYP remains concerned with the unity of knowledge. In the PYP,
students explore human commonalities and construct knowledge by establishing bridges between the different
subjects; teachers support transdisciplinary learning by integrating subject areas within a schools programme of
inquiry.

When is it changing?

This change will take immediate effect.

How will this impact my school?

All IB schools will now be able to implement their transdisciplinary approach in a variety of ways and benefit from
greater flexibility in planning future resources.

Schools currently engaged in authorization and evaluation will be subject to the broader interpretation of
PYP requirement C3.1.b with immediate effect.

Updates are being provided to IB Educators regarding:

feedback and guidance provided by consultants
the findings to be given by readers and visitors
evidence required in order to resolve Matters to be addressed

Schools with an open Matter to be addressed based on the previous interpretation of requirement C3.1.b will be
contacted by IB staff as soon as possible to discuss next steps.

What resources are available?

The PYP C3.1.b information pack includes:

FAQs
Scenarios/examples of collaborative approaches
Frayer model

and will be available on the Programme resource centre (via the OCC). Interested schools that do not yet have
access to the OCC may obtain these items from their IB development contact.

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