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Constructivism in the IB

ETEC 530 | ARTIFACT ONE

I chose this artifact because it was helpful in bridging my connection of theories learned in ETEC 530 to the authentic context of my pedagogy and vice-versa. Still quite new to the International Baccalaureate's (IB) Primary Years Programme (PYP) at my new school in Suzhou, China, I naturally had the desire to quickly understand and integrate its philosophy into my pedagogy. Especially since I was still quite new to teaching through concepts and inquiry as well, I was quite interested on how the two complimented the constructivist theory I was learning in this course.

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The major links I found between the PYP and constructivism were: Learning sequences are grounded in authentic activity in the context of the learner (i.e. no textbooks); a focus on social construction of knowledge in the planning by teachers and learning by students; and, a strong focus on reflective practice. All of these aided by an Understanding by Design (i.e. backwards) approach to planning in the PYP which thinks about what you want the students to know first, then thinking of the learning sequences to get them to that understanding second (McTighe & Wiggins, 2012).

(Ouellette, J., 2015a)

Another link I found whilst in the context of this assignment between learning in ETEC 530 and the IB's PYP is the one with inquiry. Driver and Oldham's (1986, in Sunal, 2007) constructivist model learned in the former fits nicely with Murdoch's (2010) Phases of Inquiry (see p. 4 in the above artifact), a theory strongly supported in the latter. Driver and Oldham posit that learning moves in phases from orientation, elicitation, restructuring, application, review, evaluation and reflection. Meanwhile, Murdoch's Phases of Inquiry starts with a tuning in, finding out, sorting out, going further, synthesizing and reflecting, and ends with acting and applying.​

Looking forward, however, it's important not to bound inquiry or constructivist learning to cycles - a notion that even Murdoch herself would agree with. So what does an inquiry classroom look like, one that fits both an IB and constructivist philosophy? Let's see what Murdoch (2015) has to say...

(Murdoch, 2015)

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