Concepts- What do we want students to understand?
Central to the philosophy of the PYP is the principle that purposeful, structured inquiry is a powerful vehicle for learning that promotes meaning and understanding, and challenges students to engage with significant ideas. For this reason in the PYP there is a commitment to a concept-driven curriculum as a means of supporting that inquiry.
South Lake teachers are including a few of the concepts in each of the units they are writing. Concepts are included because they help the student to construct meaning through improved critical thinking and the transfer of knowledge.
A key aspect of the PYP is that the eight concepts are focused on each year. This gives South Lake students a solid framework for making sense of the world around them as well as the Michigan content standards.
As the students progress through the PYP they gradually work towards a deepening of their conceptual understanding, this is important because the world around them is made up of powerful concepts not just isolated facts.
Key Concepts
Form- What is it like?
- The understanding that everything has a form with recognizable features that can be observed, identified, described and categorized.
Function- How does it work?
- The understanding that everything has a purpose, a role or a way of behaving that can be investigated.
Causation- Why is it like it is?
- The understanding that things do not just happen, that there are causal relationships at work, and that actions have consequences.
Change- How is it changing?
- The understanding that change is the process of movement from one state to another. It is universal and inevitable.
Connection- How is it connected to other things?
- The understanding that we live in a world of interacting systems in which the actions of any individual element affect others.
Perspective- What are the points of view?
- The understanding that knowledge is moderated by perspectives; different perspectives lead to different interpretations, understandings and findings; perspectives may be individual, group cultural or disciplinary.
Responsibility- What is our responsibility?
- The understanding that people make choices based on their understandings, and the actions they take as a result do make a difference.
Reflection- How do we know?
- The understanding that there are different ways of knowing, and that it is important to reflect on our conclusions, to consider our methods of reasoning, and the quality and the reliability of the evidence we have considered.