As the main pedagogical approach of the PYP, inquiry fuels our units of inquiry at MIS. But what do inquiries do and how do we see this in our day-to-day learning? This blog is a follow-up to the inquiry blog posted on 4th December where we looked at what inquiry is.
The IB provide a list of verbs of what inquirers do. Let’s take a closer look at these and just a few examples to see inquiry in action at MIS.
Inquirers at MIS…

Connect
- Learners make personal connections to their learning. They also transfer their understandings across contexts and subjects.
- In P3, learners were inquiring into the concept of interconnectedness and mutualism. In this inquiry, they identified connections between the crab and the sea urchin.

Engage
- Learners are curious and engage in critical and creative thinking. Through inquiry, they sustain a love for lifelong learning by seeing learning as joyful as they learn with enthusiasm.
- While engaging, they pursue open-ended questions and develop skills for inquiry and research.
- In a P1 music example, learners engaged in a fun musical scavenger hunt. Scavenger hunts are a fun and engaging way to “find out” and make connections.

Explore
- Learners explore both individually and collaboratively a range of ideas and resources.
- In EY2, learners were exploring different concepts in mathematics. They had a choice of different options to explore. Through this type of choice and play with real objects (e.g. items from your toy box), they are able to make personal connections while enjoying exploration and play!

Create
- Learners respond to ideas by creating. This could take numerous forms from artwork to products to a written piece of work. Through creation, they create new knowledge and share their understanding.
- An example from visual arts, students in P1 created a reflective illustration to show their understanding through a drawing. Often, learners will add an oral explanation to their creations to further explain their thinking.

Reflect
- Reflection drives understanding in the PYP – it is only when we have time to reflect that deeper conceptual understandings and connections can be made.
- Learners spend ample time reflecting on their learning and consider opportunities to develop learner profile attributes.
- In the PYP, one way this visible is through a range of “exit tickets”, which you would have noticed in virtual learning.
- Here is an example from EY2 for students to reflect on what they would like in Google Meets next week as well as an opportunity for them to include their voice in the teacher’s planning for their learning.

Evidence
- Learners represent and share understandings in meaningful and significant ways through their evidence of learning. They collect and analyze data as a result of inquiry questions and use observation as a vital tool in learning.
- Evidence of learning is clearly visible in virtual learning at MIS as identified on the daily plan. There are range of ways learners evidence their learning.
- One example from P5 was for learners to describe the scientific method using key words as a summary of their learning.

Show academic integrity
- While inquiring, learners critically look at sources of information, paraphrase information from various sources and cite sources of information accurately.
- In the early years and lower primary, learners do this by writing their name on their work to credit themselves! Through our digital literacy curriculum, we explore digital citizenship in all grade levels. From P4, learners start to use MyBib to cite their sources more formally. These skills continue to grow through the MYP and DP in line with our MIS Academic Integrity Policy.
I hope you can use these verbs to identify different ways in which your child is inquiring at MIS.
Happy inquiring,
Carla Swinehart
PYP Coordinator
Works Cited
International Baccalaureate Organization. Digital Toolkit. 2005-2020. 15 November 2020.
International Baccalaureate Organization. PYP Playlist. 2018. 15 November 2020. <https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/international-baccalaureate/PYP+Playlist/index.html#/page/5c5d69f2ec43cb21c9233814>
International Baccalaureate Organization. PYP: From principles into practice. “Programme Resource Center.” October 2018. MY IB. Online. 4 August 2020.
Murdoch, K. Kath Murdoch’s website Freebiees. 15 November 2020. <https://static1.squarespace.com/static/55c7efeae4b0f5d2463be2d1/t/5dcb82551bdcf03f365b0a6f/1573618265386/A+MODEL+FOR+DESIGNING+A+JOURNEY+OF+INQUIRY.pdf>