Importance of 'Key Concepts' in Primary Learning

Key concepts are broad, organizing, powerful ideas that have relevance within and across subjects and disciplines, providing connections that can transfer across time, culture, subject knowledge.

These key concepts are what is common as an over-riding principle across events, issues, learning over time. For example - a study of 'Matter and how it exists in our world' s about understanding the concepts of Form and Change, a study of tectonic plate movements. A study of 'Natural disasters' is about understanding the concepts of Causation, Change and Connection.

A Concept is a big idea, a principle or conception that is enduring. 

Concepts have an essential place in the structure of knowledge. They require students to demonstrate levels of thinking that reach beyond facts or topics. Concepts are used to formulate the understandings that students should retain in the future; they become principles and generalization.The exploration and re-exploration of concepts lead students towards:

• A deeper understanding
• Ideas that transcend disciplines
• Engagement with complex ideas, including the ability to transfer and apply ideas and skills to new  situations
• Higher levels of thinking as students analyse complex topics or learning

Simply put - Content is forgotten, concepts are remembered.

The driving force at the heart of the PYP curriculum are the key concepts of  - Form, Function, Causation, Change, Connection, Perspective, Responsibility, Reflection

Here is an example of unpacking the key concept of Perspective in the theme of 'How we express ourselves' from a grade 2A:

Tuesday October 13, 2014

Class Teacher, Vandana Aragula said "We unpacked the key concept Perspective on Monday through instructional drawing where children were given the same instruction to draw on a piece of paper without looking at each others work. They then shared their work with their partner and wrote their perspective of what it looked like to them. When asked the purpose of the activity, children said that it's about 'different thinking process of each person'. From there it was easy to unpack perspective and get their understanding of the concept."

After unpacking this key concept of Perspective children then explore the unit 'Rituals and traditions throughout history and enable people today to express their culture, beliefs and values' - with the key concept - Perspective, Form and Change.

Iconic Structures of Bangalore

Wednesday September 17, 2014

As an extension to our last field-trip to Cubbon Park, we planned a tour around Bangalore to see some of the iconic structures in Bangalore like KR Puram Bridge, Vidhana Soudha, Bangalore Palace and UB City. 

With more learning and understanding of different structures, children with their journals were ready to board the bus to see these magnificent structures and learn about them.

Our trip started off by seeing the KR Puram Bridge where children could see the cables suspended and holding the bridge and keeping it stable.  

We then headed towards Vidhana Soudha, a magnificent structure standing in the center of Bangalore; embellishing the center with National Emblem (4 headed lions). Our amazing artists sat in front of the building and sketched the structure with details of domes and pillars designed in Dravidian style. 

We then drove to Bangalore Palace which was built with stones and in Tudor style. Most of them had visited Bangalore Palace last year and so were aware of the history of the palace. But in this trip, we sat outside the palace and discussed the structural design and materials used to build the palace. 

Our last stop was UB City, where Mr. Timmaiah, Head of Security chauffeured us all the way to the restaurant and the other parts of the upscale mall. Children relaxed and had their lunch and were excited to see the fountain hoping to play thereJ. We proceeded to the amphitheatre area to discuss how different this modern structure looked compared to the other two that we saw. The amazing 19 floors tower added an insight to what a skyscraper is.  

After this visit to the iconic structures of Bangalore, children came back with a wider understanding of structures.

Beautiful old structures in Cubbon Park

Wednesday September 3^rd, 2014

Students (Grade 2) have been engaged in various activities inside the classroom to understand how structures are designed and created based on the materials available and the vision of the designer. Students’ encountered different learning experiences that enhanced deep and active learning.

Students saw many old structures in Cubbon Park like the State Central Library, High Court, Band Stand and the Government Art Museum. Before the field-trip, students did basic research on these structures so the learning is more active and engaging.

Neev Students outside State Central Library Cubbon Park, Bangalore

Our Young learners at the State Central Library  Cubbon Park, Bangalore

The learning started off by understanding why the structures have designs that depict culture of a place or culture of people that planned to build these structures. Why are all the structures red? Why lime, bricks and granite were used to build the structures? How does the design help the function of a structure? Students were shown slides of all the structures and the map of Cubbon Park which gave them a clear understanding of the plan of the park which was to demarcate British Cantonment and Old Bangalore (Bangalore Pettai). 

It was an experience that brought classroom study alive for students and helped them remember and relate to what they have learned