E32 (Application): Learner Profile

by Lu Gerlach

Welcome to our Application Series!

​​What is the application series?  It’s a time to reflect on all of the learning we have shared so far, reflect on our practice, and make concrete goals for the future. 

​Application and reflection are at the heart of the PYP.  They help us to see where we’ve come and where we need to still go on our journey. It’s important for us to own our truth and not compare our journey to someone else’s.  We don’t see their challenges, just their successes.  Remember that as you apply your learning. 

Let’s go back to our podcast journey so far.  We started our journey together with inquiry.  Seven months ago, people were clamoring for new ways to keep their students engaged with the new virtual learning platform.  It was all new and we had to quickly pivot our thinking and the way we do things.  It seemed like a natural fit to begin with inquiry. 

Our first few episodes began with an inquiry challenge that focused on our role and needs as an educator.  This was a fun way to evaluate our journey so far and set the stage for new learning ahead.  This helped to lay the foundation to learn about agency, action, the learner profile attributes, and international mindedness.

Although it’s amazing to learn strategies to help our students, we also need time to reflect on our teaching practice to calibrate where we need to grow.  When I was creating the visual for the PYP House, I decided to make the font different for agency & action, the learner profile, and international mindedness. At the time, I thought it would look visually pleasing, but as I reflected I saw a bigger picture.  

If you consider the foundation and roof of the home, they are the pieces that hold a home together.  They help to weather the storm of district or board mandates, standardized testing, and parental pressures, because they are founded on the feeling and being of a campus culture. 

If you look at the other parts of the PYP house, they focus on how students take steps towards independent thinking through the approaches to learning and how teachers shape the learning through the approaches to teaching. Are you having an Aha moment right now?  It took me forever to come to this conclusion and the PYP house greatly helped me to put the pieces together. 

​Now, let’s go back to the IB learner profile attributes and how they shape our thinking.  They are: 

​Remember to revisit the definition of each attribute in episode 20 to avoid making misconceptions.  

Now, let’s take a deeper look at the attributes and try to apply them to our teaching practice and our unit planners. We will answer a set of three questions to probe into our practice and help us to devise the next steps of our action plan. 

Know

​What do you know about the learner profile attributes? How are they connected to your purpose as an educator? 

Feel 

​What are your feelings about the learner profile attributes?  How do your students feel about them? 

Do

​How do the learner profile attributes drive the learning in your classroom?  Are you actively doing something with them on a regular basis? 

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​Now, take these ideas back to your team and share your honest feedback.  As a team, decide which pieces will be the next step in your action plan and annotate them in your PYP unit planner. Our goal is tangible application. 

In our next episode, we will apply our understanding of international mindedness in a new way.