The PYP Exhibition and Awareness of the SDG's
Jonathan Bettger is a teacher at the Aarhus International School and he shared with me some insights into the IB Primary Years Programme and especially about the exhibition, which is a climax to the students' experience of the programme. He told me how the exhibition provided an opportunity for making students more internationally minded and aware of the SDGs goals. In a presentation that he gave a few weeks ago Jonathan highlighted how students' choice of exhibition topic was linked to an SDG. This intrigued me so I put some questions to Jonathan about the Exhibition and his approach to facilitating the students' engagement with it.
How does the PYP Exhibition encourage Student Agency?
A class or group of students have to choose a topic that they agree that they want to research. Individuals within the group can choose to research a topic that interests them. Each individual student or group of students is assigned a mentor that helps them to refine the topic and develop inquiry lines for the student to follow. In Jonathan’s school the student keeps a reflective journal of the meetings they have.
As part of the inquiry the students are expected to carry out a field trip which means they will go and interview an expert on the topic they have chosen. This person can be within the local community or even an online interview. Clearly, the students need some guidance in how to contact the local expert and also on how to conduct the interview. Parents,as well as teachers and mentors support the students by helping to set up the interview and on how to conduct themselves and the questions they wish to ask. This is a challenging aspect of the exhibition.
In the lead up to the exhibition the students may decide to take some action, This may be in the form of a direct action e.g. A beach clean up which they organise. More often Jonathan said this action may take the form of advocacy e.g. creating a poster about recycling pet bottles in the school or reducing electricity use.
What is the final product of the exhibition?
Prior to the final exhibition day, Jonathan has his students give an eight minute presentation to their peers on the research they carried out and their findings. Then, on exhibition day, the students are given a space in the gym to organise digital presentations, posters and information about their projects. Then parents and students from throughout the school do a gallery walk through the exhibition and are free to ask the exhibitors about what they have done. This lasts the best part of a school day for the students.
The students are expected to complete a process journal and write a short essay about their own exhibit. The exhibitor’s individual mentor also reflects on the students learning throughout the process.
How does the exhibition link with international mindedness and the UNSDGs?
The school aims to develop international mindedness through a range of activities and events that it has that also reflect the background of the students so far example there are events related to Halloween, Diwali, Ramadan, Christmas and Easter to name a few. There are also international fairs and food days. The school community also sponsors a number of mother tongue clubs and these have their own libraries. Guest speakers are also brought from the community and the university nearby.
The slide below presents a summary of the way that this is encouraged at Aarhus International School:
Illustration provided by Jonathan Bettger
Jonathan stated throughout the year preceding the exhibition he has one lesson a week on the exhibition. During the lesson he makes the focus on the various International days and to the SDGs and makes links between the two. E.g. On the 8th September is international literacy day and this is related to the UN Goal of Universal Education and Jonathan discusses global differences in schooling.In September alone there are several international days (Including World Peace and World Habitat days) there are several days ripe for discussions with the students.
In December, preceding the exhibition students then get together and make a decision on the theme or topic they are going to use. This year the students chose the theme “Sharing our planet”. The students linked their choices to the SDGs:
Here is a sample of exhibitions that focused on the various SDG’s:
Food waste (GG 2), Apps for the disabled and Comparisons between educational systems (GG4), Gender Equality in Sport (GG5), Clean water (GG6) and many students chose aspects related to the Health of the Oceans (GG14) and Animal Extinction was also popular amongst the students. I am sure that this experience will have broadened the students' understanding of the issues our planet faces.
Some personal thoughts about this approach to the exhibition
There is no doubt that this approach to the exhibition falls within the guidelines from the PYP. It certainly encourages students to think about global issues and become aware of some of their complexities. There is little doubt that it enhances student agency by allowing them to choose topics that they have touched on in class and teaches them the presentation skills to transfer their own learning to others.
What makes this approach so special is that it encourages a sense of International Mindedness by discussing in the lead up to the exhibition the UN special days that are sprinkled throughout the year. This linked to the many school events helps to promote and reinforce this central concept of the IB.
Jonathan’s skill has been to develop international Mindedness a step further and link it to Global goals for sustainability. Further the exhibition has students not only researching the issue, but also encourages them to take the next step of some sort of action. The exhibition lays the foundation for further and more detailed exploration of the SDGs within the school. One important aspect from the school’s point of view is that it has also engaged the parents of these students into considering the SDGs and clearly indicated what the school is doing to prepare their students for the future.
Acknowledgement
Many thanks to Jonathan Bettger of Aarhus International School for his insights into the PYP Exhibition at his school and for allowing me to use a slide that was part of a presentation that he gave.