PYP and CfE – similarities and differences

The Primary Years Programme (PYP) of the IB has a lot of similarities in terms of encouraging self-reliant learning as CfE. There are some slight differences in curricular areas however. The PYP curricular areas are as follows:

  • Language
  • Mathematics
  • Science
  • Social Studies
  • Arts
  • Personal, Social, and Physical Education

These curricular areas seem to be a little bit broader than those of CfE, which are:

  • Literacy and Language
  • Numeracy
  • Sciences
  • Social Studies
  • Expressive Arts
  • Health and Wellbeing
  • Technologies
  • Religious and Moral Education

Both PYP and CfE are centred around pupil-led activities and a fairly high degree of student choice. This allows the students to have more of a say in what they want to learn, making their academic learning more applicable to students’ everyday lives and the world they live in, making students more likely to remain engaged in lessons. Both curricula incorporate cross-curricular lessons into learning – for example, a science lesson on the life cycle of a plant can lead into social studies lessons about biodiversity and sustainability, and how we as humans fit into that. This allows students to make and develop their own connections between the lessons they learn in school and the everyday lives that they lead, thus making lessons more relevant and personal to each child.

There are some differences between the two curricula however. For example, in CfE, while technology is worked into lessons where it can be, most schools have set ICT lessons in which the majority of the technology curriculum is taught. PYP, however, incorporates technologies into all the other curricular areas which may help students to be able to understand the uses and relevance of technology to them in their whole life rather than just in an ICT class.  Similarly, CfE has a set core curricular area – RME – in which children explore different religions and cultures, and develop skills which will help them to deal with and answer ethic questions. PYP, again, strives to incorporate this into every curricular area instead of having set lessons set aside specifically for the purpose of religious and moral education.

Overall, I feel that PYP and CfE have more similarities than they do differences. Both curricula strives to prepare their students for future life and future learning, guiding them to be leaders in their own personal learning journey through a wide range of curricular areas, while teachers are learning alongside them. One definite similarity of the two curricula is that learning and teaching is a lifelong journey – after all, you never stop learning!

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