Co-constructing central ideas with students

Developing success criteria

Co-constructing central ideas with students
Developing success criteria
 Primary Years Programme
Co-constructing central ideas with students

Published October 2018

Updated December 2018
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Developing success criteria

Setting the scene

Learning goals • To know how to develop success criteria with students.

• To be able to use success criteria with students to support them in
writing their own central ideas.
Learn about Agency

School context
Southbank International School, England
This learning story explores a way in which teachers and students can work together to develop a list of
criteria in order to write meaningful central ideas. It uncovers how a school can use sample central ideas to
refine what makes a central idea broad enough to be universal but interesting enough to engage the
learner.

Co-constructing central ideas with students 1

Developing success criteria

Supporting student agency

Creating central ideas with students underscores the values of independent lifelong learning in the PYP
through the students taking control of the direction of their learning. Developing central ideas with
students is important because it gives them full ownership, it provides teachers with a link to the students’
prior knowledge, and it is a student-driven platform from which students can launch their inquiries. But
how do you, as a teacher, begin? As with all rich learning, developing central ideas with students begins
with looking at examples, creating success criteria and finally using those things to develop the inquiries.

2 Co-constructing central ideas with students

Developing success criteria

Analysing central ideas activity

The teachers start by gathering a selection of central ideas. In our case we used ones within our programme
of inquiry, whereas others were taken from other schools or were created by the students in previous years.
The students use justification ranking to place the central ideas in order from the ones they consider to
have a broad scope for inquiry to the ones with the least scope. They discuss their rankings in pairs, provide
justification for their choices, and then share their top decisions with another pair. The pairs join another
pair to change or keep their decision ranking. This group then joins another. Once they have a larger group,
the teachers ask them to share their thinking about why they chose the most effective central ideas. As the
students bounce their ideas around the room, the teacher creates a chart noting key words and rationale
for the top rankings.

Co-constructing central ideas with students 3

Developing success criteria

Creating success criteria with students

This chart is developed into a success criteria list of what makes an effective central idea. Phrases such as “a
true statement”, “local and global”, “identifiable concepts”, “transferable to any culture” and “significant to
us” came through. These phrases are then written out for the students to use to analyse their top central
ideas. They can then change their chosen central ideas and endeavour to find a class consensus for the
most effective central ideas within them all.

Figure 1: School’s success criteria for writing a central idea

Yes ? No
It is a statement.
It is interesting.
It is true.
It is worth knowing.
At least one identifiable key concept.
There may be different viewpoints.
It is an issue that has an impact on our lives or the lives of others.
It poses more questions.
It is locally and globally significant.
We can take responsible action in relation to this issue.

Using success criteria to create central ideas

Once the success criteria have been developed with the class, students can use these to write their own
central ideas. These can be developed independently, as a pair or in a small group. If the students develop
their criteria early in the year then they are able to use them frequently during their units of inquiry. For
example, in a personal inquiry during a unit on government systems, a pair of students developed the
central idea Citizens pay taxes which serve a variety of purposes, which came under the transdisciplinary
theme of How we organize ourselves. Another central idea developed for the PYP Exhibition was The
evolution of technology can have both a positive and a negative impact on our society. The students connected
it to the transdisciplinary theme of How the world works and the related concepts of perspective and
change.

4 Co-constructing central ideas with students

 Creating success criteria with students

Figure 2: Flowchart of success criteria creation process

Co-constructing central ideas with students 5

Creating success criteria with students

The process of writing central ideas supports student agency and enables teachers to observe their
thinking, justification and group decision making skills. After using this method for several years, we feel
that writing success criteria with the students answers an age-old question of “how will we know whether
we've achieved the purpose of our learning?”. Having ownership of a strong central idea enables the
students to drive their own learning and strengthens their approach to inquiry. When we use success
criteria for central ideas with the students we see deeper inquiry and increased motivation to delve into the
subject. The impact on the students is they can drive the inquiry in the direction of their interest and this
integral curiosity ensures student-led learning and action.

6 Co-constructing central ideas with students

Developing success criteria

Questions

First impressions
1. What are the benefits of students co-constructing success criteria?
2. How can having students write success criteria enhance your teaching and deepen students
understanding?
3. How can a unit of inquiry be reviewed to determine possibilities for student involvement?

Deepening your understanding

1. What steps could be taken to support students in developing their own central ideas?
2. How could you record and reflect on students’ development in writing central ideas using the
approaches to learning or learner profile?

Next steps
Consider creating and testing a process for developing success criteria for writing central ideas with
students for their own personal inquiries. Monitor the impact on student learning and ask students for their
feedback on using success criteria.

Co-constructing central ideas with students 7

Developing success criteria

Acknowledgement and disclaimer

The IB wishes to thank the author and school for their time and effort in making this teacher support
material.
Appearance of branded products and well-known logos in this TSM is incidental. The IBO disclaims any
endorsement by, or any association with the Intellectual property rights owners of these products and
logos.

8 Co-constructing central ideas with students