All IB programmes require several elements in their approaches to teaching. In the PYP teachers are required to use the inquiry approach to teaching, to collaborate in their planning for teaching and to use the PYP planner to record their units of inquiry.

Inquiry involves an active engagement with the environment in an effort to make sense of the world, and consequent reflection on the connections between the experiences encountered and the information gathered. Inquiry involves the synthesis, analysis and manipulation of knowledge, whether through play or through more formally structured learning throughout the PYP.

Inquiry, interpreted in the broadest sense, is the process initiated by the students or the teacher that moves the students from their current level of understanding to a new and deeper level of understanding. This can mean:

•  Exploring, wondering and questioning
•  Experimenting and playing with possibilities
•  Making connections between previous learning and current learning
•  Making predictions and acting purposefully to see what happens
•  Collecting data and reporting findings
•  Clarifying existing ideas and reappraising perceptions of events
•  Deepening understanding through the application of a concept
•  Making and testing theories
•  Researching and seeking information
•  Taking and defending a position
•  Solving problems in a variety of ways.

The IB promotes collaborative planning at all levels, so teachers are required to plan their units of inquiry collaboratively to assure that numerous perspectives are considered and ideas are reflected on and shared. Students are also encouraged to plan with each other and with the teachers.