How to build a PPS inquiry
Constructing PPS inquiries
PPS inquiries are co-constructed between teachers and their students; through such collaborative modelling, students come to construct their own open inquiries according to their particular personal and professional needs. Of course there is still a place for teacher-led elements to your inquiry but do lead with the intention of constructing together. After all, planning to build a house can be done by oneself but you through teamwork and collaboration you can create something far bigger than the sum of its parts.
Want to explore this further? Join our Think-In
Keys to Success: How to build PPS Inquiries (5th November 1400 CET)
More info:
5th November 1400 CEST
Keys to Success: How to build PPS Inquiries
Facilitator: Rebecca Pickard
This Think-in for CP educators will focus on practical approaches using the new PPS framework. Through concepts, contexts, content and skills, we will look in detail at how to build inquiries with your students and the best ways for them to demonstrate learning outcomes
Session 1: Approaches to co-constructing inquiries with your students. Establishing and exploring a focus.
Session 2: Taking action, reflecting and sharing. How students can demonstrate learning outcomes.
What goes into a PPS inquiry?
The ingredients of a PPS inquiry will be familiar if you have taught PPS before and just require a reframing of how you put your inquiries together and the amount of student voice that goes into them.
If you are new to PPS, follow the ‘start here’ and ‘ingredients’ to gather the materials and lay the foundations for your inquiry and use the ‘stages of inquiry’ to build it.
Start here
Audience: who is this for?
Length: how long do you intend this to last?
Title + Focus: Your inquiry question
Starting point: Will your lead your inquiry with a concept, context/s, content, skills or learning outcomes?
Ingredients
Concept/s: Which of the 6 concepts is the focus?
Context/s: Which of the 7 contexts are relevant?
Skill/s: Which of the skills in the 4 skill domains are being developed?
Content: What content would be most relevant for your students' and school's context?
Learning outcomes: Which of the 5 learning outcomes will be developed?
Prior knowledge: What prior knowledge will student have to be able to start this inquiry?
Assessment: How students be assessed informally? How will might this be assessed to contribute towards an interim assessment? How will students be assessed as part of their portfolio and final assessment?
Stages of inquiry
Focus: What will you inquire into and why?
Explore: What knowledge do you need to acquire before confidently taking action in this inquiry?
Act: What activities will you take part in to fully explore this inquiry?
Reflect: How will you actively reflect on your process, actions, beliefs and values throughout the inquiry?
Share: How do you want to share the outcomes of your learning, who with and why?
Quick planner
No frills planning sheet for quick ideas, mindmapping with students for co-constructing inquiries or sharing ideas as a department. Find your focus and put in the building blocks, and allow the inquiry to take shape with your students. Of course, you are not limited to a quick plan and this can be expanded to create more detailed inquiries.
More on …. What's your approach to inquiry?
The different approaches to PPS inquiries you can take connects to what is well established about inquiry-based learning; Direct (or teacher-led), Guided (or teachers and students constructing inquiries together), Open (student-driven inquiries)
The aim with PPS is to construct inquiries with your students but another way of looking at this is to consider how your approach to inquiry might change over the course of the CP.
- For example, it makes sense that at the start of your CP, you might take a more teacher-led approach to inquiries so you can model to students how the different elements work.
- Equally you might start with working together with your students immediately in building together as you take their suggestions for content, say, as inspiration.
- You might also do this after assessment points in the school year as students identify skills they want to focus on and you build together.
- You want to think in the long term that after building their confidence and understanding through co-constructing inquiries, they will build their own experiences, very much focused on their needs, in CP2. This is where student-driven inquiry really comes into its own.
- Equally, you can build inquiries using a combination of the three styles. See below for a cluster of inquiry questions to get you going.
NB: A note on ‘progress’ and ‘success’
It's worth emphasising that you may well discover throughout creating this course:
- some students need a lot of support continuously throughout the course according to their specific needs
sometimes you feel students should be able to do something more indepdently ‘by now’ but they can't or seem to be independent in some areas and far less so in others.
This is the true nature of the course and arguably exactly why it is in the CP. These outcomes are moments for reflection and not an indication that you are doing something wrong. There is no one linear path of progression and this is one of the most important lessons we can take into the whole of the CP. It's about growing self-awareness, self-efficacy and self-advocacy of one's skillset.
First term of PPS
Many experienced PPS teachers have always started the PPS course with a focus on self-awareness and self-management.
First, let's look at questions and then build out from there.
- You might start with a question about reflection as a transversal skill throughout their studies, life outside school and future. Start exploring what reflection and reflexivity means together with the students
What is reflection and how can it support me in my personal and professional life?
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2. Having explored R and R generally and what they mean, it's time for students to consider how they can be proactive in their use of it as a tool and zoom in on it as a key to growth in self-awareness, self-management and self-efficacy
How can I create opportunities for ongoing self-reflection and personal growth in college, the workforce and or my career?
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3. Once you have laid foundational skills and explored the malleability of these skills, it can be time to delve deeper conceptually.
- How far does my self-perception align with how others see me? Where are the differences and why might they exist?
Choose either a learning outcome, concept, context, content or skills as your lens for the inquiry.
| Learning outcome | Concepts | Contexts | Content | Skills |
| LO1—Develop and apply intrapersonal skills in a variety of contexts. LO2—Develop and apply communication and interpersonal skills in a variety of contexts. LO3—Develop and apply thinking skills in a variety of contexts. LO4—Develop and apply intercultural understanding in a variety of contexts. LO5—Demonstrate an awareness of the ethical implications of one’s choices and actions on self and others[1]. | Change Connections Identities Perspectives Systems Well-being | Career-related study
| Content for inquiries can be contextualised to personal and professional needs and curiosities. | Intrapersonal: Interpersonal: Thinking: Intercultural understanding: |
Footnotes
1. PPS Guide for teaching 2025, IBO, February 2025