Anne Osborne | Foster Concepts

When I lead workshops on evidencing learning, I often return to a question from our opening discussion. What happens to our assessment when we begin with what a learner can already do? I find it changes what I listen for. A question that sounds unfinished can reveal what a child has noticed, whose idea they have taken seriously and what they are trying to work out.

This is what interests me about the IB’s Inquiry Learning Progressions. They give teachers and learners language for looking closely at selected skills as they develop. The initial resources address observation, decision-making, role- and turn-taking, and questioning to explore and play with ideas. They complement the approaches to learning by describing particular skills in more detail. Subject continuums, meanwhile, help schools articulate the subject learning that gives an inquiry its substance (IB, 2025a, pp. 2–5; IB, 2025b, pp. 4–6).

From a classroom teacher’s perspective, I would want to know what I might notice or do differently as a result. For me, the best place to explore that is in a small moment within an inquiry.

What changed in the learner’s question?

Imagine a class investigating how people share the school playground. One child asks, “Why can’t we play football here?” A classmate explains that this is one of the few quiet places to read. After listening, the first child asks, “How could we use this space so there’s room to play football and somewhere quiet to read?”

I might initially describe this as a more open question. On a closer reading, the first question was open too. What interests me is that the child heard something that mattered to a classmate and changed the question to include it. The children now have a different problem to investigate together.

The IB questioning progression draws attention to how learners take up others’ ideas and refine what they ask. That gives me a more precise way to interpret this exchange. I have evidence of something the child did on this occasion. I would want to ask the child about it and look for what happens in later conversations before drawing a wider conclusion about their development (IB, 2024, p. 3).

What might the teacher say next?

I might say, “Your first question was about finding room for football. After you heard what mattered to your classmate, you made room for reading in your question too. What made you change it?”

That last question gives the learner a say in how we interpret the moment. Perhaps the classmate’s explanation changed their view. Perhaps they were trying to suggest a fair solution quickly. Their answer could take the teaching in different directions. If they are interested in other people’s experiences, I might invite them to decide whose view they would like to hear next. I would be careful about supplying a list of playground users myself. Deciding whom to ask could be an important part of their inquiry.

In a multilingual classroom, I would also think about how the learner could show me what changed. They might discuss the two questions with a partner in a shared language, annotate a drawing of the space or record a short explanation. I would listen for how they had taken up the other child’s idea. The polish of their English tells me relatively little about that particular development.

What does a progression point help us decide?

In the IB resources, indicators describe how a learner might use a particular skill. The accompanying developmental descriptions give educators a broader account of the thinking and social interaction they may observe. The progression points are independent of ages and grades. A learner may show characteristics associated with several points or spend considerable time developing a skill in different contexts (IB, 2025a, pp. 3–6).

For a teaching team, I think this makes the conversation around an example especially valuable. Two colleagues might read the playground exchange differently. One notices the child’s willingness to listen. Another notices the change in the purpose of the question. Discussing the child’s actual words helps both colleagues be precise about the evidence. It can also reveal what they still need to ask the learner.

There is a place here for learner agency. Later in the inquiry, the child might choose to return to those two questions and consider, “Whose idea changed what I wanted to find out? What would I like to ask now?” That gives the learner some ownership of the next step and gives the teacher another opportunity to listen.

Where might a school begin?

I would begin with one teaching team, one existing inquiry and a skill the team has a reason to explore. If children readily generate questions at the start of a unit but seldom return to them, that is a reason to try the questioning progression. The team could keep the original questions, make time to revisit them after an experience or conversation, and bring a few examples to its next planning meeting. The IB invites schools to choose which progression or progressions to engage with and to consider their purpose and context. This is one way I would approach that choice (IB, 2025a, p. 7).

I understand why teachers might wonder where this fits in an already full planner. I would judge its value by the decision it helps someone make. In the playground example, consulting the progression helps the teacher give specific feedback, ask a better follow-up question and leave a consequential decision with the learner. Those are changes a child can experience.

At the next planning meeting, I would be interested in hearing two voices. What change did the teacher notice? What did the learner think had changed? The conversation between those accounts may tell us more about where to go next than either could on its own.

This article presents independent professional interpretation and is not endorsed by the International Baccalaureate.

References

International Baccalaureate. (2024). Learning progression: Questioning to explore and play with ideas. See p. 3. Available through the inquiry learning progressions resource collection .

International Baccalaureate. (2025a). Inquiry learning progressions: Introduction . April 2025.

International Baccalaureate. (2025b). PYP Curriculum Resources 2024–2025: Frequently Asked Questions .

My IB access is required for the Programme Resource Centre resources.

A small AI confession: I have plenty of ideas. Writing them beautifully is another matter. AI helped me shape, organise and polish this piece, but the thinking, experience and opinions behind it are mine. I stand behind the ideas. AI just helped me persuade the sentences to cooperate.