IB World conference special

Conference Special www.ibo.org | @IBWorldmag

Why do we care?

Altruism vs selďŹ shness, and the science of giving something back

Editor’s letter

Welcome to The IB Global Conference, Yokohama, Japan 2017

We hope you enjoy IB World magazine’s first Conference Special.

Look out for our other special issues this year in Orlando (July) and The Hague (October).

To kick-start our launch issue, we asked IB students, via social media, to illustrate what ‘inspiring communities’ means to them.

They rightly let their creativity run wild.

Artwork wasn’t limited to local communites but also aimed to encourage world peace and global change. Well done to all our entries, some of which you can see on the page opposite.

If you’re looking for new ideas to help make student service projects more meaningful and long-lasting, find some inspiration on p6.

And if you ever wondered what makes us want to serve our communities, you might be suprised to discover the answer. It could change the way you think (p4).

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his year’s theme: Inspiring Communities brings together IB educators in the Asia-Pacific region.

The conference provides an ideal professional development opportunity for educational leaders, decision makers and practitioners from schools, universities and governments to share best practice.

Motivated by the IB’s mission, the conference fosters partnership and participation, providing a forum for discussions on educational quality, pedagogical leadership and international mindedness.

Over the next three days, we hope you’ll discover new ideas to further develop your IB programmes, learn from IB practitioners, reflect on your practice, and leave with inspiration and renewed energy to take back to your school.

Sophie-Marie Odum, Editor Follow me on Twitter: @Sophie_Marie_O IB World Editor Sophie-Marie Odum IB Editors Jenan Al-haddad, Freddie Oomkens Managing Editors Sarah Dyson, Stephanie Wilkinson Designer Angela Busuttil Picture Editor Dominique Campbell Reproduction Haymarket Pre-press

Each year, the IB presents several conferences and symposia. It gathers educational leaders, decision makers and practitioners from schools, universities and governments to focus on international education.

The next IB Global Conference will take place in July, in Orlando, Florida.

For more information, or to see the full list of 2017 conferences, please visit www.ibo.org/conferences.

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Cover illustration Iona Keeley, DP student, The Red Maids’School, Bristol, UK

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Cover competition Contents

We asked IB students of all ages to share what ‘inspiring communities’ means to them.

Here are some of the results…

March 2017

45 HOW MUCH DO WE REALLY CARE? What makes us give back to our communities 67 CREATIVITY FOR CHANGE Seven ways to enhance your community projects 811 KEYNOTE PRESENTATIONS Our speakers discuss the future of education 1213 THE IB’S 50TH ANNIVERSARY Celebrating the community’s achievements over the last five decades 14 TRANSFORMING A NEIGHBOURHOOD An IB student project that has been changing lives for 12 years

Student illustrations (pictured above) by Iona Keeley, Lauren Figes and Isla Waring, The Red Maids’ School, UK; Fanyi Zhang, Léman Manhattan Preparatory School, US; Wei Yan, Seneca Valley High School, US; JaeYoung Hong, Pathways School, India. To see all entries, visit our Instagram page: @IBWorldMag

Read more stories online You can read more IB World features and community stories online, at blogs.ibo.org. If you would like to contribute a feature idea, or tell us about your inspiring community projects, please email editor@ibo.org or Tweet @IBWorldmag. Please note that all submissions are subject to editing.

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Cover feature

How much do we really care?

Behavioural experts ask whether charitable actions are driven by genuine empathy or public recognition

PHOTO: WWW.4IMPRINT.CO.UK

by SOPH I E - M A R I E ODUM

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categories: pure altruism; impure altruism (warm-glow giving); and selfishness. At one end of the scale, the desire to give stems from deep-rooted empathy, but a more calculated need for public recognition sits at the other end.

Donating time, money or services to others reaps multiple benefits. In school, it can develop students’ personal skills, and enhance empathy and compassion. Helping

hich statement applies to you the most? ‘I volunteer and donate to support charitable causes in need’, ‘I volunteer because it makes me feel good to help others’, or ‘I volunteer to show others that I have helped to make a difference.”

Not many of us would admit to statement three, but research shows that charitable giving falls into these 4

“Once we’ve shown our support and earned the status associated with joining a cause, we feel less obligated to follow through with a meaningful contribution to it” others may just be the secret to living a life that is not only happier but also healthier, according to Harvard Business School.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) evidence shows that voluntary giving stimulates the brain’s reward system.

A warm glow – that satisfied feeling that follows after doing a good deed – is a central driver for ‘giving’ in adults, says researcher John List from the University of Chicago’s Science of Philanthropy Initiative (SPI), in the US. List found that altruism is innate in children. “When you’re a child, it hasn’t been ingrained that you should do things for others to feel good. But over time, that innate altruism fades, and the warm glow takes over,” he says.

However, an experiment with 140 5- to 13-year-old school children, by psychologist J. Philippe Rushton found that teachers’ influence plays a significant role in whether students decide to behave generously or selfishly.

“Children learn generosity not by listening to what their role models say, but by observing what they do,” says professor and author Adam Grant.

Factors such as seeing others give, habit, and encouragement from a prominent person all increase the likelihood to donate. But, supporting a cause on Facebook or wearing a wristband in solidarity, for example, have little to no impact. Instead this is a commitment to look good rather than do good.

Researchers call this ‘slacktivism’ – a willingness to perform a relatively

costless, token display of support for a social cause, without devoting significant effort to create meaningful change.

Authors of The Nature of Slacktivism found that token support is fuelled by a desire to present a positive image to others and reduces the chances of actually contributing to a cause.

“Once we’ve shown our support and earned the status associated with joining a cause, we feel less obligated to follow through with a meaningful contribution to it,” says Grant.

But token displays of support do help to raise awareness – and funds – for charities. It’s just important to turn commitments into actions, says Grant.

Whatever our motivations are for giving to others, what is fundamental is the positive difference that is made within local communities, which can inspire global change.

THE RESEARCH • There are three styles that impact discretionary effort, according to Grant: Takers – self-serving in their interactions (it’s all about ‘what can you do for me’); Givers – approach most interactions by asking, ‘what can I do for you?’; Matchers – maintain an even balance of give and take.

• To encourage ‘caring’ behaviour in children, praise is more effective than rewards.

• Anywhere from a quarter to more than half of our predisposition to be giving and caring is inherited.

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Creativity for change

7 steps to service project success How to make a long-lasting dierence in your community and provide a great learning experience for all students

Service learning is transforming communities around the world, while teaching students lifelong skills.

From the top: United Nations International School, New York, US; European School, Tbilisi, Georgia; and NIST International School, Thailand.

Read their stories at blogs.ibo.org 6

Remember the five stages of service learning

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Active research by students to verify that a need exists is crucial. The MISO method can help.

These simple steps should be your guide, according to international education consultant Cathryn Berger Kaye:

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• Investigation • Preparation • Action • Reflection (ongoing) • Demonstration

Have a student voice

“Although a strong student voice is essential, timetables and other constraints, such as the length of the unit, might make it difficult to fully achieve,” says Muir. Middle Years Programme (MYP) teachers at Discovery College look at the student-teacher ratio of decision-making in the investigation and preparation stages of a project, which helps ensure all projects are student led.

Look for the ‘community assets’ 2

All too often we examine communities from a deficit model, asking ‘what’s wrong?’. Berger Kaye suggests students use her MISO method (see below) to first seek out what’s right in their communities – for example, collective knowledge, natural resources, or history and culture. Looking for the assets before the needs builds the community’s trust and avoids an “us and them” dynamic.

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Authenticate a need

Decide on the response required 6

Whatever the need being addressed, exercise the students’ability to come up with the following four responses, says Berger Kaye: • Direct service • Indirect service • Advocacy service • Research service

Use the MISO method

Some may fit in more than one category.

Media such as books, videos, maps, TV, newspapers, journals and the internet

Allow time to engage in the process

Interview experts who really understand the topic

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Survey those with a vested interest, or who have an opinion

Discovery College has decided to create more time for students and staff to engage in community projects.“Students will have a week off from their ‘normal timetable’to be involved in interdisciplinary learning, looking at evaluating issues, developing solutions and taking responsive action to identified needs,” says Muir.

Observation, which includes student experiments and experience Always keep the curriculum and subject objective in mind, advises Peter Muir, Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) Coordinator at Discovery College, Hong Kong.

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Keynote presentations

Keynote speakers provide unique insights into future teaching practices

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PHOTO: KJPARGETER/123RF

Is this the future of education?

“Do we have to set different goals for education in the age of artificial intelligence?”

Dr Noriko Arai, Professor of Information and Society Research, National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan

Artificial intelligence (AI), armed with machine-learning technologies, often surprises us.

It demonstrates its power in search-and-classification applications like medical analysis, or in optimization areas such as self-driving cars.

At the same time, many teachers are facing a growing problem. Many students come into their classrooms without the requisite knowledge, skills or disposition to read and comprehend the materials placed in front of them, even in the most developed countries. This raises questions such as: How far can a machine mimic human intelligence? Will there be any economic returns to higher education when AI is smart enough to ‘learn’ better than most of us? Do we have to set different goals for education in the age of AI? I will discuss the scientific answers to these questions, as well as our two very unique projects: The Todai Robot Project (can a robot get into the University of Tokyo?) and The Reading Skill Test.

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KEY LEARNING TAKEAWAYS

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The kinds of skills that will/will not be replaced by machines by 2030.

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How students can acquire the skills and abilities that can’t be replaced by machines.

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The rapid rise of new Artificial Intelligence technologies could affect the labour market negatively in the short term, but it will also demand that we reconstruct our education systems.

Keynote presentations

“I am exploring new ways of rethinking education – to prepare our children to meet challenges and take advantage of opportunities” Dr Yong Zhao, Professor, School of Education, The University of Kansas, US

Society is faced with many grave challenges and exciting opportunities at the same time. I am exploring new ways to rethink education – to prepare our children to meet challenges and take advantage of opportunities. I aim to inspire people through stories and data, mixed with some humour.

I hope that people will feel challenged and inspired enough to spread the ‘change’ message. I hope that what I share through my research will inspire people to take actions in their respective roles.

KEY LEARNING TAKEAWAYS

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Human beings are going through another revolution started by technological advances.

This revolution, like previous ones, requires a redefinition of valuable knowledge, skills and talents.

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In response, education must change what is being taught in schools and how it is taught. The change cannot be an incremental improvement but a total paradigm shift.

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The new paradigm needs to focus on enhancing students’ strengths instead of fixing their deficit. As part of this, students design their own learning ecosystems with the help of educators. This requires rethinking of the curriculum, pedagogy and learning settings.

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“We need leadership at all levels – or distributed leadership – to transform schools for the better” Dr Alma Harris, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy, Department of Education, University of Bath, UK

I hope to inspire people by reinforcing the idea that leadership is critically important and is not constrained to those in formal leadership positions.

Leadership is ‘influence’ and every teacher influences young people every day. My key message is that we need leadership at all levels – or distributed leadership – to transform schools and school systems for the better.

Most critically, we need teacher leaders working within and between international schools to build the capacity for positive change.

You can go on to inspire your community by sharing these three key messages: 1) there are many influential leaders in any community; 2) collective leadership within the community can mobilize positive change and generate positive outcomes for learners; 3) authentic collaboration within communities can have a significant impact on learning and teaching. International educators have never been so important, so needed or so imperative.

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KEY LEARNING TAKEAWAYS

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International educators around the world are needed more than ever to uphold and promote issues of equity and equality.

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International schools are beacons of excellence with core values that need to be more widely promoted and celebrated.

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Teachers can help champion cultural diversity in the face of growing nationalism in some countries.

The IB is turning 50!

The countdown to the big anniversary has begun.

IB World magazine finds out more about the celebrations and how the community can get involved

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In the build-up to the IB’s 50th anniversary in 2018, the organization will share its greatest achievements, champion the relevance of an IB education for future generations and educate the world on what an IB education represents – increasing understanding and changing people’s perceptions.

he IB has certainly made an impact since it was launched in 1968. From prime ministers to astronauts, teachers to film makers, an IB education has developed generations of inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who seek to create a more peaceful world. Now, it’s time to celebrate the community’s great work.

The anniversary’s three themes

International mindedness The IB founders saw education as a means to a better and more peaceful world – an approach that continues to inspire the IB community. International mindedness is at the heart of IB teaching, as well as learning about and fostering respect for other cultures and nations.

Innovation

The IB pioneered a new way of looking at education, which continues today in its teaching and its unique approach to assessment.

IB research continues to inform the programmes, equipping students with the skills they need for the future.

IB educators guide and facilitate learning that enables students to truly understand the impact they can make in the world, during their studies and long after they graduate.

Impact

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LOOK OUT FOR: • A dedicated 50th Anniversary website, launching later this year • 2018 events to be announced on ibo.org and social media: follow @IBorganization on Twitter • A programme about the history of the IB, produced in collaboration with ITN Industry News • Next year’s global conferences celebrating the IB’s evolution over the past 50 years.

PHOTO: INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF GENEVA

Growing stronger In 1968, as communities recovered from the impact of two World Wars, the IB pioneered a movement for international education. The idea was to bring young people together with the skills, values and knowledge necessary to build a more peaceful future.

It is succeeding in its mission. Today, Above: Lord Mountbatten in more than 4,000 schools in 159 awards one of the countries, IB students and graduates first IB diplomas, use their learning to make a real impact in 1971, at the in the communities around them.

International School of Geneva The world has become more complex – the first official IB and continues to change. However, the World School IB encourages global engagement, open-mindedness and a commitment to lifelong learning. Future ethical leaders and creative entrepreneurs will continue to carry the beacon of hope and incite positive change for the next generation, creating more achievements for the IB to celebrate in 50 years’ time.

IB Director General Siva Kumari says: “As the IB’s network expands globally, we believe that our community will grow ever stronger and help create a better world. We look forward, with a sense of hope, that our community, now more than ever, has the power to change the world.”

Service in action

Transforming a neighbourhood

Since 2005, students at Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach, Florida, have helped build affordable green homes for local residents THE SECRET TO THEIR SUCCESS

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he Eagle’s Nest is an architectural design and construction project run by Atlantic Community High School, Florida, and supported by The City of Delray Beach.

Students (pictured on site, above) renovate and build energy-efficient homes in low-income areas of the local community, which suffers from a lack of affordable housing. The scheme also ensures young people are off the streets and highly employable.

Students have the opportunity to be part of the school’s IB Career-related Programme (CP) and earn industry certifications, such as AutoCAD, Inventor, Revit and National Center for Construction Education and Research construction certifications.

CP Coordinator Carlos Acosta says: “As part of the CP service learning component, students have transformed a neighbourhood and created opportunities for first-time homebuyers to own a green home. The experience the students gain is immeasurable, and the significant value to the community can be measured in economic, cultural and community involvement growth.”

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“The continued support of the students, teachers, parents and the community has kept the project going for 12 years,” says Acosta. “The increased educational rigour demanded in the CP makes our students more competitive when applying for colleges and universities.”

THE CHALLENGES Timetables, weather, transportation, technical challenges and funding.

Students are encouraged to find solutions independently.

WANT TO START A SIMILAR PROJECT? Acosta says: “It really takes a teacher’s initiative to reach out to industry partners, local governments and community stakeholders to lay out the plans that truly benefit everyone involved. The commitment of students will then become the driving force.”

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