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HAVE YOU TRIED WELLNESS WEDNESDAYS? How schools are using mindfulness activities to help beat the mental health epidemic facing children
Editor’s letter
Welcome to the IB Global Conference, Hong Kong 2019
What is stressing out children to the point that many require medical intervention for depression, anxiety and even feeling suicidal? The answer is multifaceted as we discuss on p4, but schools are realizing that social and emotional learning (SEL) is just as important as academic. Many are introducing programmes that prioritize wellbeing, such as mindfulness, yoga and meditation, teaching students skills and effective coping mechanisms that will help them in all stages of life. Dr Jamie Chiu, one of our keynote speakers, will be addressing this issue too (p12). Another classroom challenge is offering all students an opportunity to share their cultures, especially in bigger schools. On p6, we explain how IB World Schools are thinking out of the box to make this happen.
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ducators across the IB continue to develop generations of students with the boldness, creativity and belief in themselves to embrace their personal ambitions and their dreams for a better, more peaceful world. This is ‘Generation IB’ – our conference theme for this year. The conference provides an ideal professional development opportunity for educational leaders, decision makers and practitioners from schools, universities and governments from Asia-Pacific, as well as many countries across the rest of the world, 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.
Each year the IB hosts several conferences. The next IB Global Conference will take place in July 2019 in New Orleans, US. For more information on upcoming events, please visit www.ibo.org
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COVER PHOTO: COURTESY OF NORBULINGKA INSTITUTE
You will discover new ideas to further develop your IB programme and leave with inspiration and renewed energy.
Sophie-Marie Odum, Editor Follow me on Twitter: @Sophie_Marie_O
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Contents March 2019
45 COVER STORY Why schools need to prioritize student wellbeing
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67 INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS Teachers share their ideas for learning about other cultures 89 THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE Tips for teaching TOK and a preview of the new course 1011 IB UPDATE The IB Programme Standards and Practices are changing
Read more stories online
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1214 MEET THE SPEAKERS Our keynote speakers on student mental health, teaching for tomorrow and the art of thinking
You can read more IB World features and community stories online at blogs.ibo.org. If you would like to contribute feature ideas or tell us about your inspiring community projects, please tweet us @iborganization. Please note that all submissions are subject to editing.
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PHOTOS: WAVEBREAK MEDIA, TOM WANG/ADOBESTOCK; TOMOHIRO OHSUMI, MASKOT/GETTY IMAGES; SIMON STANMORE
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Students can seek help at Felsted School’s Wellbeing Centre
THE MENTAL HEALTH EPIDEMIC As increasing numbers of students are diagnosed with anxiety and depression, what can schools do to address this?
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tudents around the world are in the grip of a mental health crisis, as growing evidence suggests. In Hong Kong, 51.5 per cent of secondary school students developed signs of depression between 2017-2018, according to a study by Baptist Oi Kwan Social Service. It blamed “huge school stress” – such as examinations – as a major cause. And the OECD PISA 2015 students’ wellbeing report, covering 72 countries,
found 66 per cent of students reported feeling stressed about poor grades. The IB is currently looking into ways to address student wellbeing and is doing a study on IB Diploma Programme (DP) students’ workloads. Family life, bullying and social media all contribute to depression and anxiety, but there is no doubt that this generation is growing up under constant evaluation, with society putting ever increasing demands on young people. 4
What can be done? Dr Jamie Chiu, clinical psychologist and founder of The Brightly Project, says: “Students are singling out academic stress as the biggest reported stressor.” But she says there isn’t enough evidence to solely blame academic pressure as the main reason for an increase in depression among teenagers. “Diving deeper into the data, there are differences that emerge between teenagers who are stressed and depressed, and those who are stressed but
COVER STORY not depressed. Part of the picture is whether the student feels equipped to cope with the stress and how hopeful they feel about their situation,” she says. It’s not just teenagers that are affected by anxiety, younger children are too. Prevention programmes can enhance positive thinking for all students. IB World School Discovery College, in Hong Kong, has adopted Professor Lea Waters’ Visible Wellbeing project, which provides teachers with tools and strategies to make wellbeing tangible. Tracey Chitty, Primary School Counsellor, says: “We have been focusing on increasing staff capacity to be able to see, hear and feel the wellbeing of students, and integrate wellbeing activities into lessons.” The school makes sure students can articulate the strengths they have and reflect on when they might need to draw on the strengths of others. “Strength-based practices can be highly effective at increasing resilience, strengthening relationships, improving achievement and overall increasing individuals’ wellbeing,” says Chitty. Tune in, chill out Many schools are adopting mindfulness to reduce stress and anxiety. This
meditation technique centres around focusing on what is happening moment-by-moment. IB World School Walden International School, in Canada, provides daily mindfulness techniques and introduced Wellness Wednesdays, where its Primary Years Programme (PYP) students can do yoga, meditation, skating, swimming or hiking. And Calming Corners in classrooms offer students a quiet moment to regroup. The school has also held mindfulness seminars for parents to help them reinforce wellness at home. At Princeton Montessori School, in the US, its ‘Tune In’ programme encourages Middle Year Programme (MYP) students to practise weekly mindfulness and yoga sessions. Parent and yoga teacher Erin Galbraith, says: “It gives the children a moment each week to centre themselves and learn how to tune in to their internal experience.”
Students practise yoga at Discovery College 5
While in the UK, Felsted School, which offers the DP, has peer counselling, yoga and mindfulness lessons. It provides Affective Social (AS) Tracking – an online assessment, completed by students. This ensures that each student’s voice is “visible, perhaps revealing what we may not have seen through our interactions, professional judgement and relationships with our students,” says Karen Megahey, Deputy Head, Counselling and Wellbeing. The school has a Wellbeing Centre, which offers a calming hub where anyone can seek respite and access resources. “All our staff are equipped to understand and look out for the mental wellbeing of their students,” says Megahey. Dr Chiu says that for any wellness programme to be successful, it’s essential that everyone in a school feels confident to support students.
THINKING GLOBALLY
IB World Schools get creative in fostering international mindedness, teaching students how to respect and value different cultures
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t may be one of the founding philosophies of the IB programmes, but when it comes to international mindedness, how can teachers develop creative, engaging and relevant opportunities for their students to learn
about other cultures? We share ideas from IB teachers around the world, who are thinking out of the box to demonstrate international mindedness, helping to create globally minded citizens that embrace diversity.
HELPING REFUGEES
FIS students paint murals at Al Azraq Refugee School
IB Diploma Programme (DP) students at Al Faris International School (FIS), Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, now have a deeper understanding of problems that refugees face around the globe after being involved in the ‘Helping Refugees in Jordan’project. The Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) project supports Syrian, Iraqi and Yemeni refugees living in Al Azraq, Jordan. During the last three years, FIS students have travelled to Jordan four times to help children at the Al Azraq Refugee School. Students have built a school library, renovated houses, 6
TRAVEL BUDDIES Primary Years Programme (PYP) students at Summit Charter Academy, California, US, discover other cultures by sending
painted murals for the children, donated school supplies, cooked meals and given clothes and food. They have also provided art and soap-making classes, games and face painting. CAS Coordinator Kholoud Al Madhoun says:“Engaging students in the project has strengthened their sense of empathy, compassion and respect. The challenging nature of the project taught the students to commit wholeheartedly to community service. “Students gained knowledge that goes beyond the borders of Al Azraq, knowledge that could be applied in their ongoing CAS commitment to the world as global citizens.”
INTERNATIONAL MINDEDNESS their teddy bears around the world in an activity called ‘travel buddies’. Students bring in a stuffed animal, and PYP teacher Barbara Gaffrey tags each one with a note that explains the idea of passing the travel buddy on to someone else, and information about how to check in with the class through email, Twitter or Instagram. Each child’s family then decides where they’ll go. Some are passed on to relatives.
“I get many photos each week to share with the class. The activity keep us openminded about other cultures and teaches students geography and mapping,” says Gaffrey. “When travel buddies check in from places such as Thailand, Madagascar, the Philippines, Hawaii, Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, Jordan and Serbia, students begin to view their world through fresh eyes. Each photo creates new conversations about our world.”
STUDENT CULTURAL EVENINGS Li Po Chun United World College of Hong Kong has 250 students from 80 countries and has found a way to promote international understanding of all of these cultures. It hosts an ‘International Cultural Evening’ five times a year. These evenings,
African Cultural Evening
which are organized and led by DP students, feature dances, songs and skits. Students get to experience cultures from Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and South Asia, North America and South America, and China. Students from the same region work together to prepare, present, and facilitate the cultural show, which also includes a dinner of international cuisines, and a week of pre-performance events, featuring a Global Issues Forum session. By graduation, everyone will have prepared their own evening and had a glimpse of other cultures. 7
‘HOME LANGUAGE’ ASSEMBLIES
‘Host country language’ and ‘home language’ assemblies encourage Fountainhead School in Kunkni, India, to celebrate the diversity of the country and show all students are valued within the school community. PYP, Middle Years Programme (MYP) and DP students, as well as parents, get involved by reading stories, enacting dramas, watching videos and participating in various activities. Head of Teacher Training Mariyam Baxamusa says:“We become open-minded communicators, as we listen to each other’s ideas and stories, spoken in different languages and in turn become respectful of their views and values.”
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ow do we know what we claim to know? ” is a question we rarely ask ourselves. Theory of knowledge (TOK) offers all IB Diploma Programme (DP) students an opportunity to step back and answer this question. It encourages students to be more aware of, and to think critically about, their assumptions and perspectives. TOK is about more than exposing students to lots of different points of view. It is also about getting them to reflect on their own values, assumptions and potential biases, and to think about what things shape their perspective.
“Like The Matrix, TOK really is everywhere but, unlike The Matrix, it is actually real,” says teacher Gareth Jones
TIPS FOR TEACHING TOK Jenny Gillett, Senior Curriculum Manager at the IB, explains how theory of knowledge can enrich learning
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Bringing the subject to life Exploring ‘knowledge questions’ is key to the TOK course. These help ensure students are keeping their discussions tightly focused on knowledge, and not drifting off into areas that are not really TOK. A really powerful strategy is to use lots of engaging examples from the news, movies, sport, etc. This can help bring the course to life and make it accessible for students. The types of conversations we expect students to have in TOK are hard, particularly
THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE for 16-year-olds, so grounding abstract concepts and conversations in really practical ways is vital. It’s important to encourage students to bring in examples from their other DP courses, so they can make connections and comparisons between subjects. TOK is changing A new version of TOK will launch in 2020 (for first assessment in 2022). We have created a new optional theme called ‘knowledge and technology’. I hope this will be a great opportunity to engage students with some really relevant discussions, such as whether social media exposes us to new perspectives or simply creates ‘filter bubbles’ that reinforce our existing perspectives. We are strengthening the emphasis on ethics by making questions about ethics, values and responsibilities an important part of every element of the new course. We are also introducing a new internal assessment task. Students will create a TOK exhibition showing how TOK manifests in real world situations.
A lesson to remember Gareth Jones, TOK Coordinator and English Teacher, at Renaissance College, Hong Kong, shares his most memorable TOK lesson I had found a Guardian newspaper article reporting on a mother, who, desperate not to give up on her son who was in a vegetative state, had flown the world seeking help. She met a doctor who had invented ‘facilitated communication’. The doctor claimed his method showed that people, who medicine had previously deemed brain-dead using the Glasgow Coma Scale, were actually cognizant and trapped in their bodies. It later materialized that it didn’t really work. But I ran the lesson as though there had been a major
scientific breakthrough, only revealing at the end of the lesson the more accurate scientific information. It was a great way to show how professionals can dupe themselves; the problem of publication of science stories in the media; and the importance of rigorous testing methods. We teach TOK via conceptual units such as Rights, Adolescence, Beauty, Innovation and Perspectives, and run Socratic seminars. This helps us remain true to the discursive, collective and investigative philosophy that underpins the subject. I love the fact that once students ‘get’ TOK they come to realize that, like The Matrix, TOK really is everywhere but, unlike The Matrix, it is actually real.
TOK lessons encourage DP students to question what they know
Jenny Gillett will be discussing TOK at a pre-conference session 9
CHANGE IS COMING
The IB is updating its Programme Standards and Practices to allow greater flexibility for schools to innovate and evolve
What are the Programme Standards and Practices (PSP)? The PSP are the foundational set of principles for schools and the IB to ensure quality in the implementation of IB programmes.
How are the PSP changing? A new developmental framework (right) better represents school implementation of IB programmes through four interdependent categories: learning, purpose, environment and culture. Practices from across the framework can be organized using motifs (areas of focus) relevant to individual schools, for example, access or teacher collaboration.
How will schools benefit? The developmental framework makes it easier for schools to design learning and teaching aligned with IB philosophy. The framework gives schools the opportunity to demonstrate how the IB works in their school context. The new PSP provide more flexibility for schools’ evolution from candidacy to maturity – encouraging improvement and innovation. They provide aspirational standards and practices that schools can work towards. New digital products from the IB will make it easier for schools to use the PSP.
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IB programme documentation, regulations and procedures will be connected to the PSP, providing greater flexibility and agency for schools to innovate, evolve and grow.
What are the next steps? Schools are invited to review details of the PSP framework, which is now available on the Programme Resource Centre. The full launch is planned for late 2020. A transition guide will provide schools with additional guidance and information about how the new framework relates to each IB programme. Schools are invited to send any questions through IB Answers.
IB PHILOSOPHY
IB UPDATE
Each of the new framework’s elements is interdependent
PURPOSE
All schools share a purpose that demonstrates their commitment to the IB’s mission and philosophy
LEARNING
is at the centre because it is central to what every IB World School does, and is encircled by IB philosophy and the school context
CULTURE
Schools can foster a dynamic culture, centred on holistic, inclusive learning communities
ENVIRONMENT
Schools develop a learning environment sustained by effective structures and resources
SCHOOL CONTEXT
It is time to transform education Our keynote speakers will explain what skills are needed to empower educators to eectively teach the next generation 12
MEET THE SPEAKERS Dr Jamie Chiu is a clinical psychologist and founder of The Brightly Project. Her talk is on ‘Achieving well: student mental health and wellbeing in high-performing schools’.
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n the pursuit to academically succeed, students can experience significant levels of stress, anxiety and depression. Many high-achieving students intuitively believe that to excel, they should be feeling stressed; that looking after their wellbeing means ‘losing their edge’ and falling behind. However, what we teach students about performance, perspective and goal-setting makes a huge difference in whether they can manage stress properly or increase their risk of developing poor mental health. Teenagers who often receive grades lower than hoped told me they feel like a “loser” and “dumb”.
Students feel pressure to do well
Many high-achievers I’ve worked with also fall into the trap of basing their entire identity around being a good student and find they are unable to deal with any academic failures or setbacks. This selfnarrative of ‘If I’m not good at school, it means I’m not good enough’ has lasting detrimental effects across all areas of a young person’s development. I have analysed mental health data from several thousand secondary school students and, during my talk, I will discuss whether there is a robust link between academic stress and anxiety or depression; what protects students from the negative effects of stress; and what factors put students at higher risk of mental health issues. At one school I worked with, teachers were trained in having one-to-one conversations with students about their mental health, and we saw that all students (not just those who were struggling) felt more supported. We need to teach students that their self worth is much more than their grades. We must create more opportunities for students to develop their strengths and use these in meaningful ways. Read a Q&A with Dr Jamie Chiu at blogs.ibo.org 13
We need to prepare young people for the rise of the robots
Michael McQueen is a speaker, trend forecaster and author. His talk is on ‘Teaching for tomorrow’.
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f we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow,” warned educationalist John Dewey over a century ago. This insight is more relevant now than ever before. As we brace for a perfect storm of technological and social change, the need for educational transformation has never been greater. If we remain stagnant, students could face a ‘capability gap’, meaning they lack self-direction, tenacity and originality, all of which will leave them ill-equipped for the future. During my presentation, I will discuss three megatrends that will dominate the coming decades. These are:
MEET THE SPEAKERS ‘The Rise of the Robots’ – the influence of artificial intelligence, and how it will change everyday life; ‘The Re-working of Work’ – which jobs will and won’t exist in the coming years; and ‘The Demise of Driving’ – as autonomous transportation is introduced, this will have widespread economic and societal impacts. Educators will need to focus on moving from ‘content delivery’ to ‘capability building’. Making this shift will require us to rethink the role of a teacher, the function of a classroom and our measures of ‘success’ in learning. IB World Schools are already leaders in preparing students for the future, but there is no room for complacency. Schools need to increase their efforts to create media-rich learning experiences that promote deep learning and discernment, focus more on self-efficacy than self-esteem, and shift teacher-student relationships from an authoritarian model to an authoritative model. Teachers need to be authentic, interesting and compelling in the classroom if they are to engage students and foster the skills needed for the future.
Dr Jawahar Surisetti is an education and child psychologist, and author. His talk is on the ‘Art of thinking: reinventing the teacher for Generation IB’.
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oday, a 12-year-old has many more choices to make than a 12-year-old of the ’90s. Social media and the internet have been an integral part of this generation’s upbringing and provide them with an infinite number of options and types of information. A technologically advanced generation is positive, but technology can also be the biggest distraction. Learning environments must be kept engaging. During my talk, I will discuss the best way forward to mentor Generation IB, which will help create a generation of world leaders who could lead us into a better
tomorrow. Educators must make an effort to understand student thinking and cater to it. Remaining openminded will create an ecosystem bereft of the traditional teaching and learning process. This gives rise to a new innovation-driven, open-ended exploration that will help students delve deeper in their understanding, discover themselves and apply their knowledge for human and societal good. To create this ecosystem, we will need parents and teachers in sync with the desired outcomes. This might require some unlearning and relearning. Teachers will have to reinvent themselves. This may hurt egos. But once this barrier is broken, a new breed of teachers, who are open to learning new skills and pedagogy, will challenge students effectively.
Technology can bombard students with lots of information 14