Teaching and learning: the heart of international education

Teaching and learning: the heart of international education

Judith Fabian, Chief Academic Officer IB Americas regional conference, July 2012

The heart of international education?

“Teachers and teaching are the most significant factors in improving educational outcomes”

Teaching and Learning Research Programme (Institute of Education, University of London www.tlrp.org)

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How do we teach for the IB learner profile?

How do we teach so that our students become ‘Inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world?”

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Teaching and learning: the heart of international education Contents

Historical perspective What is an IB education?

Approaches to learning Approaches to teaching Teaching through concepts Feedback: opportunities and challenges?

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Historical perspective

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Historical perspective: the founding of the IB

“ ...the development of the general powers of the mind to operate in a variety of ways of thinking...”

(Alec Peterson) Students should ‘learn to learn’ (Edgar Faure, a French Minister of Education in the late1960s)

Schools Across Frontiers, 1987

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Historical perspective: the founding of the IB

“..what matters is not the absorption and regurgitation either of facts or of predigested interpretations of facts, but the development of powers of the mind or ways of thinking which can be applied to new situations and new presentations of facts as they arise.”

From an early statement of IB aims, A.D.C. Peterson, International Baccalaureate, 1972

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Historical perspective: MYP Approaches to learning (ATL): Stimulated by Theory of Knowledge ATL quickly moved beyond just study skills and was expressed as ways students....

•Organize their personal work •Distinguish the essential from the accessory •Know how to take advantage sensibly of the many media which flood our modern society

The first thorough definition of ATL emerged in Quebec in 1988 ‘Learning to learn’ was always crucial to the programme It became one of the 5 areas of interaction, apparently, by accident!

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Historical perspective: PYP n,mnlk What do we want to learn? The written curriculum The identification of a framework of what’s worth knowing How best will we learn? The taught curriculum The theory and application of good classroom practice How will we know what we have learned? The assessed curriculum The theory and application of effective assessment

Transdisciplinary skills: support the search for understanding and the construction of meaning Page 9

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What is an IB education?

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What is an IB education?

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1. IB learners The IB encourages students to become active, compassionate, lifelong learners

IB programmes are holistic in nature – concerned with the whole person.

The attributes of the IB learner profile represent a broad range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond intellectual development and academic success.

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What is an IB education?

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2. Teaching and learning in the IB Enabling students to construct meaning and make sense of the world. ..Asking, doing, thinking...

Preparing students for a lifetime of learning, independently and in collaboration with others.

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What is an IB education?

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3. Global contexts for education Developing learning environments that value the world as the broadest context for learning.

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In school, students learn about the world from the curriculum and from their interactions with other people.

An IB education creates teaching and learning opportunities that help students increase their understanding of language and culture and become more globally engaged.

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What is an IB education?

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4. Significant content ...both disciplinary and interdisciplinary.

Broad and balanced....meeting university standards for rigour in depth and breadth.

Conceptual and connected: focusing on broadly powerful ideas that have relevance within and across subject areas....broad ideas that reach beyond national and international boundaries.

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Approaches to teaching and learning

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Aproaches to learning across the continuum A progression of approaches to teaching and learning 2012

PYP transdisciplinary skills

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MYP ATL One of 5 areas of interaction

IBCC ATL

DP?

course

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Aproaches to learning across the continuum Common approaches to teaching and learning 2014/15

PYP ATL

MYP ATL

IBCC ATL Course*

DP ATL

* Will evolve to be cross-programme Page 21

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Approaches to teaching and learning in the DP Approaches to learning

Approaches to teaching

How do students approach their learning in the DP presently?

How do teachers approach their teaching in the DP?

How should students approach their learning for greater success in the DP? How could the DP encourage learning for lifelong success in students?

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What ‘learning to learn’ skills and attitudes should teachers teach/facilitate for greater success?

What could the DP expect of teachers in how to teach effectively for life beyond school?

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The DP curriculum The planned and written curriculum C1 & 2

The assessed curriculum C4 Comprehensive, rigorous assessment The right sort?

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Guides, TSMs, and specimen papers: school decisions

The taught curriculum C3 Focus of current work Š International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Approaches to learning in the DP: principles Build on the success of the Learner Profile Not a separate course – integrated and fundamental ‘ATL’ as much a part of DP discourse as ‘TOK’ Integral to subject specific workshops Supports the academic rigour of the DP DP coordinators develop as pedagogical leaders Will support and encourage collaborative planning

Inspiring, encouraging and supporting – not mandating

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Approaches to learning across the continuum Categories: Research skills Communications skills Social skills Thinking skills Self-management skills

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Approaches to teaching The relationship between teacher and student the teacher as learner empowering students to be lifelong learners democratizing the classroom

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Approaches to teaching Pedagogical principles for international education?

Start with the student Teach through concepts Teach through inquiry and critical thinking Put learning into context Differentiate the learning experiences Create a community of learners Develop independent, lifelong learners Is there anything missing?

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Teaching through concepts

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Teaching through concepts Disciplinary and interdisciplinary Deeper understanding through meaningful connections and transfer Teaching beyond the local, national or cultural context

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Teaching through concepts in the PYP A set of 8 concepts that contribute to the structure of the transdisciplinary curriculum:

form function causation change connection perspective responsibility reflection

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Teaching through concepts in the MYP (2014) Conceptual framework: Prescribed key concepts Prescribed subject specific, related concepts

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Teaching through concepts in the MYP (2014) Key and related concepts prescribed for all years of the MYP

Examples of key concepts: change communication identity patterns relationships

MYP science draft related concepts: evidence energy transformation models interaction consequences form function balance

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Teaching through concepts in the DP DP has always required conceptual thinking – high level, big ideas, abstractions eg what is the nature of mathematical knowledge?

DP assessment is focused on broad understandings eg World Literature assignments

No prescription of concepts; conceptual nature of DP will be made more explicit

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Teaching and learning in IB programmes “.. to develop to their fullest potential the powers of each individual to understand, to modify and to enjoy his or her environment, both inner and outer, in its physical, social, moral, aesthetic and spiritual aspects.”

Alec Peterson First Director General and co-founder of the IB

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Teaching and learning: the heart of international education

What do you welcome most about what you have heard?

What will be challenging for you in your own context?

What can the IB do to support you?

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