Overview
The IB Middle Years Programme at ISHCMC
The programme provides a thorough study of various academic disciplines while accentuating their interrelatedness, which teaches students to build connections, transfer knowledge, and develop abstract thought. The interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum is developed through five areas of interaction: approaches to learning, community and service, health and social education, environments, and human ingenuity (homo faber). These areas help students and teachers make connections between disciplines, and apply learning to their global experiences.
The Conceptual Framework of the IBMYP
Holistic Education:The IBMYP is based around
traditional school subjects, but rejects the fragmentation that results
when people assume that subjects have no relation to each other.
Students are encouraged to look at learning in an interdisciplinary
way; approaching issues and solving problems with skills, knowledge,
and understandings obtained from a variety of subjects and experiences.
Intercultural Awareness:
The aim is to show respect for cultural differences while promoting
what are seen to be universal human values, thus fostering
understanding among young people, enabling future generations to live
more peacefully and productively than we do today. Part of the IBO
mission is to help students “understand that other people, with their
differences, can also be right.” This understanding can help students
find solutions to that address the issues that result from the inherent
differences in our globalized world.
Communication: The IBMYP stresses the importance of clarity of expression, of listening to others, and of appreciating different cultures and ways of thinking. Students are required to learn a second language, and in cases where students are attending school in a language other than their mother tongue, the development of the mother tongue is encouraged and supported in school. Communication between students is encouraged and developed, so that students, rather than the teacher, are the center of the classroom. The enhanced ability to communicate with their peers on academic matters increases student success by bringing students’ social awareness into their learning, and bringing learning into students’ social lives.
Subject Groups
At ISHCMC we offer:- Language A: English and Vietnamese in Grades 6 -8 for most students. Korean is an additional option in Grades 9 and 10
- Language B: French, English and in Grade 6 and 7 Madarin
- Mathematics: including five branches of mathematics: number, algebra, geometry and trigonometry, probability and statistics, and discrete mathematics.
- Humanities: History and Geography
- The Arts: Music, Drama, and Visual Arts
- Sciences: Chemistry, Biology, Physics
- Technology
- Physical Education
Areas of interaction: helping students develop connections in their learning
Approaches to Learning: Enable students to
understand the learning process. Students develop collaborative skills,
communication, information literacy, reflection, problem solving and
thinking skills, and conceptual understanding. How do I learn best? How
do I know? How do I communicate my understanding?
Community and Service:
Allows students to consider their role in supporting and building the
communities around them. Students develop awareness, involvement and
service, and reflection. How do we live in relation to others? How can
I contribute to the community? How can I help others?
Human Ingenuity:
Through which we consider the progress humans have made, and the
consequences of our actions and solutions. Students evaluate origin,
process, product, context, impact, and development. Why and how do we
create? What are the consequences?
Environments:
Aim to help students to see the links between economic, political,
cultural and social issues, to develop positive and responsible
attitudes, and to gain the motivation, skills and commitment to
contribute to their environments. Students develop awareness,
responsibility, action, and reflection. Where do we live? What
resources do we have or need? What are my responsibilities?
Health and Social Education: Remind us to consider physical and emotional health: how to improve them, and how they affect our experiences and behaviors. Students develop knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, and action. How do I think and act? How am I changing? How can I look after myself and others?
Personal ProjectThe personal project is an independent piece of work that is undertaken in the final stages of the IBMYP Programme, and at ISHCMC this starts in the second half of Grade 9 and is completed in Grade 10. Students are apply methods and techniques developed through approaches to learning, and illustrate their appreciation of at least one of the other areas of interaction. The personal project can take various forms, such as:
- an original work of art
- a written piece of work on a special topic
- a piece of creative writing
- an original science experiment
- an invention, or specially designed object or system
- the presentation of a developed business, management or organisation plan
Assessment
Assessment tasks are varied and include a wide range of tasks from traditional testing to contextualized tasks that allow students to apply their learning to the world around them. Assessment is criterion-referenced: grades are awarded according to criteria, which are prescribed by the IBO for each subject.
Reporting
Each Semester runs on the following cycle: interim reports, parent-student-teacher conferences, and semester reports. Reporting is designed to foster student learning, and increase communication between parents, teachers, and students.
IBMYP Certificate and Record of Achievement:All students participating in Grade 10 at ISHCMC receive an IBMYP Record of Achievement.
This is an official record, issued by the IBO and recognized around the
world, of subjects taken and the student’s level of achievement in each
subject. The IBMYP Certificate is awarded only to those students that meet the following criteria:
- Participation in the MYP for Grades 9 and 10
- A grade of at least a 2 in all subject areas
- Completion of a minimum of 50 community and service hours over Grades 9 and 10
- A grade of at least a 3 on the personal project
- A grade total of at least 36 out of a maximum of 63
Moderation of Assessment
Every year, teachers of each
subject prepare samples of Grade 10 assessments which are sent away to
IBO Moderators. Our assessment strategies and rewarding of grades based
on the IBMYP criteria are assessed. Moderators are trained by the IBO,
and assure us that we are awarding grades appropriately and to an
international standard.
Grades 11 and 12
The IB Diploma Programme at ISHCMC (adapted from ‘IB Basis for Practice’)
The IB Diploma Programme is a challenging, broad and balanced two -year programme of international education for students aged 16 to 19. Students are required to study six subjects and a curriculum core concurrently. The programme is designed to equip students with the basic academic skills needed for university study, further education and their chosen profession, as well as developing the values and life skills needed to live a fulfilled and purposeful life. The driving force behind the Diploma Programme is a philosophy about the nature of education that is expressed in the IB's mission statement and in the IB learner profile.
Three forces shaped the Diploma Programme and continue to influence its development. They are:
• Pragmatic—the need to provide a school leaving diploma that is widely recognized in different countries and universities around the world as providing an excellent foundation for further study, professional and personal life
• Idealistic— creating a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect
• Pedagogical—the promotion of a broad-based education that develops critical and creative thinking skills and focuses on learning how to learn
At tempting to encapsulate the aims of the programme in a single sentence, Alec Peterson (the first director general of the IB) suggested that they were: “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” (Peterson 2003: 33). Peterson emphasized the importance of the concept of general education as process rather than content, believing that “the aim of general education was not the acquisition of general knowledge, but the development of the general powers of the mind to operate in a variety of ways of thinking” (Peterson 2003: 41). This principle continues to have a profound effect on curriculum planning and assessment methods in the Diploma Programme.
The Diploma Programme Curriculum
A distinguishing characteristic of the Diploma Programme is a concern with the whole educational experience of each student. The curriculum framework (see figure 1) and its supporting structures and principles are designed to ensure that each student is exposed to a broad and balanced curriculum.
Figure 1
Diploma Programme framework
The learner profile is the centre of the programme model and is surrounded by the core requirements of a course in theory of knowledge, the extended essay and creativity, action, service (CAS). This reflects the concern with developing competent, caring and active citizens as well as subject specialists.
The Diploma Programme is a discipline-based course of study. Each academic discipline provides its own methodological framework that students learn to understand and use. This understanding is essential in order to provide a deep appreciation of the nature of an academic discipline as well as a solid foundation for future university-level work.
Students are expected to make connections between different academic disciplines; they do not learn subjects in isolation. Teachers and schools help students make meaningful connections between different disciplines through providing instruction, teaching timetables/schedules and learning environments that support this process. Concurrency of learning in the Diploma Programme is expected as it provides one important mechanism to support interdisciplinary learning.
Students study six courses. These include two languages (groups 1 and 2), one course from individuals and societies (group 3), one experimental science (group 4), one mathematics course (group 5), and one course chosen from the arts (group 6) or another subject from groups 1 to 5
Specialization is encouraged in the Diploma Programme by expecting students to study three (with the possibility of studying four) subjects at a higher level (HL). Breadth of learning is encouraged with a requirement to study three more subjects (two if four are studied at HL) at standard level (SL). HL courses are normally taught over 240 teaching hours, and require a greater depth of study across a broader range of content in the subject. SL courses are normally taught over 150 teaching hours. Most subjects are available at both SL and HL and can be taught and examined in English, French or Spanish.
The core of the Diploma Programme consists of the theory of knowledge (TOK) course, the ex tended essay, and creativity, action, service (CAS). The TOK course provides a forum for discussion, reflection and instruction that considers the nature of human knowledge and supports the development of interdisciplinary understanding. The extended essay provides the opportunity to investigate an academic research question of individual interest and in the process to develop the independent research and writing skills expected for further education. Participation in the school’s CAS programme broadens the educational experience by encouraging students to be involved in artistic pursuits, sports and community service work.
Subject choices:
• Group 1—language A1: the student ’s best language, including the study of selections of world literature (45 languages are regularly available; others are available on request)
• Group 2—second language: language A2, B, ab initio (second modern language courses for levels of proficiency from beginner to advanced); classical languages
• Group 3—individuals and societies: history; geography; business and management; information technology in a global society
• Group 4 —experimental sciences: biology; chemistry; physics
• Group 5—mathematics and computer science: mathematics HL; mathematics SL; mathematical studies SL
• Group 6—the arts: visual arts; music, theatre
• Transdisciplinary subjects: environmental systems and societies (an SL course that meets the requirement to study a group 3 and a group 4 course in one subject)
Learning to learn
From its origins in the 1960s the IB Diploma Programme stressed the importance of students developing independent learning strategies and skills that were transferable to new contexts, in short the need to “learn how to learn” (Peterson 2003: 41). In the modern information age, as the amount of information and knowledge increases exponentially, it is the process of learning, applying and evaluating knowledge that matters more than ever before, not just the acquisition of knowledge.
Learning how to learn is not taught as a separate course in the Diploma Programme; it needs to be infused naturally into the curriculum as part of the teaching and learning process that supports the development of learner profile attributes. A number of aims and objectives identified in the subject groups, supported by the theory of knowledge course, require students to reflect on and to evaluate the knowledge claims they encounter and the methodologies they are learning. This “metacognitive” approach to learning helps students develop the higher-order thinking strategies needed to become lifelong independent learners.
Each academic discipline presents students with different challenges and it cannot be assumed that understanding gained in one discipline or context will be easily transferred to another. The structure of the Diploma Programme, with the expectation of concurrency of learning and the theory of knowledge experience, is designed to help students (with the support of teachers) make meaningful connections between the experiences of the core and the different academic disciplines. In the process, it is expected that students will develop a better appreciation of themselves as learners and the nature of human knowledge.
The extended essay requires students to demonstrate an ability to learn independently and is intended to promote high-level research and writing skills, intellectual discovery and creativity. Students select a research question, normally relating to one of the six subjects they are studying, and complete a focused essay. They have to identify an appropriate methodology, conduct their own research and arrive at their own conclusions.
Theory of knowledge
The theory of knowledge (TOK) requirement is central to the educational philosophy of the Diploma Programme. It offers students and their teachers the opportunity to reflect critically on different ways of knowing and areas of knowledge, and to consider the role and nature of knowledge in their own culture, in the cultures of others and in the wider world. As a reflective inquiry into different ways of knowing, and into different kinds of knowledge, TOK is focused on a number of questions, the most central of these being: “How do we know [a particular knowledge claim] to be true?”
The critical reflection encouraged in students is used as a foundation for developing intercultural awareness and understanding. All Diploma Programme subjects aim to develop in students an appreciation and understanding of cultures and attitudes other than their own but, in this particular respect, TOK has a special role to play. Throughout the TOK experience students are required to demonstrate an awareness of the values and the limitations of their individual outlooks, and of the views common to the communities and cultures to which they belong, and so engage with another fundamental question: “What does it mean
to be human?”
TOK also has an important role to play in providing coherence for each student ’s Diploma Programme. Exploration of the nature of knowledge in TOK transcends and links academic subject areas, demonstrating for students the ways in which they can apply their own knowledge with greater awareness and credibility.
The extended essay
This core requirement provides an opportunity for students to engage in an in-depth study of a question of interest within a chosen subject. The extended essay is an independent, self-directed piece of research, culminating in a 4,000-word paper. It provides practical preparation for the kinds of undergraduate and postgraduate research required at tertiary level. From the choice of a suitable research question to the final completion of the extended essay, students must produce their essay within the defined constraints of time, essay length and available resources. Emphasis is placed on the research process, on the appropriate formulation of a research question, on selection and development of an appropriate methodology, on personal engagement in the exploration of the topic, and on communication of ideas and development of argument. It develops the capacity to analyze, synthesize and evaluate knowledge. Students are supported and encouraged throughout the research and writing with advice and guidance from a supervisor.
Creativity, action, service
While helping students acquire international perspectives and understanding is essential, it is also considered important to develop a “will to act ” and the skills and values needed to make a positive contribution to society.
Education does not begin or end in the classroom. Creativity, action, service (CAS) provides a framework for experiential learning and reflection about that learning. This process of application and reflection provides an opportunity to extend what is learned in the classroom and, in turn, for the CAS experience to have an impact on classroom learning.
All CAS activities are intended to develop self-confidence, commitment, determination, and to broaden horizons and enrich experience. The service component of CAS is particularly important to the IB philosophy as it is hoped that experiential learning through service, and reflection on that experience, will develop lifelong compassion and a willingness to help others. Students may directly or indirectly engage in work on global problems, or work with other people at a local level, developing their capacity to function collaboratively.
Educating the whole person includes exposure to artistic, recreational and sporting activities and the enjoyment of purposeful leisure. Students can include a wide range of activities in their CAS programme, provided they achieve an overall balance, incorporating all three elements either as separate activities or as parts of larger challenges.
University recognition
The Diploma Programme has become a leading, internationally recognized pre-university qualification. A student who satisfies the requirements for the diploma has demonstrated independent study skills, developed a broad range of academic skills, studied at least three disciplines in depth, engaged with interdisciplinary ideas, reflected on the nature of human knowledge in an international context and taken part in social, physical and creative pursuits beyond the classroom. The concept of educating the whole person distinguishes the Diploma Programme from many other upper secondary programmes and provides an excellent preparation for university study.
Details concerning the recognition of the diploma qualification in national systems, and by particular universities, can be found on the IB’s website (http://www.ibo.org).
Peterson, ADC . 2003. Schools Across Frontiers, Second Edition. La Salle, Illinois. Open Court Publishing Company.