IB Basics

 What is IB?

IB is a philosophy of teaching and learning.  The teacher’s aims are to provide educational experiences to the students that will help to create internationally minded individuals who seek to create a better more peaceful world.  The teacher facilitates this atmosphere by fostering students who strive to be the Learner Profile attributes: inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective.  This is the over-arching aim of the school.
In addition to the learner profiles, IB notes that in order for students to take on the learner profile they need educational experiences.  IB breaks learning into three categories:  the written curriculum, the taught curriculum and the assessed curriculum.

The Written Curriculum:

Within the written curriculum, PYP states, “A balance is sought between acquisition of essential knowledge and skills, development of conceptual understanding, demonstration of positive attitudes, and taking of responsible action (Making the PYP Happen, p. 10).”  Knowing that there is a balance between these ideals, IB focuses on 5 essential elements:

1.    Knowledge:

Essential curriculum and content we want students to know based upon prior knowledge.

2.    Concepts:

These are powerful ideas that are relevant to the curriculum and continually need to be re-explored.

3.    Skills:

Tools that children need to succeed in an ever changing world.

4.    Attitudes:    

These are fundamental values, beliefs and feelings about learning, the environment and people.  This should transcend their original learning.

5.    Action:

This is a demonstration of deeper learning through behavior shown after formal instruction.

Each element connects to specific items in our written curriculum.  Knowledge is expressed in our Plan of Inquiry and the six over-arching themes: Who we are, Where we are in place and time, How we express ourselves, How the world works, How we organize ourselves, and sharing the planet.  Our goal is to take the State Core, see how these items connect together, and then create a transdiciplinary unit based upon these 6 themes.  Concepts are utilized and expressed in our Planners and our Plan of Inquiry.  There are eight key concepts:  form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility and reflection. 

The aim is to create a concept driven curriculum.  These concepts are deep and allow for constant re-exploration for new knowledge.   The skills portion is threaded through out the IB curriculum.  The aim is for the teacher to teach students how to acquire knowledge.  They suggest using eight thinking skills:  acquisition of knowledge (gaining information), comprehension (understanding what you’ve learned), application (using what you’ve learned), analysis (breaking apart ideas), synthesizing (putting ideas together), evaluation (making judgments about ideas), dialectical thought (thinking about two or more viewpoints at the same time), and metacognition (analyzing you own and other thought processes).  Learning these skills will help students look deeper into the meaning of all things.  The attitudes are the values we would like our students to leave with:  appreciation, commitment, confidence, cooperation, creativity, curiosity, empathy, enthusiasm, independence, integrity, respect and tolerance.  Teachers should look for authentic experiences for teachers to have when working with the attitudes.  Action is what we want our students to do after they have learned about the attitudes.  This is when the student applies what he or she has learned as uses it at home or in the world.

The Taught Curriculum:

The taught curriculum examines what is actually going on in the classroom.  IB’s aim is to take the plans from the written curriculum and demonstrate those in the classroom.  Our aim, then, is to instruct with inquiry.  Teachers will assemble, acquire and facilitate the knowledge that is to be gained in the classrooms.  Students will discover, uncover, and learn the new information.  The process of learning in this style is reflected in the Unit Planners.  These planners ask for the teacher to take the unit designed in the Plan of Inquiry and narrow in on the knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes and actions presented in a single unit.  All areas are addressed including assessment.  The taught curriculum is what the students are doing in their classrooms to inquire and gain understanding.

The Assessed Curriculum:

How are we going to assess, record, and report student learning?  This is all covered under the assessed curriculum.  In IB students are assessed more authentically.  This means that assessing student knowledge does not always come from standard test.  Students can be assessed through observations, performance, process-focused assessments, selected responses and open-ended tasks.  All these are authentic ways to address student learning.
In considering reporting assessments, teachers should involve parents, students, and other teachers.  They should consider school values; remember to be comprehensive, honest, and fair.  The reporting should also be clear and understandable to all parties.  They should involve conferences, a written report and for some levels an exhibition of knowledge (such as the 5&6th grade science fair).  All these items are important, but allow for flexibility.  Teachers should be creative and choose a way to assess, record and report that is most meaningful to their students and parents.

Conclusion:

IB is a program that is student centered and inquiry based.  The teacher ‘s role is to foster students who are internationally minded and desire to create a better more peaceful world, as demonstrated through the learner profile.  This is done through the IB three-fold curriculum that addresses the written curriculum, how that curriculum is taught and how it is assessed.  The written curriculum addresses what will be taught and how do dig deeply into the instruction.  The taught curriculum centers on inquiry and how that is demonstrated in the classroom.  Lastly, the assessed curriculum allows for performance-based assessments rather than test based; therefore, focusing more on how the child is acquiring and applying knowledge rather than just having a correct answer.  As a whole, IB is designed to nurture the knowledge acquisition of the whole student, not just basic facts.

Visit ibo.org for more information