What is an IB Education?

  This section will briefly focus on who John Dewey is, what his thought on progressive education and how his ideas connect to IB Education. Fig.1 John Dewey John Dewey and his progressive education John Dewey, an American philosopher and educational reformer, was born on October 20, 1859, in Burlington, and passed away on June 1, 1952, in New York City (Dewey et al., 2009; Hull, 2013). “Democracy and Education” is one of Dewey’s books, in which he argues that education is not merely preparation for life but life itself. From this point of view, education is seen as the stem from which a democratic society grows (Connell, 2008). Also, Dewey’s philosophy of education emphasizes the importance of students’ engagement with their environments when it comes to the teaching-learning process, commonly known as experiential learning (Hendley, 1989). Even though this model of education has become more common today, Dewey’s progressive approach is not without critiques. The main critical p...

This section focuses on the IB Learner Profile, a set of ten attributes valued by the IB. Teachers are expected to nurture these qualities in students throughout their lesson. Drawn from the aim of the IB mission, the learner profile representing the 10 attributes of internationally minded people is at the centre of the four programme models. The four models are a unified continuum that facilitates learners in striving to develop the 10 clearly defined attributes which are believed to help students become responsible members of their communities. In other words, the IB learner profile could be understood as a gravitational force that directs the focus of students’ development. The ten attributes of the Learner Profile encompass both self-development and community involvement, guiding students not only to be knowledgeable but also to care for the communities they live in. For instance, attributes like being 'caring' and 'principled' drive learning beyond academics and en...

This section focuses on the IB education continuum, which provides a path for student development. Each programme builds on elements from the previous programme, making this continuum a holistic development plan for students. IB Education:  a continuum of four programmes fig.1 The Four IB Programmes https://www.mcpsmt.org/Page/11703 The four programme models in the IB continuum are purposefully designed to be age-appropriate in guiding students to become internationally minded individuals. The guidance is evident in the construction of each programme, which highlights distinct key aspects of students’ development. The PYP programme, an IB framework for young learners aged 3–12, focuses on the development of students’ identity formation as individuals who live in a community. Additionally, students are encouraged to make connections between what they know and the world around them. As learners reach the ages of 11–16, they proceed to the MYP programme, where learning is explicitly l...

 In this section, I will focus on what I found interesting about IB education from practical viewpoints, and how the principles valued by IB education are manifested in actions. 1.       Inquiry based learning. I notice that there are two interesting elements in the inquiry-based approach of IB education. First is the process of finding connections between key concepts, related concepts, and Global Context as an iterative development that leads to the formation of conceptual understanding. This is a crucial step for teachers and students to conduct an in-depth analysis of learning topics. Second, it is also interesting to note that each unit plan includes three categories of inquiry questions: factual, conceptual, and debatable. These questions play key roles in guiding students to develop a deeper understanding of topics and encourage them to embrace different perspectives. Fig. 1 Unit plan template https://resources.ibo.org/myp/topic/MYP-unit-plan...