An IB World School: From PYP through MYP to IB Diploma
ISL is an IB World School: we offer International Baccalaureate programmes from entry to primary school through to graduation in year 13.
All three International Baccalaureate programmes at all levels have at their core common skills and attitudes. You can read about these in the “IB Learner Profile” booklet, available on the IB web site (www.ibo.org). The IB learner profile seeks to define international students as:
In the secondary school, the IB learner profile forms the framework for teaching in the Middle Years Programme (MYP) from age 11 to 16 (years 7 to 11). At the end of the MYP, students may receive an MYP certificate.
ABOUT THE MIDDLE YEARS PROGRAMME
The Middle Years Programme was developed by international schools for international schools, and is still being developed by schools within the IBO. It is thus purpose-built for schools like ours. The MYP is taught worldwide both in fee-paying international schools and in state systems, and in many different languages.
The core philosophy of the MYP reflects the experience of teachers and educationalists working in the field of international education. The whole programme is under continual review and teachers in MYP schools are invited to contribute to this development.
The philosophy permeates the whole curriculum and is practised throughout the curriculum model. It has the following key elements:
• The MYP provides a holistic education.
The education of the adolescent should expose them to as many different subjects, skills and experiences as possible. They should have the opportunity to show their various strengths, gaining both a sense of personal achievement and also being rewarded for them.
• The MYP emphasises intercultural awareness and communication
In our community it is essential that the curriculum reflects and is responsive to the different perspectives of all our students. As an international school based at the heart of a cosmopolitan metropolis we actively promote the appreciation of cultural diversity within the school as well as encourage meaningful integration with the surrounding community. The curriculum should also guide them in forming their own, truly international, outlook. This implies an emphasis on communication skills, both in the languages and other subjects.
• The MYP is student-centred.
As part of their experience of the MYP students develop an awareness of their own learning process and the requisite skills to continue learning throughout life. The curriculum seeks to shift the emphasis from teacher instruction to student learning wherever possible, and from transmission of knowledge to enquiry.
The MYP thus aims to combine academic rigour with the fostering of learning attitudes appropriate to adolescents in a global society. ISL teachers meet these aims through their choice of teaching practice: they encourage students to develop critical thinking, to solve ‘real-life’ problems, to communicate their ideas and to express their creativity in different ways.
The Curriculum Model
The philosophy informs the design of the curriculum in the following ways (refer to fig. 1)
1. The curriculum model is organised as an octagon.
The student is represented at the centre of an octagon, where each vertex in the octagon represents one of the subject areas studied.
This means that students must study at least one subject within each of the eight MYP subject areas in every year of the programme. There is a minimum time requirement per year that the school must meet for each of these areas, and it sees each of them as of equal importance.
In the final year of the MYP (year 11) students complete the Personal Project. It is given equal importance to each of the subject areas.
2. The Areas of Interaction mediate and structure learning in the subjects.
The Areas of Interaction are themes by which the subject-specific learning is organised. The Areas of Interaction are not formally assessed until the final year of the MYP, nor are they taught as separate subjects. Rather they represent the means by which the student is encouraged to frame real-world problems whose solutions benefit from multiple perspectives, assisting students in developing an awareness of how subject knowledge is inter-related. This fosters cognitive development and deeper conceptual understanding of real world problems.
Final year assessment of the Areas of Interaction is carried out within an extended Personal Project completed by each student.
Areas of Interaction
Approaches to Learning (AtL)
Approaches to learning (ATL) foster the exploration and development of active learning strategies. Through the ATL programme teachers help students to make active engagement with their learning and develop an awareness of learning as a process. At ISL students are encouraged to view the class teacher as a ‘facilitator’ who promotes reflection and discussion as important modes of learning.
Community and Service (C&S)
In the MYP, service to others is called ‘Community & Service’. Students are encouraged and supported to go out and connect with their local and global community. In addition Community & Service includes interdisciplinary teaching and projects, whole school activities, and the Personal Project.
Health and Social Education (HSE)
This area of interaction aims to educate the whole person and to prepare the students for a physically and mentally healthy life. At ISL the integration of HSE into the classroom, as well as through guest speakers and focus days or presentations, takes into consideration the ages, social, physical and emotional development of the students. It also aims to develop in them a sense of responsibility for their own well-being, the well being of others and for their physical and social development.
Environments (Env)
The Environments Area of Interaction aims to raise students’ awareness of the effects of human activity on our natural environment, and of the reciprocal effect of the environment on us. The concept of environment is developed, beginning with the student themselves and their immediate world, and working outward to consider global issues.
Students’ exploration of the theme is organised through three key strands:
• Awareness : What is the environment? How do we interact with environments both natural and human-made? Has the environment changed over time?
• Responsibility: Who is responsible for damaging the environment? Is all human activity necessarily detrimental to the environment?
• Action: What can we do, here and now? What can humanity do in the future?
Human Ingenuity (HI)
Human Ingenuity, or “Man the maker”, encourages students to consider the ways in which ingenuity and creativity have shaped the human world. This Area of Interaction brings subjects together around a historical perspective on human culture: whether that culture be scientific, artistic or technological. The aim of the Human Ingenuity programme is to highlight the effect of human creation on the way individuals and societies evolve.
Assessing Development
At ISL we recognise that students learn in different ways and in keeping with this holistic view of education we think it is important to provide a variety of different ways for students to demonstrate what they have learnt.
This is the guiding principle of MYP assessment. The programme provides teachers with a structure for assessment based on fixed objectives for the final year (year 11), but the teachers can then adapt the criteria to meet the needs of their students in earlier years.
Assessment in MYP at ISL is:
• Varied in approach
Students might be assessed on project work, presentations to class, role-play and debate, essays, examinations or tests etc.
• Formative as well as summative
Formative assessment means that students will be given assessed feedback on their work to help them improve it. They will also be involved in this assessment, perhaps through assessing their peers or even themselves.
Summative assessment is a terminal activity usually assessed by the teacher, often graded tasks for the semester reports.
• Criterion-referenced, not deficit-based
Assessment will not be based simply on “how many questions can they answer?” or “what percentage have they achieved?” but rather “what skills have they learnt?” or “what level of understanding can they demonstrate?”
The Personal Project
All students in Years 10 and 11 are required to complete a ‘personal project’. This is the most important assignment of the MYP. The project starts during the third term of Year 10, and is generally completed during the second term of Year 11. The project may take the form of a research essay, an artistic creation, the construction of an artefact, an in depth investigation or some other means of expression that is of particular interest for the student.
The MYP Certificate
The development of the MYP student is continuously appraised, monitored and reported. Throughout years 7 to 11, students are appraised using subject assessment criteria determined by the IBO. Over and above these criteria (which are available on request) the ISL subject teachers have developed assessment criteria for the intermediate stages (Years 7 to 10) and some complementary assessment criteria designed to support a continuum of academic development towards the IB Diploma programme.
The award of final subject grades at the end of Year 11 is based on an aggregate of recorded levels of achievement; there is no final external examination. At the end of the MYP course, an overall grade on a scale 1 to 7 is awarded per subject per candidate and samples of student work are externally moderated (checked) by the IBO. Provided the total points achieved are at least 36 (out of 63) including
1. a minimum of 3 points for the personal project
2. achieving at least a grade 2 in one subject per subject area
3. attending over 90% of the Years 10 and 11 programme
4. meeting the expectations of ‘community and service’ to the satisfaction of the MYP coordinator
the student is awarded an official MYP certificate.
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