East Middle School

IB for All

The International Baccalaureate (IB) develops inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through education that builds intercultural understanding and respect.

Middle Years Programme

The IB Middle Years Programme (IB MYP) prepares students to be successful in school and to be active, lifelong learners.

What is IB Education?

Elements of an IB Education:

• International Mindedness.
• The IB Learner Profile.
• A broad, conceptual and connected curriculum.
• Approaches to teaching and learning.

IB Learner Profile

• Reflective: We thoughtfully consider the world and our own ideas and experience. We work to understand our strengths and weaknesses in order to support our learning and personal development.
• Communicator: We express ourselves confidently and creatively in more than one language and in many ways. We collaborate effectively, listening carefully to the perspectives of other individuals and groups.
• Knowledgeable: We develop and use conceptual understanding, exploring knowledge across a range of disciplines. We engage with issues and ideas that have local and global significance.
• Caring: We show empathy, compassion and respect. We have a commitment to service, and we act to make a positive difference in the lives of others and in the world around us.
• Balanced: We understand the importance of balancing different aspects of our lives—intellectual, physical, and emotional—to achieve well-being for ourselves and others. We recognize our interdependence with other people and with the world in which we live.
• Risk Taker: We work independently and cooperatively to explore new ideas and innovative strategies. We are resourceful and resilient in the face of challenges and change.
• Open Minded: We critically appreciate our own cultures and personal histories, as well as the values and traditions of others. We seek and evaluate a range of points of view, and we are willing to grow from the experience.
• Principled: We act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness and justice, and with respect for the dignity and rights of people everywhere. We take responsibility for our actions and their consequences.
• Inquirer: We nurture our curiosity, developing skills for inquiry and research. We know how to learn independently and with others. We learn with enthusiasm and sustain our love of learning throughout life.
• Thinker: We use critical and creative thinking skills to analyze and take responsible action on complex problems. We exercise initiative in making reasoned, ethical decisions.

Approaches to Teaching

The same six approaches underpin teaching in all IB programmes. The approaches are deliberately broad, designed to give teachers the flexibility to choose specific strategies to employ that best reflect their own particular contexts and the needs of their students.

In all IB programmes, teaching is:

1. Based on inquiry: A strong emphasis is placed on students finding their own information and constructing their own understandings.
2. Focused on conceptual understanding: Concepts are explored in order to both deepen disciplinary understandings and to help students make connections and transfer learning to new contexts.
3. Developed in local and global contexts: Teaching uses real-life contexts and examples, and students are encouraged to process new information by connecting it to their own experiences and to the world around them.
4. Focused on effective teamwork and collaboration: This includes promoting teamwork and collaboration between students, but it also refers to the collaborative relationship between teachers and students.
5. Designed to remove barriers to learning: Teaching is inclusive and values diversity. It affirms students' identities and aims to create learning opportunities that enable every student to develop and pursue appropriate personal goals.
6. Informed by assessment: Assessment plays a crucial role in supporting, as well as measuring, learning. This approach also recognizes the crucial role of providing students with effective feedback.

Approaches to Learning

Our focus on approaches to learning is grounded in the belief that learning how to learn is fundamental to a student's education.

The five categories of interrelated skills aim to empower IB students of all ages to become self-regulated learners who know how to ask good questions, set effective goals, pursue their aspirations and have the determination to achieve them. These skills also help to support students' sense of agency, encouraging them to see their learning as an active and dynamic process.

The Five Categories for Approaches to Learning are:

1. Thinking skills—including areas such as critical thinking, creative thinking and ethical thinking.
2. Research skills—including skills such as comparing, contrasting, validating and prioritizing information.
3. Communication skills—including skills such as written and oral communication, effective listening, and formulating arguments.
4. Social skills—including areas such as forming and maintaining positive relationships, listening skills, and conflict resolution.
5. Self-management skills—including both organizational skills, such as managing time and tasks, and affective skills, such as managing state of mind and motivation.