The power of three
The IB continuum is about more than just pedagogy – it changes school dynamics and offers new opportunities. Teachers from seven full-continuum schools give their perspectives
Werner Paetzold
Curriculum Coordinator and MYP Coordinator, Bali International School, Indonesia
Focus on the students
At Bali International School (BIS) we have been offering the IB continuum since 2004. An IB World School since 1999, BIS has gradually introduced all three programmes.
To ensure the smooth running of the continuum, the school has three IB coordinators, one for each programme, and each is tasked with ensuring that his programme is developed and promoted. Thus the school has IB-trained leaders whose passion is for the success of each programme.
To get the best from the continuum for both teachers and students, professional conversations focus on questions such as: how do we ensure that students are best prepared to meet the demands of this programme and the next? And: how can we use the skills and knowledge developed by the previous programme to harness student learning from the beginning?
At BIS we go to great lengths to ensure that the three programmes work together. All three coordinators meet regularly, on alternate weeks with coordinators only, and then with the Director and heads of primary and secondary school. The MYP Coordinator is also the Curriculum Coordinator of the whole school and is thus ideally placed to focus on the strengths and weaknesses arising from articulation.
We also ensure that MYP and PYP work together whenever possible. For example, we hold a joint Personal Project/PYP exhibition, highlighting the achievements and skills developed in each programme.
Our focus remains on the student, who is always at the centre of each programme, while our teaching aims to develop inquiry, one of the most powerful forces in learning.
Dr. Gary C. Cone
Principal, Paisley Magnet School and Leslie Atcher-Rathburn, Assistant Principal, Wiley Middle School
(Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools) North Carolina, USA
Work as one
In North Carolina, our schools have been working together to develop a seamless continuum between the PYP, MYP and Diploma Programmes through encouraging communication between each level. By establishing practices that promote the importance of a full continuum experience, educators and administrators can facilitate a smooth transition for students as they move toward the IB Diploma Programme. Such efforts have proven successful in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where the IB Programme is in its eighth year of existence.
Don Lail, IB Coordinator at Paisley IB Magnet, says recruitment efforts are most effective when the administrative staff at each level work together. Parkland High School’s IB Coordinator, Randy Bourke, agrees that communication between schools is key and that vertical articulation between teachers at each of the three levels is critical. Bourke believes that “teachers need to advocate for the next level of the programme, and they need to understand how the previous level has prepared students.”
Tim Lee, Principal of Parkland High School, sees the benefits of such alignment. Lee observes that “students coming from Paisley’s MYP seem to be more mature in relation to other students because they have had the opportunity to express themselves through Socratic seminars and trips abroad.”
Robert Ash, Principal of Ashley Elementary, concurs that improved communication is responsible for recent success. Ash states that “although there is a stronger connection between Paisley’s MYP and Parkland’s Diploma Programme, recent efforts to include the elementary school in the annual forum and in staff development opportunities for IB teachers are producing positive results.” Clear curriculum alignment, increased opportunities for teacher training, and more successful student recruitment efforts are just a few of the positive outcomes resulting from improved communication.
Using the media to promote the IB continuum is important. According to Dr. Kim Morrison, Magnet School Director for Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools, “Television, radio and an online presence have proven effective in helping parents and students in Winston-Salem to become familiar with the IB.”
As teachers and administrators work together to improve communication, each level becomes stronger; as a result, the benefits of progressing through the IB continuum become evident to students and parents alike.
Sabrina McCartney
PYP coordinator and MYP humanities teacher, Carrollwood Day School, Florida, USA
A language of learning
How often do you get to witness the fruition of your work? As a PYP coordinator and MYP Year 3 humanities teacher, I am able to view the impact of the PYP on students’ development on a daily basis. Working at Carrollwood Day School, an independent school in Tampa, Florida, which implements the IB continuum, we are able to see the connections throughout the programmes. Through the practice of reflection, our students, faculty and parents have seen the growth of the continuum at our school.
We began the IB journey with the PYP, laying the foundation for our framework. For us, the Learner Profile is the thread that ties us together. It is the common language that begins with the youngest learners and continues through the high school years. As a school, we encourage the development of PYP attitudes into the MYP and IB Diploma Programme. We believe creativity, cooperation, and tolerance should be fostered at any age.
Throughout the year, individual classes and the school community take part in service. Students in grades 2-5 started an Action Club dedicated to community service. Recently, they chose to take action on the IB community theme, specifically focusing on education for all by organizing a book drive to help support a library at a local children’s home. Our MYP and IB Diploma Programme students connect with our PYP students regularly by providing tutoring to help enhance their learning.
One of the most impressive outcomes of a PYP foundation is how it affects learning. Last year, I had the chance to teach our first class that went through PYP as fifth graders. The students came well prepared with inquiry and research skills. They asked questions and sought answers. I look forward to observing their accomplishments as they continue their IB journey.
Mimi Bick
Academic director, Craighouse, Santiago, Chile
When people ask why we have the IB continuum at Craighouse, we say it’s because the IB helps us to achieve our school’s mission in important ways. In particular, the three IB programmes together give us an ideal platform to work on inquiry-based learning. And we believe that is the basis of globally excellent learning in the 21st century.
Inquiry-based learning can be so difficult because it goes against the grain of traditional education in almost every way. It forces the student to be at the centre, not the teacher.
With the PYP, right from the start the students become accustomed to being the motors of what takes place. They don’t wait to be told what to do, but will pick work up from yesterday. They are much more active, more receptive.
During last year’s first PYP exhibitions, students came taking notes, doing interviews. We were not teaching them how to do it, they were just doing it. Inquiry is different from research: you go and talk to people, look at something. You’re collecting information in different ways to arrive at something that is different from where you started. And always what you do is defined by a question. You forget you’re doing a project for school, you just want to find out. It’s a great challenge. Are we an inquiry-based school? Not yet, but we’re working hard to get there, and the continuum provides the right culture.
We are also able to move towards assessment for learning, as the IB’s grading system is criterion-referenced. Assessment of learning – where we give a mark, close the book, and start all over again –
is limited. Assessment for learning – or developmental assessment – where students understand the aim of learning, makes more sense. Students know in advance what expectations are, and can strive towards them, get feedback and move on.
For us, inquiry-based learning and assessment for learning are two essential pieces of the continuum, and together they make for a powerful package.
Antony Mayrhofer
Director of IB, St. Paul’s Grammar School, Penrith, Australia
The value of service
As a school on the outskirts of Sydney, most of the 60 or so students who graduate from the Diploma Programme each year have been with us through the MYP, and many of these through the PYP. We now have students studying the Diploma Programme who have always known an IB education.
When St. Paul’s introduced the IB Diploma Programme in the late 1980s it was a good fit with the school’s philosophy. Apart from academic rigour, there was a deep sense of service through CAS, and the discussions of ethics in TOK, matching the Christian values upon which the school had been founded.
As with so many schools, the introduction of the PYP and MYP (in 2003) brought about a time of reflection on pedagogy, which led to a more student-centred approach to learning and the integration of subject disciplines in teaching and assessment.
Perhaps the most profound change has been the development of service as a vehicle for learning. St. Paul’s has developed
a connection with a school in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has grown from simple fundraising into a way of raising awareness that the world is a small place in which we have a responsibility to others and the capacity to make a difference if we choose to care and act.
The activities that raise funds to support the Congolese school’s needs are led by students who have learnt that their
own service to others provides a model of leadership. The Congo connection is developed throughout the school in many ways, including PYP exhibitions, recitals and concerts. This
is having a profound impact
on students, with a number returning to Africa as volunteers and others focusing university studies on building upon skills they have learned.
Edith van der Linden
IB Diploma Programme coordinator, North London International School, UK
Students know best
When we came to look at how we have consolidated the full IB continuum, we decided to ask students what they believed the school’s values were. The answers were revealing, and showed a clear understanding of our desire to foster lifelong learning for every child. According to a student in Year 11: “ Teachers accept people for the way they are, not making students fit a mould”. Another said: “Other schools might see themselves as a machine, but our school values each individual achievement”.
Does this mean that a true continuum of learning between the PYP, MYP and IB Diploma Programme has become a reality? The aim of fostering a new culture of thinking within the school has allowed the continuum to develop and grow. This has been strengthened by all three IB coordinators aiming to develop a whole-school curriculum. They recognize and encourage the involvement of teachers and students in whole-school events across the three programmes, such as our house-building project in Cambodia, creating a real community spirit.
In developing events where students can simultaneously showcase their efforts in the PYP exhibition, MYP personal project and Diploma Programme extended essay, students gain an insight into what it means to be part of the continuum. They realize how they can learn from each other the skills necessary to complete the core components of each programme.
Providing teachers with the time and the opportunities
to share their strengths across the school is a key part of enabling the continuum to become a reality. Liaising with colleagues teaching the same subject area across different programmes, and assessing the development of content and skills, has been a key focus.
This journey has not been without its challenges. A crucial turning point was favouring the IB programmes over the national curriculum – and this was wholeheartedly embraced by teachers, parents and students. Have we reached our goals and developed a true continuum? The introduction of an academic team, where all three coordinators meet and share ideas from across the school community as well as outside the school, is an exciting way forward.
As one of our teachers pointed out: “If we want our students to make a change in the future, we as teachers have to be the change now”.
