I am an IB educator.
I used to only teach at schools and later hold workshops for other teachers, until a few years ago when I decided to do more for education and for students.
Now, I’m working with more than 200 students and 100 teachers every year, from 30 different countries. And what I see is shocking.
The IB Diploma Programme is one of the best-designed high school curricula I have ever come across. I have studied and taught in many national and international curricula, yet the IB Diploma Programme remains one of the least well-applied and well-executed of them all.
I am still puzzled by the inconsistencies in how the programme is applied, especially in my areas of specialty – Languages and the Theory of Knowledge. I can’t figure out whether teachers, and definitely administrators, are unaware of IB guidelines and, more fundamentally, its approaches to teaching and learning, or if they simply do not care.
From teachers asking Language A students to choose five works for their Internal Oral assessment, prepare three literary works for Paper 2, forcing students to include cinematic techniques analysis in their category 1 Extended Essays, to making students only choose personal items they use daily for their TOK exhibitions and demanding at least six real-life examples for their TOK essays, the crazy stories I hear on a daily basis are endless.
I can only do so much when faced with the enforcement of personal preferences on students, personal preferences that, unfortunately, don’t stop with the implementation of the DP curriculum but extend to indoctrinating students with activist mindsets. Isn’t critical appreciation of “the values and traditions of others,” seeking and evaluating “a range of points of view,” and willingness to “grow from the experience” part of the open-mindedness value of IB learners?
I understand that the IB Organization has become an enterprise and that IB education is now a for-profit business. But can we not do both – make money and provide solid education to children that aligns with the vision and mission of the IB’s founding fathers? Can we not remember Kurt Hahn’s beliefs and efforts to break the suffocating walls of tribalism? Wasn’t it he who suggested that sitting two members of historically enemy groups together on a school trip could do more for world peace than any international summit?
I’ve always been a big fan of offering solutions rather than just nagging and complaining without suggesting a way forward. So, here’s what I’ll do. If you’re a school teacher and you don’t really know how to teach the subject, prepare your students for assessments, or conduct them, the first and most accurate source to visit is IB’s Programme Resource Center.
You can also find many reliable and reputable sources online, such as IB English Guys for Language A – Language and Literature and TOK Today for the Theory of Knowledge. There are also experienced trainers, like Michael Dunn, who occasionally hold free seminars and workshops. I will also be holding a free online workshop for new TOK teachers soon. Get in touch with me or follow Online IB so you don’t miss these events.
At the end of the day, not only is there no shame in seeking knowledge and help, but it also shows a teacher’s lifetime-learner mentality, which earns nothing but respect.
Please share your points of view, and let us all learn more and learn forever.
IB Workshop
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