Approaches to teaching an

d learning in the
Diploma Programme

Wuxi, 23 Oct-25 Oct

 IB Mission Statement
• The International Baccalaureate aims to de
velop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring y
oung people who help to create a better an
d more peaceful world through intercultur
al understanding and respect.
Learning should not only take u
s somewhere; it should allow us
later to go further more easily.
 ATL
• In the DP, as well as in the Primary Years
Programme (PYP) and Middle Years Progr
amme (MYP), these cognitive, metacogniti
ve and affective skills are grouped into the
same five ATL categories.
 Five ATL Categories
• Thinking skills
• Communication skills
• Social skills
• Self-management skills
• Research skills
Developing students’ ATL skills is about mo
re than simply developing their cognitive sk
ills. It is also about developing affective and
metacognitive skills, and about encouraging
students to view learning as something that
they “do for themselves in a proactive way,
rather than as a covert event that happens to
them in reaction to teaching.
 Thinking skills
Concern with developing students’ thinking
, far from being a fad, is one of the most pers
istent and ambitious aspirations of educatio
n.
 Thinking skills
• In this approach , the teacher is seen as a f
acilitator who guides the student, stimulat
ing and provoking the student’s critical th
inking, analysis and synthesis throughou
t the learning process
The DP prides itself on providing opportuniti
es for students to develop thinking skills and
also an awareness of themselves as thinkers a
nd learners; something that is most explicitly
apparent in the important place given within
the DP to the theory of knowledge (TOK) cou
rse. …It is intended that the study of TOK wil
l support, and also be supported by, the acad
emic disciplines, and all DP subject guides pr
ovide teachers with suggestions for how they
can make links to TOK in their subject.
 Thinking skills
• The term thinking skills refers to a cluster o
f a large number of related skills, and in th
e DP particular focus is placed on skills su
ch as metacognition, reflection and critical thi
nking.
 Metacognitive
• Students become more aware of the ways i
n which they process information, find pat
terns, build conceptual understandings, an
d remember key facts and ideas.
 Reflection
• It is crucial that reflective activities are me
aningful for students, and do not become
mechanistic and formulaic. Effective reflec
tive activities should challenge students to
think more deeply, and students need to b
e explicitly aware of the role of the activiti
es.
 Higher order thinking
• DP subjects place a premium on the devel
opment of higher-order thinking skills rat
her than on simple memorization of content.
 “Cultures of Thinking” project

• This approach emphasizes the importance

of embedding thinking into the culture an
d everyday life of the school, rather than it
being seen as an add-on. One practical tea
ching strategy developed by this project to
help achieve this aim is that of “visible thi
nking” routines
“visible thinking” routines
 Communication skills
• Most people do not listen with the intent t
o understand; they listen with the intent to
reply.
 Communication skills
• Within DP schools, good communication
skills are needed not only for success in e
very subject discipline but also to help for
m and maintain good interpersonal relatio
nships both with other students and with
adults, be they teachers, administrators or
parents .
The most essential communication
skills for adolescents 1/6

The ability to communicate, in written or or

al form, and understand, or make others u
nderstand, various messages in a variety o
f situations and for different purposes.
The most essential communication
skills for adolescents 2/6

• The ability to listen to, and understand, v

arious spoken messages in a variety of co
mmunicative situations, and to speak conc
isely and clearly.
The most essential communication
skills for adolescents 3/6

• The ability to read and understand differe

nt texts, adopting strategies appropriate to
various reading purposes (reading for info
rmation, for study or for pleasure) and to
various text types.
The most essential communication
skills for adolescents 4/6

• The ability to write different types of texts

for various purposes. To monitor the writi
ng process (from drafting to proofreading)
.
The most essential communication
skills for adolescents 5/6

• The ability to formulate one’s arguments, i

n speaking or writing, in a convincing ma
nner and take full account of other viewpo
ints, whether expressed in written or oral f
orm.
The most essential communication
skills for adolescents 6/6

• The skills needed to use aids (such as note

s, schemes, maps) to produce, present or u
nderstand complex texts in written or oral
form (speeches, conversations, instruction
s, interviews, debates).
Strategies to develop communicati
on skills

• Model a good conversation, particularly with student

s who struggle conversationally.
• Encourage physical cues.
• Challenge put-downs or hurtful comments.
• Ask open-ended questions.
• Put thinking ahead of knowing.
• Have informal conversations.
• Make eye contact.
• Encourage turn-taking.
 Social skills
• These skills are closely linked to communi
cation skills and also to attributes of the IB
learner profile, such as being caring (for ex
ample, through students being aware of th
e impact of their behaviour on others).
 Social skills
• Human learning presupposes a specific so
cial nature and a process by which childre
n grow into the intellectual life of those ar
ound them.
• In this approach, learning is a fundamenta
lly active social process, and collaboration
is a crucial way of constructing understan
ding and making meaning.
 Collaboration
• Collaborative learning has been found to i
mprove understanding of facts (Fall et al.
1997), increase student motivation and en
gagement (Cumming 2010), improve acad
emic performance for lower-ability studen
ts (Saner et al. 1994), and to produce highe
r satisfaction in learning (Klein 1992).
 Collaboration
• There is evidence that cooperative teams a
chieve at higher levels of thought and retai
n information longer than students who w
ork quietly as individuals.
 Collaboration
• Teachers should provide explicit opportun
ities in the classroom for students to practi
se and develop their social and collaborati
ve skills. Group formative assessment task
s can provide an excellent opportunity an
d incentive for students to improve their c
ollaboration skills.
 Spider web discussion method
• Synergetic—a collaborative, group effort with a single group g
rade
• Process—a process that must be practised and honed
• Independent—students work independently; teacher observes
and gives feedback
• Developed—a developed, sustained discussion that aims to “g
et somewhere”
• Exploration—an exploration of ideas, texts or questions throu
gh discussion with a …
• Rubric—a clear, specific rubric against which the students can
self-assess.
(Wiggins, 2011)
Social and emotional learning

• This approach emphasizes elements such

as the ability to take the perspective of oth
ers and the ability to form effective relati
onships. However, it also emphasizes the
importance of students developing the abi
lity to regulate their own emotions and b
ehaviours.
 Self-management skills
• This skill category breaks down into two s
eparate areas.
1. Organization skills—managing time and
tasks effectively, goal-setting, etc.
2. Affective skills—managing state of mind,
self-motivation, resilience, mindfulness, et
c.
 Organization skills
• Time management is not something we ca
n assume that students will do naturally—
as with all ATL skills, it is a specific skill t
hat must be taught and also modelled.
 Time management
• If DP teachers help their students learn ho
w to break down assignments into achieva
ble steps and to timeline each step, plan o
ut revision and study plans for tests and e
xaminations, and build study timetables, t
hen much poor time management will be
alleviated.
 Affective skills
• The development of affective skills is a ke
y part of the development of self-manage
ment skills. This can enable students to gai
n some control over their mood, their moti
vation and their ability to deal effectively
with setbacks and difficulties.
 Affective skills
• Resilience
• Self-motivation
• Mindfulness
 Resilience
• Through focusing on developing resilienc
e with respect to learning, teachers may fi
nd that many other important affective ski
lls are practised and developed as well. Th
e optimal conditions for learning do not se
em to be created by goals that are too easy
or too difficult, but by goals that are challe
nging but achievable.
 Resilience
• For the resilient learner, any challenge ent
ails the possibility of failure and frustratio
n, but it is this possibility that makes the c
hallenge interesting and intrinsically moti
vating
 Resilience
• An important connection to highlight bet
ween ATL skills and the learner profile is t
he connection between resilience and the l
earner profile attribute of being “risk-take
rs”. Resilience is a vitally important part o
f self-management, and it includes learnin
g from mistakes.
 Resilience
• It is important that teachers create an atmo
sphere where students do not feel that the
y have to get things right first time. Regar
ding learning as a process of gradual impr
ovement through reflection on mistakes ca
n encourage students to ask questions, tak
e risks, be more adventurous in their think
ing, and be more creative with their ideas.
 Self-motivation
• All we can ever hope to do as teachers is t
o arrange the variables that we have some
influence over to help self-motivation to ar
ise and then to facilitate its development.
 Mindfulness
• Helping students learn how to “stay in the
moment” can help them to overcome distr
actions, increase attention and improve co
ncentration.
 Research skills
• Most students think of researching as putti
ng key words into a search box which lead
s them to undervalue the importance of ot
her methods.
 Research skills
• The development of research skills is give
n a central place in the DP, as can be seen,
for example, through the importance place
d on the extended essay.
 Research skills
• Research skills are also at the heart of inq
uiry-based pedagogy, which heavily influ
ences all IB programmes.
 Research skills
• There is also an important connection bet
ween effective research skills and academi
c honesty.
 Academic honesty
• All DP students are expected to acknowled
ge fully and in detail the work, thoughts or
ideas of another person if they are incorpor
ated in work submitted for assessment. Th
e IB does not prescribe which style(s) of ref
erencing should be used by students; this i
s left to the discretion of the school. Howev
er, it is expected that students will use an a
ppropriate style, and use this consistently.
 Research skills
• Teaching idea: Promote research skills and
critical-thinking skills by explicitly asking
students to discuss and reflect on the valu
e and limitations of the resources they cho
se to use when researching an assignment.
 Academic honesty
• Teaching idea: When setting assignments t
hat involve the student giving an oral pres
entation, use the opportunity to discuss th
e importance of academic honesty and cle
ar referencing of source materials in all tas
ks, including oral presentations. Many stu
dents forget that it is just as crucial to ackn
owledge their sources in an oral presentati
on as it is in a piece of written work.
 Research skills
• Training in information-literacy and medi
a-literacy skills is vital for every student w
ho is engaged in any form of inquiry learn
ing. “In the Internet world, the ease of fin
ding something obscures the difficulty of findi
ng the right thing” (Gustavson and Nall 2011:
291).
 Research skills
• In many cases, the people in schools best e
quipped to help students develop their res
earch skills are librarians.
 Research skills
• Teaching idea: Find some good online magaz
ines, newspapers, blogs and discussion grou
ps for your subject and encourage all student
s to set up RSS feeds to gather all the current
subject-related ideas. Don’t give the students
too many, just pick two or three feeds to begi
n with. Students can then build up their own
feeds and share and recommend them betwe
en themselves as the year progresses.
 Research skills
• It is also important to remember that resea
rch skills do not exist in isolation. They are
often intimately linked to other skills, such
as communication skills, and these can als
o be developed alongside any research skil
l practice.