Wow, the last two posters have obviously never been in some of the barge pole schools in the Uk. Honestly, I found the UK system to be not great, until you wrap your head around it, change your paradigms, and get with the program. The IB MYP is what YOU make it, just like the US, UK, or any system, really.
Yes, I did teach in the UK at a not-great school. Yes, I was a value added teacher when results came out. Yes, I did teach GCSE. In the end, you are the one who makes the system work - or not.
New to IB
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Cheery Littlebottom
- Posts: 207
- Joined: Sat May 11, 2013 8:32 am
Hi Shadowjack
I agree with a great deal of what you say. The way that lab work is approached by the MYP is great, plus the concept that science should be related to the real world, with all its good and less than good effects. However, our school has insisted on moderation for each and every year of the past 8 years. This has been translated, by this school, into a need to do at least one test, one lab and one One World essay each term.
I - our lessons for the whole year two academic years ago and we spent 45% of our lessons on some form of assessment. Granted, the labs are very much assessment for learning, but still.....as I said in my first line, "the way it is done in my school..."
Staff have been active in pushing back against this overemphasis on assessment, and have worked extremely hard to have school wide common agreements on many things, such as a system for referencing, agreements on command terms. etc etc.
At the end of the day, though, I feel that all of this good stuff could have been achieved without MYP. I have been in schools where all of this is the norm without the hassle of bloody MYP.
And I also taught in a "value added" school in the UK. The government said 24% of our students should get 5 A-C's and we regularly achieved 55%+.
My current school is definitely what you might call value-added, I swear we perform miracles with our kids. But their cultural norms + MYP is just an utterly exhausting combination.
One more year and I can look forward to going somewhere new - perhaps even an MYP school! Just NOT mine! :-)
I agree with a great deal of what you say. The way that lab work is approached by the MYP is great, plus the concept that science should be related to the real world, with all its good and less than good effects. However, our school has insisted on moderation for each and every year of the past 8 years. This has been translated, by this school, into a need to do at least one test, one lab and one One World essay each term.
I - our lessons for the whole year two academic years ago and we spent 45% of our lessons on some form of assessment. Granted, the labs are very much assessment for learning, but still.....as I said in my first line, "the way it is done in my school..."
Staff have been active in pushing back against this overemphasis on assessment, and have worked extremely hard to have school wide common agreements on many things, such as a system for referencing, agreements on command terms. etc etc.
At the end of the day, though, I feel that all of this good stuff could have been achieved without MYP. I have been in schools where all of this is the norm without the hassle of bloody MYP.
And I also taught in a "value added" school in the UK. The government said 24% of our students should get 5 A-C's and we regularly achieved 55%+.
My current school is definitely what you might call value-added, I swear we perform miracles with our kids. But their cultural norms + MYP is just an utterly exhausting combination.
One more year and I can look forward to going somewhere new - perhaps even an MYP school! Just NOT mine! :-)
Comment
Yes an MYP certificate is worthless professionally, but its not supposed to be worth anything.
Yes, MYP has in the past been very fungible and flexible, it has to be. MYP has to stand on its own as a self contained curriculum, but also has to accommodate a wide variety of differing national curriculums.
IGCSE isnt the only viable curriculum, not is the British curriculum system the standard by which to measure all other curriculums.
MYP is in a number of top tier schools, not just the worse of the worse.
MYP is in the process of becoming more prescribed, and yes it has been a bland bridge between PYP and DIP, with a single focus being on the personal project (one focus for 5 years of education).
IB training is not designed to make you a content expert, its not supposed to instruct you what to teach as far as content mastery. Its purpose is to impart IB pedagogy and methodology. Its about HOW to teach the material, not what material to teach. In that aspect entry level training (and even some advance training) can be uninspiring to teachers who have a foundational background in inquiry and student centered learning and teaching.
Yes, MYP has in the past been very fungible and flexible, it has to be. MYP has to stand on its own as a self contained curriculum, but also has to accommodate a wide variety of differing national curriculums.
IGCSE isnt the only viable curriculum, not is the British curriculum system the standard by which to measure all other curriculums.
MYP is in a number of top tier schools, not just the worse of the worse.
MYP is in the process of becoming more prescribed, and yes it has been a bland bridge between PYP and DIP, with a single focus being on the personal project (one focus for 5 years of education).
IB training is not designed to make you a content expert, its not supposed to instruct you what to teach as far as content mastery. Its purpose is to impart IB pedagogy and methodology. Its about HOW to teach the material, not what material to teach. In that aspect entry level training (and even some advance training) can be uninspiring to teachers who have a foundational background in inquiry and student centered learning and teaching.