Obtaining a UNI Diploma in the International Baccalaureate

[klooste]

Hi all!
Please scroll to the bottom for a Too long, didn't read summary! =D
I'm a Canadian citizen who will be teaching in China for 3 years. I plan to return to Canadian soil to obtain IB certification. As many of you may know, obtaining certification in Canada for IB is quite difficult; the Unviersity of BC acts as the only Canadian institution which supplies Canadian teachers with IB certification. My question is will obtaining a 12 month diploma (for educators) grant me IB certifcation for teaching abroad? I only have experience teaching IB during my teaching practicums. Here's a link to the UBC (in case others were curious, or some of you can read better than me... =P) : http://teach.educ.ubc.ca/bachelor-of-ed ... alaureate/

Tl, dr: will a diploma completed at the University of BC (http://teach.educ.ubc.ca/bachelor-of-ed ... alaureate/) grant me certifcation for teaching IB abroad? Is it enough?

Thanks all!

You're all wondAful!
??

[fine dude]

I'd rather look at some decent Tier 2 IB schools which are willing to hire me and send me to those workshops, gain a couple of years of DP experience and then aim higher.

[Cheery Littlebottom]

Yeah, I'm with Fine Dude. Bit drastic to go all the way back to Canada. If you like the international life, then find a school who will give you the opportunity to learn on the job and go to workshops. You can take online training too, just to show your enthusiasm and commitment! This will help you get a job in an IB school.

[PaulJorg]

As a parent who pays huge fees for a child in an international school in China the post supports our grass roots organization for regulation in international schools in China. We pay fees for qualified teachers, it's not on the job training......... Now I understand very clearly ..........

Get qualified then come teach our kids......... If your not qualified....easy answer - go home.........

[fine dude]

@PaulJorg
Some of the best AP and IB teachers I have seen and worked with have all learned about IB methodology at some school before they became examiners and workshop leaders. They never went back to their home countries to get IB certification, which has no real meaning. You learn much more on the job and working with kids than attending some exorbitant course which doesn't give much insight into the curriculum.

It is practically impossible for all IB schools to hire experienced IB teachers. As long as a teacher is fully certified in the subject he or she teaches and has a strong pedagogical content knowledge, it doesn't matter what curriculum they teach. IB is not rocket science. One can learn the ropes within a few months.

Hope this topic is not further hijacked by some sentimental or corporate parent who knows very little about about how education systems work.

[teachingagain1945]

Well said fine dude.
I wouldn't go back to Canada or my home country to get IB certification. Just like teacher's college you don't learn much in my opinion, you learn as you do and work with your colleagues in a school. A year back in Canada would be a waste of time, money, and loss of 1 year of income.

[shadowjack]

PaulJorg, that's a little harsh. I was hired by an IB school - no IB experience, but plenty of experience teaching in the subject area, plus a very similar inquiry-based, student centered teaching philosophy. My school is very happy with me, my students are very happy with me, and my parents are very happy with me. Not everybody gets 5's and 6's, but I push them to it. Despite that, some only get 3's on some assignments.

Just having an IB qualification does not an IB teacher make. But I am qualified now, because my school sent me within a month of school starting. What I learned in my training certainly helped, but it wasn't like I was clueless from the beginning.

Just my 2 cents - and yes, I have had my own kids taught be new IB teachers learning on the job - some were great and some not so great. But...then again, some of the teachers with training were great - and some not so great, so it is about the same either way.

Just my 2 cents.

Shad

[Cheery Littlebottom]

@pauljorg
I didn't just drift in off the street, you know? I transitioned into teaching IB as an 8 year teacher and head of department, with 6 years teaching A levels in my subject area. If you have your kids in a good school, they should be taught by credentialed and experienced teachers who essentially CAN TEACH and teach very well. Staff are also interviewed personally for ethos and fit. Teaching IB is a great ambition for many teachers as schools do not employ you lightly. The best schools are highly sought after, and can pick and choose.

If the school is charging you a ton of money and NOT hiring properly qualified staff and NOT seeking accreditation from a reputable agency then look for another school. Check that the school is a not-for-profit and that is has accreditation from WASC/IBO/NEASC etc. If you are unhappy with a teacher, go and talk to them.

On a slightly sour grapes note......that old adage about everyone knowing what teachers do because they went to school seems to hold true. People in jobs other than teaching learn new things all the time - new computer systems, new policies, new government requirements, new carbon-neutral regulations...They may only have an afternoon, or a few days training to get their heads around it, then it's straight on to implementation. They haven't reinvented the wheel, or themselves from the ground up. They don't walk back into their office new born. It's the same with teachers, they can still teach, they just need to incorporate adjustments. Why do you think, Mr Jorg, that we are somehow making your kids pay the price for our careers?

Your kids are at the centre of our universe, whatever we are teaching.

[redrider]

With respect, pauljorg doesn't know what he's talking about. Firstly, I can tell you that I teach at a school that charges 30,000$ a year for students to attend and it hasn't even plumbed all of our buildings with hot water. The idea that you get what you pay for when paying tuition made me laugh a little. There simply is no relation. The idea that there would be shows a mindset that is not very familiar with how the rest of the world can work.

To the OP, in my experience, schools look for teachers with a good philosophical fit to the IB and then send them to training. Think learner profile and how a recruiter might look to see if a candidate would be good to make the investment. (This is required, by the way, schools must send teachers to IB training every 2 years, so the idea of no on the job training is also a bit silly, it's completely incompatible with the ethos of the IB.)

I would say, DON'T go home for a 'certificate' or pay to send yourself to an IB training. It's a lot of money and the school should be paying for it when they hire you. If you sit out of working for a year to get more training, in my opinion, you make yourself LESS attractive in the international job market because you could have had that one more year of experience, which schools care about far more.

Get into an ok IB school that will give you experience, it will be far more valuable to you, personally, professionally and financially.

[sid]

Sorry redrider, I need to correct you on a technical point, though I agree in general with the sentiments you and others have expressed.
There is no requirement, not even close, for schools to send all IB teachers to training every 2 years. There are 2 training requirements:
1. For the PYP, all PYP teachers and the Coordinator must be trained at least to the level of Making the PYP Happen.
2. For the other 3 IB programs, the school must have a trained Coordinator, and at least 1 trained teacher per subject group.

And that's it. If they hire those people already trained, they don't have to send any more people for training, ever, at least not per the rules. They don't have to send people for advanced training either.

Now, I doubt any school would claim that just meeting the minimum and stopping would be a good idea, and I certainly wouldn't claim that personally either. But those minimums do exist. For most schools, they represent a starting point, to be achieved before authorization and built upon over time. Any rule about 'every 2 years' might be a school rule (and kudos to the school for implementing it), but it's not an IB rule.

[redrider]

I'm trying to find where it says every two years, but now all the documents on the OCC are new. I think I first heard that from a head of school, that the courses 'expire' after 2 years, but now I can't even remember who said that to me. At any rate, in the self-evaluation documents, that are a five year cycle, they ask who's gone on what training when.
And in the The Diploma Programme: From principles into practice, they also say:

"Professional development should be ongoing for all teachers in a school, irrespective of their experience. Professional development is needed to keep experienced teachers up to date with course developments.

At a minimum, schools should take advantage of workshops or online professional development opportunities when a new curriculum has been developed following the curriculum review cycle."

Maybe that head of school calculated that between the five year self-evaluation cycle and the review cycle for the different subjects (since it wouldn't usually happen at the same time) you wouldn't be longer than two years (2.5?) in practical terms. They do go on to talk quite a bit about all the other ways to do professional development, which I am pretty sure was not included in the old literature. It always seemed a handy money maker for them to have their courses be out-of-date, so to speak, after two year's time, especially given their costs.

[sid]

This might be what you're looking for. It's from the Programme Evaluation Guide from the MYP, which is the most up to date of the program documents. The other programs have similar guidance:

"Professional development requirements
During programme evaluation, schools must provide evidence that they have met the following minimum
requirements for participation in IB-recognized professional development.
For partnerships: Every school in a partnership must comply with the IB professional development requirements individually.
• The head of school (or designee) if appointed during the period under review, must participate in an
appropriate IB workshop. The head of school may designate someone else to participate in the
workshop if this person has decision making authority over the IB programme concerned. A head or
designee who has participated in an appropriate IB workshop previously in another school meets this
requirement
• At all times, the MYP coordinator and at least one teacher per subject group must have been trained
in an IB category 1 or 2 workshop.
• Following the review of a subject group, when a new guide has been published, one teacher in this
subject group must complete the relevant workshop
• Every school that has been authorised as part of an MYP partnership must comply with the IB
professional development requirements individually.
The IB expects the school to provide further opportunities for staff to attend IB-recognized professional
development activities as evidence of its ongoing commitment to professional development and in support
of the continuing implementation of the programme. Specifically, it is recommended that teachers and
pedagogical leaders who have been hired during the period under review should participate in appropriate
IB-recognized workshops. "

Excuse the horrible formatting...

And I learned something. The bullet about needing training after a new guide is published... that's new. And a good idea too. The old rules meant that if you had one Maths teacher who'd been trained yonks and yonks ago, you never had to train anyone else. Which obviously is a poor idea and I hope schools didn't take advantage of it, but at least now that loophole is closed.

And yes, when visiting teams come (4 years for first visit, 5 years thereafter), they do examine training records. And then can comment if they find the school is not doing enough, but they'd best be careful in how they phrase it, as they can't cry foul so long as the minimums are met.

The IB is always very careful about establishing 'requirements' and 'recommendations'. There is a huge difference, and you will find that there are actually a minimum of 'requirements'. Plenty of shoulds, coulds... Few musts. And they have reasons. When I trained as a school visitor, we were given the example of a real school which teaches in a host-country language, which is a language in which training is not available. Only a tiny number of teachers speak English or any other language in which training is available. So the school trains the few who speak English, and those few have the responsibility for training and supporting everyone back home, which is a far cry from the 'official' training the IB prefers we get, but is realistically the school's only option.

So no, there is no two-year rule from the IB. But it would be a nice rule for a school to impose on itself, if it has the means and teachers speak at least one of the official IB languages.

[luvinit]

Assuming you have teacher certification in Canada, you wouldn't need to do that whole program (which unless I misunderstand it would be a big overlap with what you already have done)..

IB schools will want you to have (1) your existing teaching certification [check!] and (2) Experience [check!]. Yes, it may help if you've already done one of those (typically 3-4 day in-person or month-long online) IB trainings in the area you want to teach. You may well want to enroll in one of those yourself in the year prior to entering the job market, since it would show you're earnest and perhaps relieve them of sending you in your first year. This is not at all a requirement to be hired by an IB school or to teach there, though as mentioned above, IB schools do need to take training seriously and they would expect to send you to one of the training seminars about once every other year, in my experience.

[klooste]

Thanks everyone! I was planning to come back to Canada after 3 years to do my masters in leadership, so I guess I'll skip doing the diploma in IB, and jsut do an IT diploma, and a masters degree in four years.

Thus said, is it worth doing an diploma in IT? Please post your thoughts (maybe I'll make a seperate thread for this question). I just want to make myself more employable, because I plan to live in China for a very long long time.