The International Schools Review Forum

I don't have any IB experience, and I've been doing a fair amount of reading on the subject to prepare. What I'm finding is a description of what I strive to do already in my (American) classroom; similar philosophies about educating the whole child, differentiation, etc. Can any of you with experience in both systems give me a few comparison/contrasting bullet points of major differences you've noticed firsthand?

Like: "In the US, _______. In IB, on the other hand, ______." What I really wish I could see is videos: Here is how X is taught in an American class. Now, here is how X is taught in the IB system.

Thanks!

you kind of already understand it correctly.
i was taught to teach essentially what the IB does but without all the fancy jargon. current best practices of schools in north america at least already do what the IB requires, it's just different terminology.

whereas in north america you might teach thematic units, in the IB you would teach more conceptual units. there are videos if you search for them.

having taught in both systems, i can't say that IB does it better....it's generally just more expensive for parents, maybe more planning for teachers, more rigorous for students (depending on your students and how well they can receive the delivery of curriculum). others might have other ideas, but someone said it was cult-like and it sort of is. i'm not knocking it, i actually like it, but is it a completely different world? not really, especially for teachers who are relatively new to teaching and who keep up on the theory.

but having the experience will certainly help you in the international sphere.

v.

Having taught in both, I would say that the American curriculum is a bit more prescriptive. I teach social studies and have taught AP and IB History (also TOK). In IB, I would never even think about giving a multiple choice test. They just aren't done! Whereas in American and AP, MC tests are the norm.

Also specific to history, American and AP curriculum tends to be survey courses. Covering large time periods of history for a year. In IB it is much more in-depth.

vandsmith is right in other regards, IB isn't some magic pill. Good teaching is good teaching

It really depends what you teach particularly at what level. First, IB is absolutely a cult, thats not bad, its a cult I like a lot. Comparing workshop leaders and seminars and everything you read about IB to what the VAST majority of IB teachers do and youd wonder if they were doing the same thing.

Describing the difference between the two is that American curriculum is a "classroom experience" wheras IB is a "whole school" experience. IB is three programs (4 if you count careers). Of the three im going to discuss PYP (Primary) and (DIP) (Upper Secondary, high school) are the most prescriptive.

DIP, If you teach AP in the states then DIP would be very easy to adapt too. Its very prescriptive, you have a syllabus you cover certain material, students undergo assessment. DIP is 2 years but with review its close to a year and a half.

PYP is also very prescribed but unlike a US primary classroom its VERY different. An American primary curriculum focus is on literacy and numeracy. In the PYP you have a Unit of Inquiry (UI) thats centralized on a theme and your school chooses which subject fields (Language, maths, social studies, science, arts, pspe) that will be included in that theme with the other subjects stranded (independent). The themes are multi week interdisciplinary conceptual ideas. The first one is usually "Who we are" so as a teacher for 3-4 weeks worth of instruction you develop a UI thats explores who your students are with your non stranded subjects. So how do you take maths and have students incorporate that into learning and expressing who they are (maths is the most difficult course teacher have with thematic integration). Each of your UIs will explore various attributes and descriptors that are part of the IB Learner Profile.

MYP, unlike the other two is considerably less prescribed. It wasnt until recently that MYP could be described at being "whatever you wanted it to be" and its still far less structured and rigid as before. MYP was what IB schools did (and paid for) so that they could call themselves "IB World Schools" thats not true anymore, but many schools still hybridize their MYP program with whatever national curriculum their using or where they are located. The reason being that unless your going to graduate out of IB with an IB diploma the school has to provide an education that a local national can transfer out of into the local/regional school system. Many schools run another program/curriculum alongside their IB program, partially because they have a closed DIP program (meaning students have to be admitted to it) since an IB schools reputation is highly influenced by its scores. Recently however the IB adopted prescription guidelines basically 50 hours of instruction in each of 8 subjects.

As I wrote earlier IB is more a whole school experience than a classroom experience, since several core components of the IB program are school wide and transition with a student outside the conventional classroom and from grad to grade. Putting aside all the terminology the most central product within the school experience is the portfolio requirement that starts from PYP 1 to DIP 2. Portfolio can take many forms and implementations, some schools see it as a collection of assessments, some see it as a scrapbook, but its a fundamental part of the IB program. Each program (PYP, MYP, DIP) have a portfolio based culminating activity. In PYP its called Exhibition, in MYP its called (personal) Project. In DIP its the Essay. Student work on these in their last year of that program.

Another aspect of IB is CAS and TOK, CAS is Creativity, Action and Service and its very much like community service. TOK is Theory of Knowledge, a hybrid of a research and philosophy course.

You probably have some training and academics in inquiry based education (student centered or guided discovery) and MYP and DIP really require learning a whole new lexicon of terminology and then using it. Otherwise if your not a CAS, TOK, or Essay mentor IB wont be much different than how you describe your teaching philosophy.
PYP is the hardest for teachers to adjust too. Your first year in PYP is a training year basically. The IB requires ALL PYP teachers be trained, whereas in DIP only one department member needs to be trained. In addition to workshop, the IB also offers two pseudo-certification credentials.

THANK YOU, PsyGuy!! Thank you for that concise explanation. It sounds amazing for my kids, who will be in PYP, and perfect for my husband and me to transition into since we'll be MYP. Perfect!

PsyGuy wrote:
> It really depends what you teach particularly at what level. First, IB is
> absolutely a cult, thats not bad, its a cult I like a lot. Comparing
> workshop leaders and seminars and everything you read about IB to what the
> VAST majority of IB teachers do and youd wonder if they were doing the same
> thing.
>
> Describing the difference between the two is that American curriculum is a
> "classroom experience" wheras IB is a "whole school"
> experience. IB is three programs (4 if you count careers). Of the three im
> going to discuss PYP (Primary) and (DIP) (Upper Secondary, high school) are
> the most prescriptive.
>
> DIP, If you teach AP in the states then DIP would be very easy to adapt
> too. Its very prescriptive, you have a syllabus you cover certain material,
> students undergo assessment. DIP is 2 years but with review its close to a
> year and a half.
>
> PYP is also very prescribed but unlike a US primary classroom its VERY
> different. An American primary curriculum focus is on literacy and
> numeracy. In the PYP you have a Unit of Inquiry (UI) thats centralized on a
> theme and your school chooses which subject fields (Language, maths, social
> studies, science, arts, pspe) that will be included in that theme with the
> other subjects stranded (independent). The themes are multi week
> interdisciplinary conceptual ideas.
____________________
OMFG. You used the word theme. Some members of the cult would be very upset with you.

Theyre too busy drinking the koolaid.