They might be different ages and sizes, but they are a single community of lifelong learners
What are the benefits and challenges of being a continuum school – and how do they help students make key transitions? Teachers and school leaders share their recipes for success.
There is no such thing as an archetypal IB World School.
Each institution is shaped by its own surroundings, the nature of its leadership and the character of its teachers and students. While all are likely to have inquiry – and compassion – at the centre of their ethos, they may look and feel very different in many fundamental ways.
If any schools can be said to be representative of the IB in action, however, it is the growing number who have implemented either a full (three-programme) or partial continuum. They demonstrate the benefits of educational cohesion, commonality of terminology and progressive professional development. But they also face challenges as students move between programmes and parents and teachers need to understand the nuances of IB life.
The IB is helping this rapidly evolving area with the first survey of full and partial continuum schools, conducted by the IB and analyzed by Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd). Survey responses from 235 IB coordinators worldwide show that transition between programmes is being given plenty of thought and is generally extremely effective. It also identifies the challenges students face, including the need to prepare for detailed and prescribed content in the IB Diploma Programme and changes in attitudes to learning.
The study makes suggestions for improving transitions, and points to effective management practices, such as teachers working across programmes and holding more regular meetings with colleagues. To gain a deeper understanding of continuum practices, HKIEd is following up the survey analysis with several in-depth case studies of continuum schools.
IB World looks more closely at three schools putting the continuum into practice, to share the methods that make change manageable, and meets one of the IB’s first full continuum graduates, to see what a three-programme education means in practice.
Salmiya, Kuwait
Preparing for change by planning ahead
For Blair Lee, the IB continuum is a personal as well as a professional passion. With two sons studying the PYP, the high school principal of the American International School (AIS) Kuwait can watch the effects of becoming an IB learner at first hand. And he certainly likes what he sees.
AIS supports 1,582 IB learners in the Gulf state, and its approach to the continuum is decidedly different to many of its peers. Having offered the IB Diploma Programme for 13 years before embracing first the MYP and, most recently, the PYP, the school’s curriculum has been redesigned to nurture the skills IB graduates require. “We think about the skills the students will need in the final years of the programme and work to fulfill those requirements in the early years,” says Blair. “If the review of examination results does not meet our expectations, we work towards analyzing and adjusting the curriculum expectations.”
Blair sees the transition from MYP to the Diploma Programme as the most crucial in any student’s school life, for which AIS prepares its students thoroughly. “We explain the change process,” he says. “If the kids are aware of change, we can work through it with them. By explaining that the Diploma Programme is a challenge, and that their grades are likely to go down at first, it comes as less of a shock.”
Developing the curriculum has become central to the professional development of Blair and his colleagues – and they admit it is a work in progress. A recently appointed curriculum coordinator, Susan Little, has been brought on board to develop a whole-school approach to learning, and initiate an ongoing process of pedagogic review to ensure constant scrutiny of the learning process. Cross-programme reviews of key areas create a cohesive approach, which is why all 170 AIS Kuwait teachers will soon meet to define literacy and how it should be taught at every level of the school.
Operating in a continuum has altered the school dynamic, says David Botbyl, middle school principal at AIS Kuwait: “It’s helped us better understand the nature of internationalism and the transdisciplinary nature of the PYP and MYP, and foster a common desire to prepare students for what’s ahead in the Diploma Programme.”
And that effect can be seen in takeup of the IB Diploma Programme, which has grown from 25% to 55% since the MYP’s introduction, ensuring the AIS continuum will keep on growing.
Colorado, USA
Where good ideas come from anywhere
A whole-school approach means the student body speaks with one voice at Discovery Canyon Campus (DCC) in Colorado Springs, USA. And when a school community member, David Hames, lost his life in the Haitian earthquake, students sent an unequivocal message, dedicating a forthcoming talent show to his memory and donating proceeds to his family. As PYP and MYP coordinator Genevieve Price points out, such profound statements are everyday occurrences at a school where “students see themselves as active participants who can really make a difference.”
Nestled among some of North America’s most spectacular mountain ranges, DCC is a remarkable educational experiment. Almost uniquely for a public school in the USA, the facility, founded in 2005, educates students up to the age of 18 in one location. It made sense for the school to incorporate the IB programmes, with the PYP and MYP becoming mandatory to create a cohesive continuum, says executive principal Gary Batsell: “Although they are different ages and sizes, our students all focus on the learning opportunities… they’re a single community of lifelong learners”
IB terminology and principles have quickly become ingrained in the fabric of school life (as Genevieve puts it, “students become fluent in the IB”). “During a presentation about the Diploma Programme, I asked the
MYP students to name a profile word,” says Diploma Programme coordinator Alison Flaherty. “They could name them all, and knew the acronyms like TOK. It came naturally.” This level of engagement means participation in the IB Diploma Programme is currently growing by 5% each year.
Educating parents about the unique school environment – as well as the aims of the IB – was established as an early goal. Today, many of DCC’s community initiatives are actively designed to promote partnership between the different programmes.
DCC’s teaching and leadership strategies include monthly discussions between teachers about pedagogic technique, as well as regular communication about specific students’ strengths and weaknesses, so future educators are fully prepared. Such ideas are evolving organically – but so is the entire school. What happens among these hills may eventually offer a new blueprint for one of the world’s largest educational systems, but today Gary and his team are simply focused on changing lives one at a time.
Tokyo, Japan
The power of speaking with one voice
Visit the IB Diploma Programme coordinator’s office at K International School (KIST) in Tokyo, Japan and you may find a one-on-one conversation difficult to conduct: the room is shared with the coordinators of the two other IB programmes. The unusual proximity isn’t a cost-cutting measure: it’s
a deliberate attempt to promote the sort of single-minded approach to teaching that has made the school an outstanding example of the IB continuum in action.
“The learning process is the same for a three-year-old as an 18-year-old,” says Damian Rentoule, vice principal and curriculum director. And that ethos extends to teachers, who are encouraged to spend time in each other’s classrooms, take part in cross-programme workshops and come together to discuss pedagogy and educational literature over cheese and wine as part of a reading club. A curriculum leadership team oversees and encourages continuity.
KIST sees inquiry as the central defining strand of school life. Students are actively encouraged to question, and expect to be quizzed in return. MYP coordinator and mathematics and technology teacher Ross Ferris oversees the implementation of units of inquiry in the MYP. “When mapping the approaches to learning skills, it was vital to know what is required for students to be successful in the Diploma Programme,” he says. “But it’s also important to understand how the transdisciplinary skills have developed in the PYP. Teachers can learn
a lot from each other.”
Across all programmes, teachers are encouraged to design activities to determine what new students already know, and track the learning process using an ‘inquiry cycle’ with activities such as ‘Wondering Walls’, where they pin words and pictures that represent how knowledge is evolving. It provides a visual reminder of how learning
is carried through across the programmes. “We want to avoid students having a different role in the classroom as they move between years,” says Damian. “The underlying nature of student learning doesn’t change, so why should the learning environment?”
PYP students spend time in an MYP class and attend the personal project exhibition in Grade 5 before they move up, so they can meet their new teachers and see what they’re working towards. “It’s good for the MYP students too. Talking to younger students helps them reflect on what they have achieved throughout the programme,” says Ross.
Damian admits the greatest challenge is helping parents to understand the principles and specifics of the IB programmes, but information nights and a wiki demystifying terminology in a collaborative way are making a difference. At KIST, it’s good to talk – whether in a busy office or cyberspace.
“Everything I’d learned started to make sense”
Jessica Kahkoska is one of relatively few students to have completed the entire IB continuum. After graduating from Rampart High School in Colorado Springs, USA, she is currently studying at Northwestern University.
“I’m only now beginning to understand how much the IB changed my life. It was much more than classes, and the continuum was much more than school. It’s a way of life.
Right from starting the PYP, I felt supported and part of a community. I began to be aware of my role as
a learner in the world. The support we got from the teachers was always incredible. Now I’m at university, I still ask my old history teacher for advice.
The combination of great teachers and the curriculum made the whole IB the most intense, yet safest, thing I’ve ever done.
However, I did falter between each of the programmes. There was so much information to absorb. I was intimidated. The biggest transition was between the MYP and Diploma Programme – you’re making decisions that will affect your career.
Luckily, it was a very involved experience at my school. We had one-on-one talks with the IB coordinator and teachers to discuss our future. It reminded us that we aren’t the first or last IB students to go through this.
Just before I left school, everything I’d learned in the IB started to make sense. I felt I’d been building up to this
for 10 years. It’s taught me to question everything, and approach the answers with open eyes and an open mind.”
