Middle Years Programme at a glance

What is the Middle Years Programme?

Student with book It is a programme of international education designed to help students develop the knowledge, understanding, attitudes and skills necessary to participate actively and responsibly in a changing world.

The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) is designed for students aged 11 to 16.

This period, encompassing early puberty and mid-adolescence, is a particularly critical phase of personal and intellectual development and requires a programme that helps students participate actively and responsibly in a changing and increasingly interrelated world. Learning how to learn and how to evaluate information critically is as important as learning facts.

Curriculum documents are published in English, French, Spanish and Chinese but schools may offer the programme in other languages.

What does the curriculum contain?

The curriculum contains eight subject groups together with a core made up of five areas of interaction.

This is illustrated by means of an octagon with the five areas of interaction at its centre.

Students study subjects from each of the eight subject groups through the five areas of interaction: approaches to learning, community and service, human ingenuity, environment, and health and social education.

What are the five areas of interaction?

The five areas of interaction are:

Approaches to learning (ATL): Through ATL teachers provide students with the tools to enable them to take responsibility for their own learning, thereby developing an awareness of how they learn best, of thought processes and of learning strategies.
Community and service: This component requires students to take an active part in the communities in which they live, thereby encouraging responsible citizenship.
Human ingenuity: Students explore in multiple ways the processes and products of human creativity, thus learning to appreciate and develop in themselves the human capacity to influence, transform, enjoy and improve the quality of life.
Environments: This area aims to develop students’ awareness of their interdependence with the environment so that they understand and accept their responsibilities.
Health and social education: This area deals with physical, social and emotional health and intelligence—key aspects of development leading to complete and healthy lives.

How are students assessed?

Teachers organize continuous assessment over the course of the programme taking account of specified criteria that correspond to the objectives for each subject.

The MYP offers a criterion-related model of assessment. This means that students' results are determined by performance against set standards, not by each student's position in the overall rank order.

Teachers are responsible for structuring varied and valid assessment tasks that allow students to demonstrate achievement according to the required objectives within each subject group. These may include:

open-ended, problem-solving activities and investigations
organized debates
hands-on experimentation
analysis
reflection.

Assessment strategies, both quantitative and qualitative, provide feedback on the thinking processes as well as the finished piece of work. There is also an emphasis on self-assessment and peer-assessment within the programme.

Schools may request final grades to be validated by the International Baccalaureate (IB).

Who can offer the programme?

Only schools authorized by the IB as IB World Schools can offer the Middle Years Programme (MYP).

There are three phases to becoming an IB World School, authorized to offer the MYP.

Feasibility study and identification of resources

The school makes an in-depth analysis of the philosophy and curriculum, and identifies the resources needed to deliver it.

Trial implementation period

The school puts in place all the processes and resources needed to deliver the programme, including the training of teachers. The school must then implement the full programme for at least one year.

School visit

At the end of the trial period, a delegation appointed by the IB visits the school and evaluates the school’s capacity to deliver the programme. If the outcome is positive, the school becomes authorized to offer the programme and attains the status of IB World School.

The school’s delivery of the programme is evaluated by the IB four years after authorization and then every five years.

Are teachers trained to teach the programme?

Teachers receive training before and after a school becomes authorized to teach the programme.

Before a school becomes authorized to teach the programme, the teachers involved are required to undergo training; either by attending an IB teacher-training workshop or by participating in school-based training organized by the IB.

After a school becomes authorized, the teachers are encouraged to engage in an ongoing process of professional development by:

attending IB workshops and conferences
participating in online discussion and special events on the IB’s website for teachers, the online curriculum centre (OCC)
reviewing relevant support materials published by the IB online and/or in print
responding to appeals from the IB for teachers to participate in other curriculum-related activities (eg curriculum reviews, collecting samples of student work)
applying to become a moderator for the purpose of moderating internally assessed student work
applying to become an IB workshop leader.