Programme development research (Academic division)

The research agenda to inform the development of the IB’s three programmes and the continuum includes four interconnected areas.

Programme development research areas

Fostering curriculum implementation by exploring and analyzing initiatives, strategies, challenges and lessons learned through enhancing the implementation of the IB’s three programmes in diverse school contexts and developing timely resources for the effectiveness of teaching and learning.

Supporting the continuum of the IB’s three programmes by investigating theory and practice of curriculum alignment and articulation to support learning continuum between and across the three programmes.

Responding proactively to potentials of and challenges for students in the 21st century by examining initiatives in cultivating international-mindedness and how it relates to students’ development towards holistic individuals, lifelong learners, and global citizens.

Building research capacity for curriculum development by providing research training to sustain research competences and thus rigourous educational research throughout the continuous curriculum development process of the three programmes.

We approach these research areas through a series of literature reviews to keep us updated on contemporary educational thinking and practices, discussion documents to bring experts’ knowledge and IB practitioners’ experiences together, position papers to encourage collective reflection on and discussion about the IB educational philosophy and initiatives, and in-house training in educational research methodology to support the rigourous activities of curriculum review.

While programme development research is often to inform curriculum development initiatives and to support internal capacity, some results of programme development research efforts relevant to the wider IB community are made available on the IB’s Online Curriculum Centre (OCC) and Position Papers Blog.

IB World School coordinators and teachers can log on to the OCC at: http://occ.ibo.org/ibis/occ/guest/home.cfm

The IB Position Papers Blog can be found at: http://blogs.ibo.org/positionpapers/

Summary of programme development research resources: