Inclusive design for learning and teaching

“In all IB programmes, teaching is … designed to remove barriers to learning. Teaching is inclusive and values diversity. It affirms students’ identities, and aims to create learning opportunities that enable every student to develop and pursue appropriate personal goals.” — (What is an IB education? 2013:6)

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Optimal and supportive arrangements for all students

Inclusive education thrives in a culture of collaboration, mutual respect, support and problem-solving that engages the whole school community.

Teachers should have significant freedom in organizing and structuring their courses. The IB learning design enables teachers to integrate optimal and supportive arrangements for all students, so the student learning experiences are tailored to meet their diverse needs.

Within education systems designed to serve all citizens, public policies mandate provisions that cater to every student's needs. In the United States, Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and Section 504 Plans ensure students have equal and equitable access to schooling. Below are some examples of how common IEP and 504 modifications, accommodations, and differentiations align with IB approaches to learning and teaching. 

The resource below provides a sample of IEP arrangements as they align with the inclusive learning design in the IB curriculum framework. Reflect on how this resource can facilitate collaborative planning to meet the needs of all students in the classroom.

Designing optimal learning arrangements for all students (PDF, 322 KB)

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The IB inclusive learning design

The IB offers an array of resources to guide teachers in co-creating high-quality education for all students. These include subject guides, teacher support materials, and a wide range of implementation resources, including a guide for “Learning diversity and inclusion in IB programmes.”

For example, according to the Diploma Programme (DP) Language A: Language and Literature subject guide, teachers have the autonomy to:

• select texts that are challenging but accessible, allowing students to build on prior knowledge
• plan a wide range of activities catering to different learning preferences, offering multiple modalities of tasks for students to achieve shared learning goals
• use a variety of strategies to create in-class groupings to foster collaboration and growth
• pay attention to the use of multimodal texts so that students can access texts that are read aloud, or work on graphic interpretations of texts that allow for a focus on the visual
• provide timely and relevant feedback tailored to individual learner needs
• explore content beyond particular assessment components, encouraging flexibility in teaching approaches
• choose texts that represent a balance between canonical voices and newer, less traditional, voices
• ensure ongoing assessment of students’ progress towards their goals
• design lessons and activities that affirm identity, build self-esteem, value prior knowledge, and scaffold and extend learning.

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Increasing student learning awareness

DP Curriculum Manager, Leah Yates, presents the core tenants of inclusive curriculum design at the IB. In this video, Leah explains how research and learning theory is applied to construct a flexible framework that teachers use to help their students understand where they are in their learning, and how they can grow and develop while at school and beyond.

Activity

Learner variability and diversity is valued in IB classrooms so that all students are offered opportunities “to make sense of the complexities of the world around them, as well as equipping them with the skills and dispositions needed for taking responsible action for the future” (What is an IB education? 2013:11).

The statements below have been collected from the DP Language and Literature course guide. In your professional learning team, explore one or more of the following IB design components as you identify the optimal learning arrangements necessary to meet the needs of all learners in your classroom.

• “As individuals and members of local and global communities, students make sense of the world through their life experiences, the communities around them and broader global concerns.”
• “…as the syllabus does not bind the areas of exploration to particular assessment components, there is room for individual decisions to be made by students about the works for each of their assessment tasks.”
• “It is also important that there should be ongoing assessment of the students’ progress towards their goals. Students will likely elaborate and follow individual routes in their preparation for the assessment components.”
• “In studies in language and literature, teachers, as they plan, can design lessons and activities that affirm identity and build self-esteem, value prior knowledge, and scaffold and extend learning.”

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Implementing a school inclusion policy

Recognizing that inclusion is contextual and schools will be at various stages of development, the IB has developed The IB guide to inclusive education: a resource for whole school development (2015). The guide serves as a comprehensive tool for the entire school community, facilitating the ongoing process of:

• increasing access and engagement
• removing barriers to learning.

It is good practice for all schools and all IB programmes to create an inclusion policy, articulating practices and procedures for removing barriers to learning. Inclusion policies are contextual, potentially influenced by national legislation and will evolve over time to reflect the changing nature of organizational knowledge, staffing and school populations.

An inclusion policy ensures that:

• students are at the centre of learning and can take responsibility for their learning when appropriate
• resources are made available to support diverse learner needs
• procedures and provisions remain consistent
• legal requirements are known and adhered to where necessary
• policies and procedures remain fit for purpose
• the learning environment (social and physical) lends itself to inclusion
• differentiation is supported from planning through to instruction and assessment.

Read more in Learning diversity and inclusion in IB programmes (2020).

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Key considerations to ensure equitable student success in DP courses

Ensure that:

• inclusive access arrangements are designed to mitigate any unintentional advantages that may arise from students' varying learning support requirements.
• students have the best DP courses to choose from, allowing them to demonstrate their strengths and empower them as learners. Schools are encouraged to offer both SL and HL choices for Language and Literature. Some students may prefer to study Language A: Literature if the school has provisions to provide more than one Group A subject.
• through teacher collaboration and support, the grades awarded for an IB class are adequately reflected in the school grading system. Make sure that grades are not a misleading description of that candidate’s attainment level, maintaining consistent assessment standards across all candidates.

These considerations draw from the guidance in the revised Access and Inclusion Policy version with enhanced learning and teaching support.

Activity

Review the Inclusive access arrangements: Decision pathway resource and discuss how your school community approaches curriculum planning and implementation in ways that align with this decision-making process. How might you use this as a resource for strengthening support for students?

Inclusive access arrangements: Decision pathway (PDF, 96 KB)

Inclusive design in the IB presentation resource

Inclusive design in the IB (PDF, 9.3 MB)

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Resources

Reading and insights

Booth, T., and Ainscow, M. (2002) Index for Inclusion – developing learning and participation in schools

IB Website Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

IB professional development

Principles of equitable and inclusive education (Category 3)

IB Programme Standards and Practices

Student support 2.2: The school supports the identified needs of students, and evidences this support through planning, policy, and practice. (0202-02-0200)

Culture 2.3: The school describes in its inclusion policy the rights and responsibilities of all members of the school community and clearly states the school’s vision for implementing inclusive programmes. (0301-02-0300)

Lifelong learners 6.1: Students take opportunities to develop personal learning goals. (0402-06-0100)

Approaches to teaching 5.1: Teachers consider learner variability when planning students’ personal learning goals. (0403-05-0100)

IB Excellence and Equity Framework

Dimension 3: Leadership and administration that establishes policies, practices, systems and processes to support access and success in the DP/CP for underrepresented students

“The school leadership team regularly reviews and analyses existing barriers (and supports) for underrepresented student participation in academically challenging courses, and collaborates with feeder school leaders to align prerequisite skills.”