International Baccalaureate

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For other uses, see Baccalaureate (disambiguation).
Logo of the International Baccalaureate.

The International Baccalaureate (IB), formerly the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO), is an international educational foundation headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and founded in 1968.[1][2] IB offers four educational programmes for children aged 3–19.[3] The organization's name and logo were changed in 2007 to reflect a reorganization. Consequently, "IB" can refer to the organization itself, any of the four programmes, or the diploma or certificates awarded at the end of the diploma programme.[4]

Contents

History [edit]

Marie-Thérèse Maurette[5] created the framework for what would eventually become the IB Diploma Programme in 1948 when she wrote Is There a Way of Teaching for Peace?, a handbook for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).[6] In the mid-1960s, a group of teachers from the International School of Geneva (Ecolint) created the International Schools Examinations Syndicate (ISES), which would later become the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO).[7] The IB headquarters were officially established in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1968 for the development and maintenance of the diploma programme which would "provide an internationally acceptable university admissions qualification suitable for the growing mobile population of young people whose parents were part of the world of diplomacy, international and multi-national organizations" and offer internationally standardized courses and assessments for students ages 16 to 19.[8][9] International Baccalaureate North America (IBNA) was established in 1975,[10] by Peter Nehr, International Baccalaureate Africa, Europe and Middle-East (IBAEM) was established in 1986,[11] and International Baccalaureate Asia Pacific (IBAP) established during the same period.[12]

The IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) adheres to the study of eight subject areas and was developed and piloted in the mid-1990s. Within five years 51 countries had MYP schools.[13] The IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) was piloted in 1996 in thirty primary schools on different continents, and the first PYP school was authorised in 1997, with as many as 87 authorised schools in 43 countries within five years.[14]

Alec Peterson was IB's first director general (1968–1977), followed by Gérard Renaud (1977–83), Roger Peel (1983–98), Derek Blackman (1998–99), George Walker (1999–2005), and Jeffrey Beard (current director general).[15]

Diploma Programme curriculum outline [edit]

Main article: IB Diploma Programme

Extended essay [edit]

The extended essay is an independent, self-directed piece of research, culminating in a 4,000-word paper. As a required component, it provides:

  • practical preparation for the kinds of undergraduate research required at tertiary level
  • an opportunity for students to engage in an in-depth study of a topic of interest within a chosen subject. The subject can come from any of the six areas of knowledge.

Emphasis is placed on the research process:

  • formulating an appropriate research question
  • engaging in a personal exploration of the topic
  • communicating ideas
  • developing an argument.

Participation in this process develops the capacity to analyse, synthesize and evaluate knowledge.

Students are supported throughout the process with advice and guidance from a supervisor (usually a teacher at the school).

Theory of knowledge (TOK) [edit]

Theory of knowledge (TOK) is a compulsory subject for all IB diploma students. It intends to give students a broader understanding of the interactions between their different school subjects as well as creating greater open-mindedness among students. It is based on a system of ways of knowing (WOK) and areas of knowledge (AOK), each of which is discussed in detail.[citation needed]

Ways of knowing:

  • Sense perception
  • Reasoning
  • Language
  • Emotion
  • Several other ways of knowing which are discussed in less detail

Areas of knowledge:

  • Natural sciences
  • Human sciences
  • Arts
  • Mathematics
  • Ethics
  • History

Students are assessed through an oral presentation and a 1500 word essay. The final score, together with the extended essay, influences the 3 additional points of the overall 45 possible total score.

Middle Years Programme curriculum outline [edit]

Main article: IB Middle Years Programme

Three fundamental concepts

  • Holistic learning
  • Intercultural awareness
  • Communication

Five areas of interaction

  • Approaches to learning
  • Community and service
  • Human ingenuity
  • Health and social education
  • Environments

Subject areas

  • Language A
  • Language B
  • Language C
  • Mathematics
  • Humanities
  • Arts
  • Sciences
  • Physical education
  • Technology

Culminating activity for schools offering a 4 - 5 year program

  • Personal project[16]

Primary Years Programme curriculum outline [edit]

Main article: IB Primary Years Programme

Six transdisciplinary themes

  • Who we are
  • Where we are in place and time
  • How we express ourselves
  • How the world works
  • How we organize ourselves
  • Sharing the planet

Six subject areas

  • Language
  • Social studies
  • Mathematics
  • Arts
  • Science
  • Personal, social and physical education

Five essential elements

  • Concepts
  • Knowledge
  • Skills
  • Attitudes
  • Action

The curriculum is expressed in three ways

  • The written curriculum
  • The taught curriculum
  • The assessed curriculum

[17]

All four programmes (PYP, MYP, DP and IBCC) use the IB learner profile.

Organization [edit]

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.—International Baccalaureate Mission Statement [18]

The IB is a non-governmental organization (NGO) of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and has collaborative relationships with the Council of Europe and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF).[19] The IB's alliance with UNESCO encourages the integration of its educational goals into the IB curriculum.[20]

The IB maintains headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, and currently the Curriculum and Assessment Centre is located in Cardiff, Wales. The IB recently announced relocation of the curriculum centre in Cardiff to The Hague, Netherlands, the opening of the IB Americas Global Centre in Maryland, United States, and a new centre to be opened in Singapore by 2020.[21][22][23]

The organization is divided into three regional centres: IB Africa, Europe and Middle East (IBAEM), administered from Geneva, Cardiff and The Hague; IB Americas (IBA), administered from New York and Buenos Aires, Argentina; and IB Asia-Pacific (IBAP), administered from Singapore.[24]

Sub-regional associations "are groups formed by and for IB school practitioners to assist IB schools, teachers and students in their communities—from implementing IB programmes to providing a forum for dialogue."[25]

  • There are two in the IB Africa, Europe and Middle East region.[26]
  • There are thirty sub-regional associations in the IB Americas region.[27]
  • There are five in the Asia Pacific region.[28]

In 2003, the IB established the IB Fund, incorporated in the United States, for the purpose of enhancing fundraising and keeping funds raised separate from operational funds.[29] In 2004, the IB approved a strategic plan to "ensure that programmes and services are of the highest quality" and "to provide access to people who are socio-economically disadvantaged."[30] The United States has the largest number of IB programmes (1,477 out of 3,998) offered in both private and public schools.[31]

Governance [edit]

The IB governance is composed of an IB Board of Governors and six committees (access and advancement, audit, education, finance, human resources and governance). The Board of Governors appoints the Director general, sets the strategic direction of the organization, adopts a mission statement, makes policy, oversees the IB’s financial management, and ensures autonomy and integrity of the IB Diploma Programme examinations and other student assessment. The structure of its different committees are based on respect, representation and collaboration.[32]

The Board of Governors can comprise between 15 and 25 members. Members are elected by the Board on the recommendation of the governance committee, and from nominations presented from the Heads Council, Regional Councils and the Board. To encourage diversity of gender, culture and geography, there are only three ex officio positions: Director general (non-voting), the chair of the Examining Board and the chair of the Heads Council.[33]

Reception [edit]

Countries with more than 40 schools teaching IB programmes[34]
Country Primary Middle Diploma Schools
USA 342 475 777 1,390
Canada 59 151 147 319
United Kingdom 13 11 188 194
Australia 84 42 63 149
India 41 11 85 97
Mexico 46 26 59 93
China 24 21 57 68
Spain 7 9 60 61
Germany 21 8 50 55
Ecuador 7 8 51 52
Argentina 7 2 48 49
Sweden 11 10 32 42
Switzerland 15 11 35 41
Total schools 981 991 2,368 3,488
Countries 96 90 141 144

The IB Diploma Programme was described as "a rigorous, off-the-shelf curriculum recognized by universities around the world” when it was featured in the December 18, 2006, edition of Time titled "How to bring our schools out of the 20th Century".[35] The IBDP was also featured in the summer 2002 edition of American Educator, where Robert Rothman described it as "a good example of an effective, instructionally sound, exam-based system."[36] In 2006, as part of the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI),[37] President George W. Bush and Education Secretary Margaret Spellings presented a plan for the expansion of Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate mathematics and science courses, with the goal of increasing the number of AP and IB teachers and the number of students taking AP and IB exams, as well as tripling the number of students passing those exams.[37] Howard Gardner, a professor of educational psychology at Harvard University, said that the IBDP curriculum is "less parochial than most American efforts" and helps students "think critically, synthesize knowledge, reflect on their own thought processes and get their feet wet in interdisciplinary thinking."[38]

In the United Kingdom in 2006, government ministers provided funding so that "every local authority in England could have at least one centre offering sixth-formers the chance to do the IB."[22] In 2008, due to the devaluing of the A-Levels and an increase in the number of students taking the IB exams, then-Children's Secretary Ed Balls abandoned a "flagship Tony Blair pledge to allow children in all areas to study IB." Fears of a "two-tier" education system further dividing education between the rich and the poor emerged as the growth in IB is driven by private schools and sixth-form colleges.[39]

The IBDP, in the United States, has been accused of being Marxist, foreign, globalist, and anti-American. These accusations resulted in an attempt to eliminate it from a public school in Pittsburgh.[40][41] Some schools in the United States have eliminated the IBDP due to budgetary reasons and low student participation.[42][43] In Utah, funding for the IBDP was reduced from $300,000 to $100,000 after State Senator Margaret Dayton objected to the program, stating, "I don't want to create 'world citizens' nearly as much as I want to help cultivate American citizens who function well in the world."[44][45]

Allegations of plagiarism [edit]

Question book-new.svg
 This section relies largely or entirely upon a single source. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help improve this article by introducing citations to additional sources. (April 2013)

After Jeffrey Beard, the director-general of International Baccalaureate, gave a talk on "Education for a Better World" on August 5, 2010 at the Chautauqua Institution in New York State, the institution issued a statement the next day in which it expressed "genuine disappointment" with the talk, noting that it "drew heavily upon and quoted extensively from a speech given earlier in the year by Sir Ken Robinson", while adding that he "neglected to cite his source or reveal the quotations for what they were".[46] Ken Robinson is a renowned British educationist who lives in the United States. Through an IB spokesperson, Beard admitted that "he could have been more explicit about the sources and authors that inspired him for the content of this speech".[46] In a letter sent to heads of schools that offer the IB curricula, he described this as an "unfortunate incident" due to an "oversight".[47]

In an apparently unrelated development, the Times Educational Supplement revealed on October 8, 2010, that significant portions of some of IB's marking guides for the IB Diploma Programme were lifted wholesale from unattributed websites, including Wikipedia.[48] In a letter to schools, IB director-general Beard wrote: "We have and always will take immediate and appropriate action when we discover any violation of our policies or standards." The examiner responsible for the plagiarism resigned from the examination board five weeks after the issue came to light.[49]

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "IB headquarters." International Baccalaureate. Retrieved on 25 September 2009.
  2. ^ "Overview of the International Baccalaureate Organization". Retrieved 2006-12-07. 
  3. ^ "Three Programmes at a Glance". Retrieved July 15, 2009. 
  4. ^ "IB Identity Announcement". Retrieved July 14, 2009. 
  5. ^ Marie-Thérèse Maurette
  6. ^ "Biennial Conference of IB Nordic Schools". ibo.org. p. 7. Retrieved 6 July 2009. 
  7. ^ Elisabeth Fox (2001). "The Emergence of the International Baccalaureate as an Impetus to Curriculum Reform". In Mary Hayden and Jeff Thompson. International Education: Principles and Practice (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 65. ISBN 9780749436162. 
  8. ^ "International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme". Retrieved 2007-05-08. 
  9. ^ Mary Hayden (2001). "Global Issues: A Necessary Component of a Balanced Curriculum for the Twenty-First Century". In Mary Ray Hayden and Jeff William Thompson. International Education: Principles and Practice (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 94. ISBN 9780749436162. 
  10. ^ Peterson, p. 141
  11. ^ Peterson, p. 267
  12. ^ Peterson, p. 265
  13. ^ Peterson, p. 243
  14. ^ Peterson, p. 246
  15. ^ "IBO History". ibo.org. Retrieved 6 July 2009. 
  16. ^ "International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme". International Baccalaureate Organization 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
  17. ^ "International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme". International Baccalaureate Organization 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2012. 
  18. ^ "IB Learner Profile". IB Learner Profile Booklet. ibo.org. November2008. Retrieved 22-July-2009. 
  19. ^ "Governments". Retrieved July 14, 2009. 
  20. ^ "Literacy and Development: How can international education support UNESCO and other bodies in increasing literacy in the developing world?, pg. 5". Retrieved July 14, 2009. 
  21. ^ de Vise and Marimow (2009-02-24). "Curriculum Program Moving to Md.". Washington Post. Retrieved July 29, 2009. 
  22. ^ a b Shepard, Jessica (2009-02-10). "Leap from Cardiff to Amsterdam for Baccalaureate". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved July 28, 2009. 
  23. ^ "The IB Americas Global Centre Opens". Ibo.org. Retrieved 2010-08-24. 
  24. ^ "IB regional offices". Ibo.org. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  25. ^ "Associations of IB Schools". Retrieved July 13, 2009. 
  26. ^ "world school associations". Ibo.org. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  27. ^ "Associations". Ibo.org. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  28. ^ "IB Asia Pacific region". Ibo.org. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  29. ^ "The president’s view on Fundraising and the strategic plan". IB World (International Baccalaureate Organization) 40: 8. August 2004. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
  30. ^ "IBO strategic plan approved". IB World (International Baccalaureate Organization) 40: 2. August 2004. Retrieved 2009-07-13. 
  31. ^ "Find an IB World School". Retrieved June 5, 2011. 
  32. ^ "Governance Structure". Retrieved July 17, 2009. 
  33. ^ "The IB Board of Governors". Retrieved February 22, 2013. 
  34. ^ IB World School statistics, International Baccalaureate, January 4, 2013 
  35. ^ Wallis, Claudia (2006-12-10). "How to bring our schools out of the 20th Century". Time. Retrieved 2009-07-16. 
  36. ^ Rothman, Robert (Summer 2002). "A test worth teaching to". American Educator. Retrieved 2010-06-14. 
  37. ^ a b "Expanding the Advanced Placement Initiative Program". US Department of Education. February 2006. Retrieved 28 July 2009. 
  38. ^ Gross, Jane (2003-06-21). "Diploma for the 'Top of the Top'; International Baccalaureate Gains Favor in Region". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-27. 
  39. ^ Clark, Laura (2009-05-19). "Fears of 'two-tier' education system as pupils taking rival exam to A-levels rise by 40%". Daily MailOnline. Retrieved July 29, 2009. 
  40. ^ Ward, Paula Reed (2006-02-16). "Cutting international program embroils Upper St. Clair board in controversy". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved 2009-06-06. [dead link]
  41. ^ Walters, Joanna (2006-03-14). "All American Trouble". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2009-07-15. 
  42. ^ Kranhert III, John (2009-03-21). "Pinecrest Drops IB Program". The Pilot. Retrieved 2010-09-29. 
  43. ^ Martindale, Scott (2008-03-12). "175 Saddleback Valley Unified teachers face layoffs". OCRegister. Retrieved July 27, 2009. 
  44. ^ Dayton, Margaret (2008-05-21). "The Senate Site". Retrieved July 28, 2009. 
  45. ^ "League of Women Voters of Utah". 2008-02-28. Retrieved July 28, 2009. 
  46. ^ a b William Stewart (September 17, 2010). "Caught red-handed: IB boss plagiarising". Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved January 6, 2011. 
  47. ^ William Stewart (October 8, 2010). "IB chief pleads 'oversight' led to plagiarisation speech". Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved January 6, 2011. 
  48. ^ William Stewart (October 10, 2010). "IB lifted exam marking guides from Wikipedia". Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved January 6, 2011. 
  49. ^ William Stewart (October 15, 2010). "IB examiner stayed in post after Wiki plagiarism revealed". Times Educational Supplement. Retrieved January 6, 2011. 

External links [edit]

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