INTERNATIONAL
Baccalaureate
GLOBAL EDUCATION, RIGHT HERE IN AUSTIN, TX
IB Facts
Founded in 1968 in Geneva, Switzerland
Now taught to 1.25 million students in 150 countries
Educational programs for ages 3-19
A New Global
World
An IB education is designed to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who will help to create a better and more peaceful world. Today, as new global challenges emerge under an unprecedented pace of change, an IB education is more relevant and necessary than ever.
The IB and its programs are in a diverse range of schools around the world, both public and private, attracting a worldwide community of educators. All IB programs and curricula undergo regular review to ensure the best possible education for IB students. This curriculum review process involves educators from many different cultures and backgrounds and ensures that practicing teachers play a critical role in the development of each program. It also means that the IB vision is constantly sharpened by research, both its own and that of other respected academic bodies.
You can Learn More about the International Baccalaureate at ibo.org and read about research by the IB to drive evidence-based, ongoing improvements to the curriculum.
Approaches to
Teaching
The same six approaches underpin teaching in all IB programs. The approaches are deliberately broad, designed to give teachers the flexibility to choose specific strategies to employ that best reflect their own particular contexts and the needs of their students.
In all IB programs, teaching is:
Based on inquiry
A strong emphasis is placed on students finding their own information and constructing their own understandings.
Focused on conceptual understanding
Concepts are explored in order to both deepen disciplinary understanding and to help students make connections and transfer learning to new contexts.
Designed to remove barriers to learning
Teaching is inclusive, values diversity, affirms students’ identities, and aims to create learning opportunities that enable every student to develop and pursue appropriate personal goals.
Focused on effective teamwork and collaboration
This includes promoting teamwork and collaboration between students, but also refers to the collaborative relationship between teachers and students.
Developed in local and global contexts
Teaching uses real-life context and examples, and students are encouraged to connect learning to their own experiences and to take action as agents of change.
Informed by assessment
Assessment plays a crucial role in supporting, as well as measuring and learning. This approach also recognizes the crucial role of providing students with effective feedback.
The IB Learner Profile
The IB Learner Profile is a set of characteristics or attributes that are essential for internationally minded individuals who can help build a better world. The attributes are: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Principled, Open-minded, Risk-taker, Thinker, Communicator, Caring, Balanced, and Reflective. As an IB community, we are all devoted to developing the IB Profile attributes in ourselves and our students. Through the program, our students demonstrate the attributes in increasingly robust and sophisticated ways as they mature.
Learn More
Meaningful Assessment
Connected Learning
IB Authorized School
Each IB World School is regularly evaluated to ensure that the standards and practices of its IB program(s) are being maintained. Evaluation takes place at least once every five years. As part of the process, the school engages in a self-study that is a key element in the school’s continual improvement.
The IB Learner Profile
The IB Learner Profile is a set of characteristics or attributes that are essential for internationally minded individuals who can help build a better world. The attributes are: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Principled, Open-minded, Risk-taker, Thinker, Communicator, Caring, Balanced, and Reflective. As an IB community, we are all devoted to developing the IB Profile attributes in ourselves and our students. Through the program, our students demonstrate the attributes in increasingly robust and sophisticated ways as they mature.
Connected Learning
The IB program emphasizes the importance of making connections, exploring the relationships between academic disciplines, and learning about the world in ways that reach beyond the scope of individual subjects. They also focus on offering students authentic opportunities to connect their learning to the world around them. All four IB programmes also require the completion of a culminating project, providing an opportunity for students to showcase their knowledge, understanding and skills.
Meaningful assessment
Assessments in an IB programs are ongoing, varied and integral to the curriculum. IB schools use a range of strategies and tools to assess student learning. Emphasis is placed on the importance of analyzing assessment data to inform teaching and learning, and on recognizing that students benefit by learning how to assess their own work and the work of others.The Middle Years Program also offers assessment tasks that require students to demonstrate higher order thinking rather than simple factual recall. These rigorous assessments help to maintain the IB’s hard earned reputation for high standards and challenging programs.
IB Authorized School
Each IB World School is regularly evaluated to ensure that the standards and practices of its IB program(s) are being maintained. Evaluation takes place at least once every five years. As part of the process, the school engages in a self-study that is a key element in the school’s continual improvement.
THE IB PROGAM
Primary Years
The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Primary Years Program (PYP) is a curriculum framework designed for students aged 3 to 12, from Preschool through 5th grade. The program places a powerful emphasis on inquiry-based learning, focusing on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both at school and beyond.
The PYP develops students’ academic, social and emotional wellbeing, focusing on international-mindedness and strong personal values. Students learn traditional subjects with emphasis on real-life situations, decision-making, problem solving, research, and action. The program incorporates local and global issues into the curriculum, asking students to look at related, transdisciplinary themes and to consider the links between them.
In the early years, students learn through doing (e.g., playing), as active participants in their learning. The power of play is the primary vehicle for inquiry, supporting thoughtful and intentional opportunities for child-initiated play, hands-on learning, and the co-construction of learning between teachers and young learners. Students learn to inquire as they build and test theories to help make sense of the world around them.
As students move through the PYP program, they’re asked to construct their own meaning independently, helping to develop a deeper and more profound understanding of the subjects they study. Within each unit of inquiry, students and teachers together identify together what they want to know, what they already know, what they need to know, and how they might best find that out. This encourages students to see connections between subjects.
Middle Years
The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Program (MYP) is a challenging framework that encourages students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world. Students of the MYP develop as active learners and internationally minded young people who can empathize with others and pursue lives of purpose and meaning. They inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally developing as creative, critical and reflective thinkers.
At Magellan we offer the first three years of the IB MYP for students in 6th through 8th grades as they refine their skills and prepare for the academic rigors of high school and beyond.
The MYP program explicitly focuses on Approaches to Learning Skills:
- critical, creative and innovative thinking
- self management
- affective and interpersonal well-being
- application of knowledge to solve real-world problems, and more.
The MYP curriculum framework comprises eight subject groups, providing a broad and balanced education for early adolescents.
Primary Years Program
The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Primary Years Program (PYP) is a curriculum framework designed for students aged 3 to 12, from Preschool through 5th grade. The program places a powerful emphasis on inquiry-based learning, focusing on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both at school and beyond.
The PYP develops students’ academic, social and emotional wellbeing, focusing on international-mindedness and strong personal values. Students learn traditional subjects with emphasis on real-life situations, decision-making, problem solving, research, and action. The program incorporates local and global issues into the curriculum, asking students to look at related, transdisciplinary themes and to consider the links between them.
In the early years, students learn through doing (e.g., playing), as active participants in their learning. The power of play is the primary vehicle for inquiry, supporting thoughtful and intentional opportunities for child-initiated play, hands-on learning, and the co-construction of learning between teachers and young learners. Students learn to inquire as they build and test theories to help make sense of the world around them.
As students move through the PYP program, they’re asked to construct their own meaning independently, helping to develop a deeper and more profound understanding of the subjects they study. Within each unit of inquiry, students and teachers together identify what they want to know, what they already know, what they need to know, and how they might best find that out. This encourages students to see connections between subjects.
Middle Years
The International Baccalaureate® (IB) Middle Years Program (MYP) is a challenging framework that encourages students to make practical connections between their studies and the real world.
At Magellan we offer the first three years of the IB MYP for students in 6th through 8th grades. Students are challenged to:
- connect their learning experiences to their lives and understanding of the world
- use concepts to explore significance and to examine their knowledge holistically
- learn by applying knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts
- become caring members of their community through service
The MYP curriculum framework comprises eight subject groups, providing a broad and balanced education for early adolescents.