The International Baccalaureate (IB) is often held up as the gold standard qualification for children wanting to study a breadth of subjects. In fact, the word “baccalaureate” comes from the Latin words bacca and lauri, meaning “laurel berry”, from the laurels that were awarded to scholars when they had “crossed the finish line” of their education.
This laurel symbol goes back to the ancient Greeks, and the principles of the IB feel similarly classical: academic rigour combined with personal development. However, for teachers used to the standard UK curriculum of GCSEs and A levels, the IB can feel less like a classical beauty and more like a sphinx-like riddle.
But it needn’t be that way, says David Watson, an experienced IB art teacher at the Anglo European School in Ingatestone, Essex.
“When I first came to this school, I didn’t know anything about IB, and now I’ve been teaching it for over 20 years,” he explains. “I trained in a typical GCSE school and, when I arrived here, I knew there was this mythical thing called the IB and slowly I began to learn about it.”
Skip to the end
Before you begin to teach the IB course, it is important to understand the end point for students.
“It helps to look at example folders from previous years and, because all of the IB art coursework is submitted electronically, we can easily share examples of student work with new members of staff,” says Watson.
Always ask: what will the final assessment look like? Can I see examples of full-mark work?
Pre-empt misconceptions
In Watson’s experience, there is the chance that teachers who are new to IB could misinterpret some of the wording of the course descriptions.
“Everything in the IB is embedded in this idea of a ‘personal journey’. However, some people get the wrong end of the stick and think it is diaristic,” says Watson.
“This is a total misinterpretation and can lead to teachers guiding students to produce commentaries like ‘I feel sad today, so I’ve painted in blue’.”
Watson uses his experience to share with colleagues new to the IB. “So, we’re able to share examples of what a ‘personal journey’ would look like, recording how they’ve experimented with different methods and skills, and so on.”
Always ask: what mistakes have you seen other centres or past students make?
Get involved
Oliver Furnival is a humanities teacher, also at the Anglo European School in Ingatestone but, until recently, he taught the IB in Japan.
“We start with a booklet ‘What is an IB education?’ where we go through all of the differences,” he says. “I went from GCSEs and A Levels to IB, and it flowed nicely – it isn’t that different.”
From next year, the school is implementing an initiative designed to further improve the support provided for new IB teachers.
“We’re going to have a teaching and learning group to discuss the IB philosophy, with a link teacher from each department who can go back and work with their department,” Furnival explains. “This is a large school, so this works a way round that barrier to support all new teachers.”
Always ask: who can I speak to about what the IB course involves?
Find support online
The IB has recently updated its online support, and you can now find lots of resources on the myIB website. Here, teachers have access to lots of resources linked to their subject, the theory of knowledge, and other aspects of the IB course.
Are you looking to make the move to an IB school? Find the latest teaching jobs.