Diploma Programme

update
and developments
DP Development team

dpdevelopment@ibo.org
The IB continuum of international education
The DP Curriculum Review Cycle
Implementation Research Evaluation Development Implementation
T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7
1st teaching of new course
Evaluation of previous review
Initial research
1st exams of new course
Research
Evaluation of 1st assessment

Evaluation and development year

Review Committees

Development meetings

Draft guide
Draft TSM
Spec papers

Upskilling of workshop
leaders
Guides published
Subject Specific Seminars
Approaches to teaching and learning - DP

The aim of the ATL project is to introduce

and develop a new dimension of the DP,
aligned with PYP and MYP, to improve the
quality of teaching and learning across the
programme and support key values and
principles of an IB education through
developing and offering commercial and
fee-covered deliverables for schools, teachers
and students.
 Approaches to learning skills

...can be learned and taught

The five categories of IB Approaches to learning skills are:

 Thinking skills
 Research skills
 Communications skills
 Social skills
 Self management skills
Approaches to teaching

Teaching in the DP should

demonstrate a concurrency of
learning and be approached in a way which is:
 Based on inquiry
 Focused on conceptual understanding
 Developed in local and global contexts
 Focused on effective communication and collaboration
 Differentiated to meet the needs of all learners
 Informed by assessment (formative and summative)
ATL project deliverables

• School survey responses (June 2012) revealed the most

desired ‘deliverables’:
• Approaches to teaching and learning in the DP – guide
• Support videos for coordinators, teachers and
heads/principals
• DP From principles into practice – including ATL
• DP unit planners – a range of recommended samples
• DP ATL Student handbook (commercial publication)
• Category 3 workshops
• Resources for Category 1 and 2 workshop leaders
Progress so far

• Extensive research carried out

• Approaches to teaching and learning in the DP

guide written

• Sample unit planners devised

• Piloting from September 2013 to March 2014 in140 DP

schools
 Piloting in 140 DP schools

Number of programmes

768
400

1282
Important dates

 The Approaches to teaching and learning in the DP guide

shared with the pilot schools in September 2013
 Project piloting from September 2013 to March 2014
 Filming at selected schools in all three IB regions will be
taking place between November 2013 and April 2014
 All relevant documents (from the guide to support videos) will
be reviewed, quality assured and produced between March
2014 and December 2014
 The planned publication date for all ATL documents is
January 2015
 First official use by schools is envisioned in September 2015
 How will schools be impacted?
• The development of DP ATL supports schools in meeting a
number of IB programme standards and practices (2010), such as:

• B.3 The head of school/school principal and programme

coordinator demonstrate pedagogical leadership aligned with the
philosophy of the programme(s).
• C.3.4 The curriculum identifies the knowledge, concepts, skills and
attitudes to be developed over time.
• C.2 Teaching and learning engages students as inquirers and
thinkers.
• C.3.5 Teaching and learning supports students to become actively
responsible for their own learning.
• C.3.16 Teaching and learning develops the IB learner profile
attributes.
Studies in language and literature

• Beginning with 2015 exams, a maximum mark for

“knowledge and understanding of the text” criteria
will take effect when students use works/authors not
on the PLA/PLT

• Guides updated to reflect the maximum mark policy

(Lang A: Lit, Lang A: Lang and Lit, Lit and
Performance)
Language acquisition

• Lang B and Lang ab initio written assignments

reviewed and changed for first exams May 2015

• Guides updated to reflect the WA changes

• Main changes
• Word processed in the target language
• Carried out in the student’s own time with guidance from
the teacher
• Not timed
• Submitted electronically and will be e-marked
DP Languages curriculum reviews

• Classical languages review is now complete; new

subject guide and TSM will be available on the OCC
from January 2014

• Next curriculum review of courses in the modern

languages will focus on alignment between MYP and
DP, ATL and international-mindedness

• Lang B, Lang ab initio: first teaching 2018, first exams

2020
• Lang A: Lit, Lang A: Lang and Lit, Lit and Performance:
first teaching 2019, first exams 2021
Science Updates

 New courses in phys,

chem, bio and design Tech
– first teaching in 2014
 First assessment
in 2016

 New IA criteria
 Nature of science pilot course from Sept 2015.
Applications from schools due in end of year
Mathematics review

• New review
• Challenges
• Opportunities
Visual arts – first teaching 2014
The new visual arts syllabus consists of three equal,
interrelated areas: Visual arts
in context
• Visual arts in context
• Visual arts methods
• Communicating visual arts
Visual arts Communicating
methods visual arts

These areas are fully

integrated into the core
syllabus and the final
assessment tasks.
Theatre - first teaching 2014
Similar to the visual arts course, the new theatre
course also consists of three equal, interrelated Theatre
in context
areas:
• Theatre in context
• Theatre processes Theatre Presenting
• Presenting theatre processes theatre

These areas also fully

integrate into the core
syllabus and the final
assessment tasks.
 Business management update
 New course for first teaching in 2014
Concepts
and first assessment in 2016 (change, culture, ethics,
 Evolution rather than revolution: globalisation, innovation,
strategy)
similar syllabus structure and
assessment tasks
 Introduces ATL skills: a triangular
model where
• business tools, techniques and
theories are rooted in case studies
and examples Content
Contexts
• ‘big picture’ understanding of (business management
(case studies and
tools, theories and
business problems is aimed at examples)
techniques in the syllabus)
through six key concepts
 New essay task that brings together
all the elements of the triangle
Philosophy Identity

•First teaching 2014, first Human Person-

assessment 2016 Nature hood

•Core theme retained but

updated, and renamed “Being Being
Human” Human
•New optional themes: The Self
“philosophy of science” and and The Freedom
“philosophy and contemporary Other
society”
Mind and
•Set text list revised to include Body
texts by philosophers such as
Hume and Martha Nussbaum
Global politics pilot
 Pilot course from 2012
 Open offer from 2015
 Explicitly focused on
concepts such as power,
liberty, sustainability and
conflict
 Four core units:  IA: engagement activity– e.g. Model
• Power, sovereignty and UN, internship at an NGO, gaming –
international relations followed by a written report on a
• Human rights political issue embedded in the
• Development
activity
• Peace and conflict
 HL extension: oral presentation of 2
detailed case studies on global
political challenges
Interdisciplinary future?

Initial investigations into future interdisciplinary courses or

options:

• Big History
• Sustainability
• Global media
• Musical technology
• Role of SBSs?
TOK points to note 1
• The new TOK course began teaching in 2013, for first assessment in
2015 – guide and TSM available on the OCC

• Option to study new ways of knowing (intuition, imagination, faith and

memory) in addition to the old four (reason, emotion, perception and
language)

• Option to study new areas of knowledge (religious knowledge systems

and indigenous knowledge systems) in addition to the old six (the arts,
ethics, history, natural sciences, maths and human sciences

• Emphasis on exploring ways of knowing in the context of areas of

knowledge, rather than in isolation
TOK points to note 2

• The marking of the assessment tasks (the presentation and

essay) has changed. In response to concerns about reliability
of TOK marking IB has adopted a "global impression
marking" approach with the award of an overall mark out of
10 rather than separate marks for a number of different
criteria. Trials showed an encouraging improvement in
agreement between examiners.

• More detailed guidance for teachers in the guide and teacher

support material, including videos of presentations
TOK points to note 3

• More explicit and detailed suggestions on making links to

TOK in new DP course guides, to help non-TOK teachers
engage with TOK in their DP subjects ..... for example in the
new science guides for first teaching in 2014.

• The course should not be a technical philosophical

investigation into the nature of knowledge, it should be rooted
in the students own experience in their other DP subjects.
Extended Essay Update

• New iteration of the guide now

due in 2016 not 2015.

• World Studies Extended Essay

is now mainstream.
EE points to note 1

• Major review of the assessment criteria, from current 11

criteria to 5. More holistic approach to assessment with a
greater focus on critical thinking skills. Inclusion of an
assessment criterion on ‘engagement’, assessing students
reflections of the process of undertaking an EE. A separate
pro-forma for this which will completed as part of the
supervision process. Three mandatory supervision session
which will need to be reflected on by the student, and signed-
off by the supervisor.
EE points to note 2

• New assessment criteria - undergone first phase of a trial

which included 56 examiners across 14 subjects. The
second phase of the trial is taking place later this year and
will involve 72 examiners. This trial will be in English, French
and Spanish.

• Greater clarification of the expectations for supervision – with

increased teacher support material.

• More support material on research methods.

EE points to note 3

• World Studies Extended Essay must be registered in

one of the following broad global themes:

1. Language, culture and identity

2. Science, technology and society
3. Equality and inequality
4. Conflict, peace and security
5. Economic and/or environmental sustainability
6. Health and development
CAS changes for first teaching 2015
• CAS renamed Creativity, Activity, Service

• Learning outcomes reviewed, reduced to 7 and rewritten

• Emphasis on ‘think global, act local’

• Introduction of a ‘CAS cycle’ for CAS planning

• A minimum of one Project during the CAS programme

• A project addresses one or more of the CAS strands: Creativity,

Activity or Service

• Development of CAS Teacher Support Material

Academic honesty competition

• In November 2012 the IB launched the Academic honesty film

competition. For the first time the organization reached to IB students in
the Diploma Programme and invited them to produce a short film that
would spread the message of “why is important to uphold the principle of
academic honesty in the IB community.”

• The project is now finished; the winning entry was announced on the IB
website on 15 September 2013
(http://www.ibo.org/announcements/2013/academichonestywinner.cfm).
Bettina Campomanes from The Beacon Academy in the Philippines was
selected as the winner of the competition. Her film (Reluctance) was the
most reflective and creative film on the topic, appropriate to the target
audience and showed great technical quality.
Questions and Comments?
New DP Resources – Available on the IB store
https://store.ibo.org
POSTER:
Core Requirements
ONLINE Questionbanks!  TOK poster revised for
• Searchable database 2013 syllabus
• Actual IB exam questions
 Buy individually
• Create your own tests
or as 3-poster set (with
• Generate markschemes
CAS/Extended Essay)
• Access online with yearly subscription
IB Prepared – Revision guide series
Now available:  Help prepare students
 Geography for exams
 History Route 2*  Features commentary
 Mathematics on actual student
answers to exam
 Psychology
questions

*Available in English or Spanish New for 2013: ESS