We Don’t Want an Audience. We Want Communicators.

By Bernadette Goulding, English Teacher at Marymount International School London

“Student-centred, student-driven, student agency.” We’ve all heard these terms bandied about by different schools and different education systems but does any of it actually ring true? Are our students at the centre of the learning or is it our content and assessments that dictate their learning journey?

I was in Year 12 when I decided that I wanted to become a teacher. I’ve always been passionate about English, sport and helping others. I found great joy in coaching sports teams and I was such a nerd that I even enjoyed editing and proofreading my friends’ English essays. I thought to myself, what is a job where I can do all of that? Teaching was the answer. When I started my teacher training in New Zealand in 2015, I was fortunate to have two amazing mentors who drove my passion to make students at the heart of the learning process through their interests, their values and their experiences.

I will forever value the years that I spent teaching in New Zealand before moving to the UK, because it was there that I was able to really hone my creativity in teaching. How do I get reluctant readers to read? How do I make spelling exciting? How do I make Shakespeare relevant?

Moving from the UK national curriculum to the IB was a significant milestone in my career. The IB rekindled my passion for teaching, providing a learning environment where creativity and inquiry could play a more central role in my practice and re-energising my commitment to the profession.

What do I notice about students who study the IB compared to students in the other curricula I have taught? Our students are curious. Our students are creative. Our students think critically. Even without realising it, they are constantly helping to push the learning forward because of their innate desire to know more and to do more. My Grade 10 class is a prime example of this. They are not afraid to challenge, to question and to provide alternative perspectives. They will suggest different texts that we can explore within our units and some have even felt confident leading the learning in the exploration of these. They are not waiting to be spoon-fed; they are looking for opportunities to lead and to learn about who they are and how they can make a difference in this world.

The IB allows for a truly GLOBAL curriculum. In an international school with a multitude of ethnicities, how are we including our learners and valuing their experiences if we aren’t prepared to delve into new ideas, concepts and texts that make them feel seen? In my IB Diploma Language and Literature course, our texts are from all over. We start in Iran (Persepolis), then we head to New Zealand (White Lies), then over to North America during the Civil Rights (And Still I Rise), then it’s time to shift to South Africa (Born a Crime) before going back to Ancient Greece (Antigone) and then finishing back in Britain but through a Pakistani lens (Home Fire).

The benefits of this? Students are making connections across different times, cultures and settings and ultimately exploring the human condition and what binds us together. My students are also able to draw links between concepts and content that they are learning in other subjects and thus, deepen their understanding and transferable skills. The diversity and flexibility of the IB is what allows for this.

Having a curriculum that is underpinned by skills and concepts as opposed to content is also what sets the IB apart from the rest. At the heart of the IB is the Learner Profile, which dictates the attributes that the IB programme should instil and develop within students. We don’t want passivity, we want inquiry. We don’t want rote-learning, we want knowledge. We don’t want an audience, we want communicators. Our students are risk-takers because the IB allows them to be so and, in fact, encourages it.

The IB is academically rigorous most certainly but first and foremost, to me, it is exciting. I have the opportunity to engage students with content and concepts they are interested in. Whether that be adapting to new environments in Grade 6, digital dystopias in Grade 9 or oppression and empowerment in the DP, the IB allows me to put students at the centre of the learning and together, we are able to forge new paths and move beyond the classroom and into the world.

My thoughts on benefits of IB

–          Global

–          Student-focused

–          Relevant

–          Transferable skills

–          Critical thinking

–          Authentic

–          Academically rigorous but exciting