By Louise Badham It has been claimed that we live in a world of “post-truth politics”. Ours is a globalized and interconnected world where the power of social media is embraced in political campaigns and “appeals to emotion are dominant and factual rebuttals or fact checks are ignored”. In the turbulent arena of international politics, […]
In the digital age where knowledge recall has become less important, the role of exams is being called into question. We discuss their future “Exams don’t assess abilities, they merely provide a snapshot of the knowledge an individual has been able to retain at that given point in time,” wrote Peter T Howe, Principal of UWC […]
Maysa Jalbout has spent her career advocating for greater and better support for education, youth and refugees. She has done so through the non-profit sector, government aid and for over a decade in philanthropy. She is currently a member of the IB Board of Governors and is Chief Executive Officer of the Abdulla Al Ghurair […]
It took us a couple of years to ‘get it right’, but the move to IB Diploma Programme (DP) has undoubtedly been a key factor in rejuvenating the academic life of King Edward’s school. And while we often bemoan league tables as a terrible evil, it’s impossible not to note the dramatic rise we have […]
By Sir Anthony Seldon Fifty years since its inception, British schools need the IB now more than ever, writes one leading educationalist The IB was created 50 years ago “to develop young people … to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect”. The IB has done its job well in […]
Monique Brouillet Seefried was Chair of the IB Board of Governors from 2003 to 2009 and is parent to three IB Diploma Programme (DP) graduates. Born a French citizen in Tunisia, she grew up in Austria, France and Italy. She later lived in Germany with her husband until 1977 when they moved to Atlanta in […]
Dr Howard Gardner, Professor of Education at Harvard University, looks to the future of education and tells us that in addition to being able to read, write and calculate, students should learn to code, to analyze data, to work comfortably with “big data”.
An expert in communicative intelligence, Kendall Zoller is speaking at the IB Global Conference in Vienna on ‘Using the ecotone to shape a future: from chaos to calm’. He describes the ecotone as the transitional place between where you are and where you want to go, and argues that leading into the future requires tolerance […]
In a cooperative enterprise, we work efficiently and don’t get in each other’s way. But in a collaborative effort, we respect the diverse thinking of the group, realizing that each member’s contribution improves our end result in a way that wouldn’t have happened if we merely cooperated to ‘get the job done’.
When information on all topics explored by humanity to date is contained in the cloud, and in the palms of our students, we must ask ourselves about the role of schools and teachers, their relevance and effectiveness. Anyone who believes that schools and teachers will survive in the next decade by simply repeating the formulas […]
By Paul Campbell There is no doubt that education is advancing towards a place where what is taught and assessed also connects with what is relevant. But here we have an inherent paradox, particularly in the public sector, where education is also a traditional profession in a system that is slow to change. A new […]
By Robert Harrison Sometimes the IB’s mission can seem quite lofty and disconnected from the real world of teachers who feel overworked by their responsibilities and students who feel overwhelmed by course work and examinations. Can education really help to make a better world? The genius of the IB has always been tying up the […]
Proudly telling the world about our philosophy in our 50th anniversary year Jay Mathews’ employer for 50 years, The Washington Post, describes him as a Harvard-educated columnist and education writer with Chinese language skills and author of nine books, including five about high schools and a New York Times bestseller. It was also Jay who “created […]
Peter Stoyle has been involved with the IB since its very beginning. He was the Director General of a school in Montevideo when it was chosen in 1968 to be one of the first pilot schools to trial exams for what became the IB Diploma Programme (DP). But he might say that the most challenging […]
After completing a nine-month internship at the International Baccalaureate, Ocie Grimsley signs off by sharing the “Primary List” — 5 key dreams, goals and reflections for the future.
