The IBMYP Curriculum Model
The IBMYP Curriculum Model above has eight subject groups around the outside of the octagon. Students in Grade 6–10 are required to study one subject from all eight subject groups. This helps ensure that they have a broad educational base to draw from before making decisions about subject specialization in Grade 11 and 12.
The IBMYP Curriculum Model is guided by three fundamental concepts- Intercultural Awareness, Communication and Holistic Learning:
• Intercultural Awareness
This involves developing students’ attitudes, knowledge and skills as they learn about their own and others’ social and national cultures. The aim of IBMYP schools is to help foster awareness and acceptance of different cultures, which can ultimately lead to empathy and understanding.
• Communication
The IBMYP stresses the central importance of communication, verbal and non-verbal to learning and the ability to effect positive change in the world. The IBO recognizes that language acquisition, which does more than promote cognitive growth, is crucial for maintaining cultural identity, personal development and intercultural understanding.
• Holistic Learning
The IBMYP supports schools in developing learning programs that include but also go beyond the traditional subjects to see how they are interrelated and connected to the world outside the classroom.
Areas of Interaction
At the center of the IBMYP Curriculum Model are the Areas of Interaction (AOI). The AOI are five key concepts that help students and teachers make connections between learning in the classroom and the world outside, and between the learning that occurs in different subjects.
• Approaches to Learning
Approaches to Learning (ATL) is concerned with developing the intellectual discipline, attitudes, strategies and skills that will result in critical, coherent and independent thought and the capacity for problem solving and decision-making. Central to this is “learning how to learn” and developing an awareness of thought processes and their strategic use.
• Community and Service
Community and Service extends beyond the classroom, requiring students to participate in the communities in which they live and to reflect on this participation. The emphasis is on developing community awareness and concern, a sense of responsibility, and the skills needed to make an effective contribution to society.
• Health and Social Education
Health and Social Education aims to educate the whole person and should prepare students for a physically and mentally healthy life, aware of potential hazards and able to make informed choices. It should also help students develop a sense of responsibility for their own well-being and for the physical and social environment.
• Environment
Aims to develop students’ awareness of their interdependence with the environment so that they accept responsibility for maintaining an environment for the future; each day students are confronted with global environmental issues – political and economic – which require balanced understanding.
• Homo Faber
Is concerned with the products of the creative genius of people and their impact on society and the human mind. Students learn to appreciate the human capacity to influence, transform, enjoy and improve the quality of life.
