Conference Special ibo.org | @iborganization
SAUDI ARABIA’S FIRST FEMALE RACER IB alumna and trailblazer Reema Juffali is making history
Editor’s letter
Welcome to the IB Global Conference, Abu Dhabi 2019
The IB learner profile encourages IB students (and teachers) to be risk-takers; approach uncertainty with forethought and determination; explore new ideas; and be resilient in the face of challenges and change. IB alumna Reema Juffali is testament to this. She has broken down many barriers to become Saudi Arabia’s first female racing driver. She hopes that going after her dream will encourage others to do the same (p4). If you’re looking for new ways to take greater risks in the classroom, our keynote speakers share a few strategies that could help (p10). Don’t let the fear of making mistakes put you off. Relieving the pressure for perfection is an important step towards helping educators embrace the complex and messy process inherent in professional learning, says Tina Blythe, at Harvard Project Zero. It’s time to normalize mistakes.
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ducators across the IB continue to develop generations of students with the boldness, creativity and belief in themselves to embrace their personal ambitions and their dreams for a better, more peaceful world. This is ‘Generation IB’ – the theme of this year’s conference. The conference provides an ideal professional development opportunity for educational leaders, decision makers and practitioners from schools, universities and governments from Africa, Europe and the Middle East, to share best practice.
You will discover new ideas to further develop your IB programme and leave with inspiration and renewed energy.
Each year the IB hosts several conferences. The next IB Global Conference will take place in March 2020 in Bangkok, Thailand. For more information on upcoming events, please visit www.ibo.org
International Baccalaureate ® | Baccalaureate International ® | Bachillerato Internacional ®
Sophie-Marie Odum, Editor Follow me on Twitter: @Sophie_Marie_O COVER PHOTO: SUZANNE PLUNKETT FOR NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
Motivated by the IB’s mission, the conference fosters partnership and participation, providing a forum for discussions on educational quality, pedagogical leadership and international mindedness.
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IB World Editor Sophie-Marie Odum IB Editors Jane Wynn, Freddie Oomkens Managing Editor Ilana Harris Designer Sandra Marques Picture Editor Dominique Campbell Printed by Stephens & George Print Group, UK Published on behalf of IB by Wonderly (a Haymarket
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Contents
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45 COVER STORY IB alumna Reema Juffali followed her dreams, and is now representing her country as a racing driver 67 COMMUNITY ACTION A DP student is helping Uighur children in China to express themselves, using photography and storytelling 89 MYP IS 25 Maartenscollege has become the first school to offer the MYP in Dutch
Read more stories online
1014 MEET THE SPEAKERS Our keynote speakers on professional learning, fostering critical thinking and what successful athletes can teach us
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You can read more IB World features and community stories online at blogs.ibo.org. If you would like to contribute feature ideas, or tell us about your inspiring community projects, please tweet us @iborganization. Please note that all submissions are subject to editing.
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PHOTOS: SUZANNE PLUNKETT FOR NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY; SIMON STANMORE; KIM WENDT; GETTY IMAGES; JUICE IMAGES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; CENTRE FOR GLOBAL EDUCATION
October 2019
“I COULDN’T WAIT TO GET BEHIND THE WHEEL” Growing up, IB alumna Reema Juffali couldn’t imagine even driving a car. Now, she is Saudi Arabia’s first and only professional female racing driver
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audi Arabia granted women the right to drive in June 2018. In the same year, Reema Juffali made history by becoming the country’s first female professional racer. She competed in the TRD86 Cup at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, ranking second in her first race, and finishing fourth in the championship. “I didn’t grow up around a racing culture, and I struggled to imagine even driving a car in Saudi Arabia, let alone representing my country as a female racing driver,” says Reema. “Now, as a Saudi, I can not only drive, but also race.”
Reema Juffali has broken through many barriers to become a racing driver
The racing bug Reema has always been passionate about cars, and her family have been very supportive of her aspirations: “Whether it was naming all the cars I knew at seven years old, playing with remote control cars or collecting model cars, it’s always been a part of my life. I couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel. I remember begging to drive around the block 4
every chance I got, barely able to reach the pedals.” Although racers usually start competing from a very young age, the racing dream came later in life for Reema. “After watching my first Le Mans race [a 24-hour race], I realized that some of the drivers were much older than me. That’s when I thought ‘why not? It’s not too late’. When I was at university, I joined different track days
COVER STORY to be a well-rounded individual, and it prepared me for university.” Although Reema has completed 44 races to date, her first race remains the most memorable. “It was something I was waiting so long to experience and when I got out of the car after the race, the adrenaline and sense of accomplishment took me by surprise. I was overcome with emotion,” she recalls. Racing may be considered a maledominated sport, but Reema’s gender has never been an issue. “One of the great things about motorsport is that women and men can compete against one another on an even playing field. “I’m quite a competitive person, so it has pushed me to perform and prove my ability even more.”
and that’s when I caught the racing bug.” Reema attended Northeastern University, in Boston, US, where she studied international affairs, history, political science and Middle East studies. Prior to this, she completed the IB Diploma Programme (DP) at British International School of Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia. History was her favourite subject. “It was interesting
to understand how the world was shaped, the different characters involved and how it has affected our lives today.” “The IB showed me that there was more to education,” she adds. “It was not only about your subject choices, but also about life outside of the classroom with creativity, activity, service (CAS) and Theory of Knowledge (TOK). It taught me how 5
Inspiring others Reema is the epitome of a risk-taker, an IB learner profile attribute. She hopes to continue to make a name for herself in the racing world, and inspire others while doing so: “I hope that by going after my dream I can encourage others to do the same. “My advice is: trust your instincts. Don’t be afraid to take the leap and go after what you love. Take the first step, it’s always the most difficult.”
Through a different lens An IB Diploma Programme (DP) student is using photography to bring attention to the extreme discrimination faced by the Uighur minority in China
Zoe Zhang is helping Uighur children express themselves through photography
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t’s been 10 years since the far-western Chinese region of Xinjiang exploded into violence between the Uighurs, a majorityMuslim group, and Han, China’s dominant ethnic group. The incident, which left at least 196 dead
and countless injured, led to increased tensions between the two groups. Uighurs are treated as outsiders, despite 11 million living in Western China. Rights groups have reported that China is holding one million people, mostly ethnic 6
Uighurs, in “concentration camps” in Xinjiang. They are made to learn Mandarin Chinese and renounce their faith. More than 20 countries have written to the UN, condemning China’s treatment of Uighur and other minorities in the western Xinjiang region. One IB Diploma Programme (DP) student is on a mission to highlight the plight of Uighurs, and help them feel a part of society, using photography. “I believe that the arts have a profound capacity to awaken the deepest parts of humanity,” says Zoe Zhang, from Bellaire Senior High School, in Texas, US. “I want to pass on this legacy of ‘doing good’ through the arts.” Power of photography Zoe founded the Lights, Camera, Action (LCA) project in 2016. It provides Uighur children with digital cameras, so they learn how to express themselves through pictures and storytelling. It also aims to explore and further develop critical thinking skills, while promoting visual arts. “Uighur students live in an isolated desert region and suffer from extreme persecution and discrimination. Because of this, children rarely have
COMMUNITY ACTION opportunities to experience anything outside their village limits. “As the scope of arts is limitless, with LCA, the Uighur students can now see their world through a different lens. Likewise, the world around can see their struggles from an authentic angle.” It started when Zoe travelled to Hotan, China, to teach English language arts through music and photography classes at a Uighur school – stressing the importance of finding beauty in even the most mundane things of life. “Despite that they were only fluent in Uighur, I saw enthusiasm and an unquenched desire to participate in each activity, song and lesson. I saw eager children, standing tall, filled with joy.” Zoe works with organizations in the US for camera donations. She has collected over 80 digital cameras, school supplies, and raised over US$9,000. Overcoming obstacles There were challenges. As an American-born Han Chinese, Zoe is seen as an outsider. When in China, she has been stopped several times by the police. Also, she needed a translator to translate Chinese into Uighur language. “I slowly
More than 80 cameras have been donated to LCA
“The arts have a profound capacity to awaken the deepest parts of humanity” learned simple words and was able to communicate on a more personal level with all the students. “Seeing through the doubts, worries and obstacles, I’ve been able to expand LCA, reaching and giving more Uighur children a chance to see their surrounding beauty.” Zoe is currently in China continuing her fourth year of LCA. The project has expanded towards northern Xinjiang regions. It now includes sports activities as her brother, Owen, also a DP student, is offering basketball coaching sessions to students. One day, Zoe would like to host a gala of the students’ photos. 7
Throughout this project, Zoe says she has displayed the knowledgeable IB learner profile attribute, as well as many others: “Despite being taken aback by the terror I experienced during the 2009 Uighur rebellion at a young age, and having initial presumptions about the danger associated with the Uighurs, I began LCA with an open mind. I soon realized that my students are just children who have been restricted due to their minority status. “I’ve taken risks by annually returning to the conflict-stricken and sensitive region, always reflecting on my impact on students and the expanse of my outreach.”
BILINGUAL EDUCATION GOALS Last year, Maartenscollege became the first IB World School to offer the MYP in Dutch. Mike Weston shares the school’s journey…
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n an effort to extend access to an IB education to more Dutch students, Maartenscollege has become the first school in The Netherlands to introduce the Middle Years Programme (MYP) in Dutch. Maartenscollege shares a campus with the International School of Gronigen (ISG), and both have been offering the MYP since 2002. ISG also offers the IB Diploma Programme (DP). Both schools have non-Dutch and native Dutch speakers, and staff meetings are multilingual. Maartenscollege offers a bilingual MYP programme, which teaches the Dutch national curriculum in English to students in grades 7-10. This has been an “enormous success”, according to Mike Weston ISG’s Head of School. “Students in the bilingual stream felt more motivated than their non-MYP peers, and often came back as alumni to reflect on how useful the MYP was in their first years at university.” Parents began to question why the MYP wasn’t offered in Dutch too. But the challenge was all the translation work involved, and the difference in assessments.
MYP TURNS 25 The Dutch curriculum heavily focuses on summative assessments, which includes testing, and students must reach a minimum level to pass. “It was a different way of approaching teaching. Dutch teaching is led by a textbook and workbook, switching to the MYP would require a radical mindset change, particularly when focusing on global contexts.” Bold decision Undeterred, Weston and his team decided to run a pilot MYP Dutch year for grade 7, in 2018. It was a success. “As soon as we made the decision, we already felt we were on the right track, says Weston. “The Dutch government was discussing the need to bring more interdisciplinary focus into learning. In addition,
the need for 21st-century learning skills is high on the agenda for all schools. We knew from our experience in the MYP that we had this covered.” To ensure a smooth transition, MYP teachers teamed up with non-MYP colleagues. The subject criteria and extracts from MYP: From Principles into Practice handbook were translated into Dutch, and the new parent community was informed about everything there is to know about the MYP, in Dutch. “Many parents were looking for a new type of teaching and learning focused on the future,” says Weston. “We have felt like an IB Candidate school again,” he adds. “Colleagues new to the MYP collaborating with experienced staff has created lots of energy and continual self-reflection of
the teaching and learning process in the school.” Focus on learning Weston believes merging the MYP with the Dutch curriculum will be more beneficial to students as there is a stronger focus on learning, rather than just summative assessments. “Within the MYP framework of teaching and learning, we are no longer asking students to jump a certain height, and reach a minimum level to pass: we are asking them ‘how high can you jump?’ “Instead of looking at what they did wrong – we are looking at what they did right – and, more importantly, what they need to do to jump even higher. Feedback becomes more important than ever. Students can see where they need to go, which adds to their motivation and self-esteem.” The service as action, community and personal projects in the bilingual programme have been inspiring. “We are working to bring these factors into Dutch education, being the first school to offer the MYP in Dutch to all of our students of all academic levels,” says Weston. The MYP is turning 25 this year and, to celebrate, IB World magazine is sharing the stories of schools who offer the MYP. Visit blogs.ibo.org for more content.
The MYP brings an interdisciplinary focus into learning
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Is it time for a change? Whether it’s classroom design, pedagogy, or learning from other professions, our keynote speakers explain how to adapt with purpose
Students should be supported as problem-solvers, critical thinkers and lifelong learners 10
Tina Blythe, Director of Learning and Outreach at Harvard Project Zero, shares the key to lasting change
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hange’ in educational practice is just another name for ‘professional learning’. We all have areas in which we can improve no matter how experienced we are. We change our practice not simply because we want to keep up with education trends, but because we are learning how to be better teachers. If school/team leaders hope for true commitment to change rather than simply compliance, then it needs to be conceptualized as a learning process. Shifting our language from ‘educational change’ to ‘professional learning’ helps highlight two important aspects of the change process that sometimes get overlooked: deep and lasting learning takes time; and it will involve mistakes. Relieving the pressure for perfection is an important step towards helping teachers embrace the complex and messy process inherent in professional learning. In my experience, much resistance to change stems
MEET THE SPEAKERS
Collaborative reflection on student work is essential in the change process
from lack of time to take on a new practice in a thoughtful way: time to plan lessons that incorporate a new idea or approach, to get feedback on those lesson plans, to try them out in the classroom, to reflect on the implementation with colleagues and their students.
Schools don’t need to reinvent the wheel, but instead adapt it
Recognizing the intense time pressure under which most teachers are labouring, and taking steps to relieve that pressure, can go a long way toward cultivating a positive mindset toward impending changes. Not every school needs to reinvent the wheel, but every school does need to adapt it. The process of not simply implementing a new technique but of adapting and investigating is, by its very nature, messy and time-consuming. It is rife with ambiguities, puzzling challenges, trial-and-error learning, and multiple revisions. Learning to resist the ‘quick fix’ mentality and embrace learning is one of the biggest challenges to making and sustaining change. 11
KEY POINTS Thoughtful and sustainable change requires adaptation with integrity, based on the needs of all involved. Decisions about what new practices or approaches the school will start cultivating are important; as are the decisions about what will need to be eliminated to create the time needed for the implementation. Regular, collaborative reflection on student work and learning is essential to gauging the effectiveness of the change process.
Rosan Bosch, Founder of Rosan Bosch Studio, discusses the impact of classroom design on student learning
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or centuries, classrooms – equipped with uniform desks facing a chalkboard – have dominated school layouts, and this has supported a specific type of interaction between students and teachers. And even though the desks today are turned into cluster-setups for teamwork, we still see the same underlying idea: The teacher is the main source of knowledge and the primary decisionmaker for the group. This model has proved obsolete – in terms of research and new pedagogical approaches that aim to engage students as active and self-directed learners. We need a different
The right school environment can inspire and motivate students
type of educative and learning context where the environment encourages different types of interaction. Students should be supported as creative problem-solvers, critical thinkers and lifelong learners. When it comes to engaging students and teachers in inquirybased learning, collaborative teaching and interdisciplinary projects, the traditional school layout often implies an obstacle for learning. Huge funds are not needed to achieve more
effective learning spaces as learning can – and will – take place anywhere. We shouldn’t forget the opportunities for interdisciplinary learning in outdoor environments. This is an accessible and inexpensive way to make more space available. A part of our learning landscape design strategy is to take advantage of the exterior possibilities. Breaking down boundaries between indoor and outdoor areas provides a more enriching and holistic learning experience for all students.
KEY POINTS It’s all about student motivation. To reduce dropout rates, we need to create schools where children can fulfil their dreams, get inspired and start their journeys as lifelong learners.
Think differently about your environment as a teacher. Understand the potentials of teaching in a differentiated environment that supports all the amazing things you are doing as educators.
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Create playful learning environments where students can experiment and take risks. When we are allowed to make mistakes, can be creative and innovative. The same goes for teachers.
MEET THE SPEAKERS Sir Clive Woodward, Director of Sport, Apex2100 International Ski Academy, and Founder and Chairman of Hive Learning, explains what we can all learn from athletes
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n all my experience working in sport and education, I’ve noted three key characteristics that all successful people share:
Teachability Whether you are a student, teacher or a competitive athlete, you need to be willing to put yourself out there to learn new skills and knowledge. People are either a
“There are three things successful people have in common” sponge or a rock; sponges have a passion for knowledge and new ideas, whereas rocks are set in their ways. Pressure This is what really sets champion performers apart. I don’t think anyone is born with the ability to perform under pressure, but it is something that can be learned and taught. Competitive athletes are Top sportspeople possess attributes that are useful for the classroom too
under extreme pressure. Top sportspeople have to be extremely organized, disciplined and efficient with their time. These are useful skills for the classroom too. Attitude There is no substitute for hard work. I have never seen anyone in sport or education be successful without having the right attitude. Competitive athletes will never give up when faced with a challenge.
KEY POINTS We need to understand the pressures that students face, such as social media, expectations from parents and teachers, or general, everyday pressures of life. We can help young people perform better by conditioning their body and mind, and looking at how sports athletes are trained to manage such pressures. The IB learner profile extends beyond IB students, as young athletes can use the key skills and attitudes to help improve their performance too.
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MEET THE SPEAKERS Michael Furdyk, Co-founder of TakingITGlobal, says online resources can foster creative community action
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eal-world challenges and an authentic, global, audience of peers are significant drivers in community action and engagement inside and outside the classroom. We wanted students to take a leadership role as co-creators and designers of projects, and not just be assigned and informed about a task they needed to complete. Our philosophy is based on Roger Hart’s Ladder of Youth Participation – a sociologist for UNICEF developed the Ladder to understand children’s participation in projects. This is how TakingITGlobal was formed, which, to date, has supported millions of young people to understand and act on many of the world’s
greatest challenges. We’ve worked to ensure student and youth voices are recognized and included in UN summits and events. For example, over the last four years, the #Decarbonize: #Decolonize – Water Dialogue project, which explores climate change, oceans and waterways, has brought together tens of thousands of students across more than 12 countries. They collaborate online before
each Conference of Parties (COP) summit held by the UNFCCC. Students have attended each summit to present their work to global leaders, UN Agencies and NGOs. They produce summary papers, highlighting their perspectives and sharing these with diverse audiences. Their artwork and actions have gained recognition at recent summits, and have been put on display.
“We ensure students are included in UN summits”
Student collaboration is key to community action and engagement
KEY POINTS Relevant learning can be created through globally connected learning, linking the Sustainable Development Goals to exploration and action.
Authentic learning is fostered when students are able to participate in the design of their learning, and connect with an authentic audience.
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Deep learning happens when students are challenged to bring their learning to life, and engage beyond a single assignment.
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