Curriculum, learning and teaching
Core work – strengthening the core of the IB Diploma Ann Lautrette explains how her school developed its own bespoke curriculum For those of us who love fitness almost as much as teaching, ‘core work’ conjures images of endless sit-ups and 3-minute planks: hard work, but vital for strength, stability and improved performance. And when we picture the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) model, the core – similar to our abdominal muscles – lies right at the centre of the six subject areas, touching each and holding them together. This suggests that like those abs, the core of the DP can be strengthened with some hard work, and that this strengthening will result in improved performance, not only in the core but in all six subject areas. How, though, do we give the core its rightful place at the heart of the Diploma, coherently integrating Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS), Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay and the development of Approaches to Learning (ATL)? At the British School Jakarta we took the approach of creating our own bespoke Core Curriculum, built upon holistic units underpinned by TOK and integrating CAS, the ATLs, generic Extended Essay skills and Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE). The development of this programme was based on four agreed principles: 1. Students need to understand the connections between the elements of the core, and of the core to the subject areas. Every Core subject guide refers to ‘coherence in the core’, and every subject guide refers to integration of the Core. But in reality, when subjects and core elements are operating in relative isolation, how easy is it to create the kind of interdependence and understanding of interdisciplinary application we desire? We designed our Core Curriculum in layers. In each unit, layer one is the conceptual understanding we want in TOK. Layer two is the explicit ATL skill on which we want to focus. Layer three is the PSHE content we want to explore with students, and layer four is the link to the CAS Learning Outcomes. We start our course, for example, with a unit titled ‘Defining and Generating Knowledge’. This asks the big TOK questions of what knowledge is, and where it comes from, and allows us to explore Ways of Knowing, Areas of Knowledge, Personal and Shared Knowledge, and Winter
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| 2017
A strong core: building a strong structure in our student-led Approaches to Learning conference. the Knowledge Framework. The ATL focus in this unit is affective self-management skills: Where does knowledge about ourselves come from? Why do we think the way we do? Where does emotion come from and how does it affect us? And from here the link into PSHE becomes apparent: How can we better manage our self-talk and inner voice? What motivates us? What’s our passion? What do we want out of IB and life? How do we get there? And, finally, What does this have to do with CAS? [Learning Outcome 1: ‘I identify my strengths. I identify areas for growth.’] Each unit then weaves fluidly through these connected threads of the core, strengthening the links between the
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