International Baccalaureate

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment. These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

• IB maximizes the potential of every student
• IB promotes the education of the whole person
• IB empowers students to take control of their own learning
• IB opens minds
• IB turns compassion into action
• IB prepares students for the 21st Century
• IB is quality control
• IB opens doors

The International Baccalaureate^® aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

The aim of all IB programmes is to develop internationally minded people who, recognizing their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet, help to create a better and more peaceful world.

The IB learner profile represents 10 attributes valued by IB World Schools. We believe these attributes, and others like them, can help individuals and groups become responsible members of local, national, and global communities.

IB learners strive to be:

• Inquirers               

• Knowledgeable   

• Thinkers

• Communicators

• Principled

• Open-minded

• Caring

• Risk-takers

• Balanced

• Reflective

The IB focus on approaches to learning is grounded in the belief that learning how to learn is fundamental to a student’s education. The five categories of interrelated skills aim to empower IB students of all ages to become self-regulated learners who know how to ask good questions, set effective goals, pursue their aspirations and have the determination to achieve them. These skills also help to support students’ sense of agency, encouraging them to see their learning as an active and dynamic process. The same five categories of skills span all IB programmes, with the skills then emphasized in developmentally appropriate ways within each programme. The five categories are:

• Thinking Skills: including areas such as critical thinking, creative thinking and ethical thinking
• Research Skills: including skills such as comparing, contrasting, validating and prioritizing information
• Communication Skills: including skills such as written and oral communication, effective listening, and formulating arguments
• Social Skills: including areas such as forming and maintaining positive relationships, listening skills, and conflict resolution
• Self-Management Skills: including both organizational skills, such as managing time and tasks, and affective skills, such as managing state of mind and motivation.

The development of these skills plays a crucial role in supporting the IB’s mission to develop active, compassionate and lifelong learners. Although these skills areas are presented as distinct categories, there are close links and areas of overlap between them, and these categories should be seen as interrelated.