Testimonials About the International Baccalaureate Programme
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“I have spent the past several years observing and engaging with students and teachers in IB primary classrooms in the Lower Mainland. In IB classrooms, children are encouraged to be intrepid explorers and inquirers who are able to pursue their innate curiosities. Based on my multiple observations, it is evident that an IB pedagogical approach lends itself to individual children’s interests within a vibrant and collaborative community of learners.”
Dr. Jodi Streelasky, Institute for Early Childhood Education & Research, UBC
Photo: IB Primary Years Programme students, North Vancouver
“I did the IB Diploma Programme in the late 1980s at Pearson College, a school with—at that time—students from some 75 different countries, thus exemplifying the international orientation of the IB. I appreciate how well the program prepared me for higher education: in particular, the emphasis on critical thinking, class discussion, and essay writing facilitated the transition from secondary to higher education. Now that I am an educational scholar, I appreciate even more how the IB program encourages students to achieve breadth as well as depth, for example by requiring all to study a second language, take the “Theory of Knowledge” course, and write an “Extended Essay” on a topic of their choice.”
Dr. Claudia Ruitenberg, UBC Associate Professor
Photo: IB Diploma Programme, North Vancouver
“Successful applicants who have completed a teacher preparation program designed to prepare pre-service teachers in the many facets of the International Baccalaureate Programmes will be of great benefit to school districts and, ultimately, students in IB Programmes and regular school programs as well.”
Michael Kee, District Principal — Human Resources, North Vancouver School District
Photo: IB Middle Years Programme, North Vancouver
“The IB Primary Years Programme enables teachers and students to co-create learning together. Students learn how to become self-directed, reflective thinkers through actively participating in their own learning. They have the opportunity to make choices about what to learn, how to learn, and how to share this learning with their peers and the wider school community.
As a facilitator, teachers encourage students to become thinkers and learners right from Kindergarten. The job of thinking is given to the students. In fact, it is this shift that is the key to success in an inquiry-based program such as the PYP. Teachers are no longer the ones who do all the thinking, the talking, and the wondering. This key role is handed over to the students.”
Meredith Fenton, IB teacher, West Vancouver/UBC Adjunct Teaching Professor
Photo: IB Primary Years Programme students, West Vancouver
“The IB program is an exciting learning option for 21st century students and teachers. Through the IB suite of programs, students experience genuine inquiry into topics that engage in real world learning experiences; students seek answers to thought-provoking questions that require critical and creative thinking. The nature of inquiry in the IB provides students and teachers with clarity of their learning goals; it provides students with formative assessment along their learning journey; it promotes examination of topics from different perspectives; it creates interdisciplinary connections between traditional subjects. In the IB teachers and students plan with the end result in mind—which in an IB school is a world class, globally minded education.”
Kathleen Barter, Vice Principal, Carson Graham Secondary, North Vancouver
Photo: IB Middle Years Programme, North Vancouver