Making better world members – the IB learner profile

On Boxing day and close to a new year, I think a little self-reflective post is in order. The end of a year is always a good time to enjoy what has passed, and dream of what is to come, and I feel it is a shame that I never really take the time to think enough about what has changed – around and within me – in the year. We should all give a few moments to think back on what we have achieved, what we have gained, and what we have lost.

Now that I have (two) blog(s), I have a good excuse to sit down and do this thoroughly and share it with anyone who might feel the same, or different – likewise, I urge you all to do the same! The best way to search your soul could be to tell others about yourself, explain your thoughts, describe your history, and illustrate your dreams.

In this post, I will not torture you by going through all or most of my calm, not very eventful life. I only want to focus on a single thing: my development as person in this world. So, this will be both about how the way I view the world has changed, and how this new perception has influenced me as a person.

The University of Bristol (where I began to study this semester) has a barely noticeable tab on its student webpage that encourages students to pursue what they call a Personal Development Plan (PDP), which aims to – through rigorous reflection and self-evaluation – evoke the student’s strengths and weaknesses and to produce a plan to help the student promote his/her talents and work on his/her shortcomings. This all sounds very good, but the whole purpose of it, they say, is to enhance the student’s employability – to make one more attractive on the job market.

I wouldn’t object to that! But, I have had a hard time motivating myself to go through all that paperwork to tick squares, rate my confidence in a set of skills from one to five, make up some sort of plan of how to improve a prioritised bunch of my weaknesses. I have never been much for reflection, I admit, and this system is not helping at all.

Then, a week ago, or so, I went to a small reunion of old International Baccalaureate (IB) graduates. The official aim of the ‘meeting’ was for us graduates to give feedback on the programme, now that we have had some experience of university life. The heads of the IB wish to know how the IB has helped its graduates to make their way in the world after completing the programme.

However, I think this meeting more helped myself realise how much the IB has changed me as an individual and as a part of this world. As the name suggests, the IB is an international programme designed to prepare the students well for university or college education. It is a strict, academic and therefore also very formal programme, with a challenging curriculum aiming to truly test the students’ mettle. However, the IB also aims to shape the students into ‘better people’. This is perhaps the key objective of the IB: not to sort out the best students through heavy assessment, but to strive to make every student a stronger individual that can contribute to our world in its own way. This can be seen in the IB’s mission statement:

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.

Two out of three sentences are about student development, which envelop the single point on assessment. This is a thousand times more inspiring than the university’s PDP! A large part of the IB experience is about individual development – in contrast to the PDP: a small note as a bracket to those who might be interested in doing the work themselves!

So, what I want to talk about now is in what ways the IB has made me into this ‘better world member’, if at all. For that, I will use the IB learner profile as a template. It is essentially the same as the mission statement, but expressed as ten qualities of an ideal IB graduate. It states that IB learners strive to be:

• Inquirers
• Knowledgeable
• Thinkers
• Communicators
• Principled
• Open-minded
• Caring
• Risk-takers
• Balanced
• Reflective

Each of these qualities has a more exhaustive description to it. I will quote each and in turn give my thoughts as to whether the IB has evoked it in me or not.

Inquirers

They develop their natural curiosity. They acquire the skills necessary to conduct inquiry and research and show independence in learning. They actively enjoy learning and this love of learning will be sustained throughout their lives.

Lamentably, I must say the IB has reduced severely for me. The problem with the IB is that it demands considerable depth of knowledge in a very wide range of topics. This tends to amount to just too much information to keep in my head, so the IB forced me to think more cynically about what I decide to learn, so that I know what I need to answer as many questions as I need with as much depth as I can manage – and nothing more.

The IB has effectively smothered most of the (little) natural curiosity I had, except for in biology (and that is only certain areas in biology; I cannot stomach genetics, and do not enjoy biochemistry much at all). In all other areas, I put considerable effort into screening out what I will not need to learn, when I could use it to try to learn more than is required. But, in the IB, reading outside of the syllabus hardly gives you any advantage, except perhaps material for home-written essays.

The Extended Essay (EE), a large research essay every IB student is required to write in one of his/her chosen subjects, is probably the only part of the programme that really engaged me. Indeed, it flamed a lot of enthusiasm and eager to research more. This was also the point where we were to show “independence of learning”. For the EE, I developed a theoretical model for the energy budget of Tyrannosaurus rex as a hypothetical scavenger, where I asked if it had been more efficient for T. rex to have been warm- or cold-blooded. This sounds incredibly weird and nerdy, and it was! And I loved it! The extent to which I enjoyed the Extended Essay might even be the key reason why I chose to study paleontology.

Still, overall, the IB has killed off the majority of my interest in learning. The demands on depth and breadth of knowledge are even greater now at university, so I am forced to think even harder about what is actually useful to learn about and what selection of  those topics I want to explore in-depth.

This is what the IB did to me, and I doubt the university will be able to mend the damage, if not exacerbating it. However, I do have hope that this new-found revelation about the reality and urgency of the global crises we are facing can restore my will to learn more and explore beyond what is useful to know.

Knowledgeable

They explore concepts, ideas and issues that have local and global significance. In so doing, they acquire in-depth knowledge and develop understanding across a broad and balanced range of disciplines.

As explained above, the IB has indeed helped me develop this skill.

Thinkers

They exercise initiative in applying thinking skills critically and creatively to recognize and approach complex problems, and make reasoned, ethical decisions.

Here, the IB has really made a splendid job, would say. Before the IB, I was useless at analysing statements, concepts, problems etc. I was exceptionally weak in literature analysis. The Theory of Knowledge (ToK) course changed that. ToK is a subject unique to the IB, and one that all IB students must take as a part of their core syllabus (i.e. it is not optional as the other subjects, from which you choose six). It is all about challenging what you are being taught in the regular subjects, by applying critical, philosophical reasoning; it is about identifying problems, in particular situations as well as in our everyday life, and to try (try) to find a creative solution, ideally one that works. So, basically, ToK is questioning everything (including questioning whether there is any point in questioning the thing in question!) in a rational way, identifying problems, drawing out every possible viewpoint, comparing and evaluating, and – if possible – suggesting a solution to the problem.

Now, I have noticed many don’t get that the essential meaning of ToK is to identify problems and try to solve them. Instead, once they realise one can question more or less everything, they start doing just that and nothing else. It kind of makes you feel big when you can confront anyone by questioning existence, rights, free will, etc., but that does not help you or the world in the long run. Indeed, the first step to solving a problem is to identify it, so being doubtful about everything you hear – within reasonable limits – is a useful skill for any thinker. However, stopping there leads nowhere; you must proceed to step two: imagining every feasible way of solving the issue, and finally evaluating them to find which is the best. Only then is your thinking useful to the world.

The quality description speaks of decisions that are both reasoned and ethical. This is because they rarely go hand in hand; often, what is rational and what is ethical are each other’s opposites. This is because the former is based on logic, the latter on subjective opinions, and these tend to be in conflict – why that is, is another interesting topic of discussion, but I won’t go into that now. When making a decision, we are often split between what is practical and what is ‘right’. If a man is standing in your way in a narrow staircase, it would be practical to pull him down, but that would risk injuring or even killing him, for the sake of slight convenience; I would be afraid to meet anyone who does not consider that unethical. Thus, we need balance between what is rational and what is ethical when we make decisions that affect others. This is what the description above refers to.

Sorry for that long account for ToK, but you will see that this course has influenced most of the remaining qualities below, so I thought I might as well explain it fairly thoroughly. (There is much more to ToK than this, but what I have said so far are the essential bits.)

Communicators

They understand and express ideas and information confidently and creatively in more than one language and in a variety of modes of communication. They work effectively and willingly in collaboration with others.

It is not up to one person to solve the world’s issues: we need each and every one of us to work together if we are to achieve great things. This is why it is crucial to be a good communicator, both in terms of listening to others, and helping them understand one another. It is not about speaking the same language, but about helping us all see everyone’s points of view. One could say that the purpose is to be a mediator so that everyone can be at the same level of understanding.

But why is that important? Why do we need others to understand our opinions? For some, it might seem obvious, but perhaps not to others. Mutual understanding is a prerequisite for agreement. The other way of making people respect your view is by coercion – by violence and threats! Indeed, a majority of world conflicts, religious ones in particular, have been caused partly by lack of understanding. If we want to reduce disputes, at any scale, peacefully, helping the participants understand each other brings us one step closer.

In my case, the IB was very helpful in this respect. ToK opened my mind to the importance of understanding, the broad syllabi have given me more general knowledge to help me understand more points of view, and the courses overall helped develop my repertoire of expressions and ways of communicating with others. Being surrounded by wonderful people from all parts of the world both widened my cultural understanding and made me less shy to talk to people I am less familiar with.

Principled

They act with integrity and honesty, with a strong sense of fairness, justice and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups and communities. They take responsibility for their own actions and the consequences that accompany them.

The first bit is indeed difficult to promote in students through an academic programme. I would say that such traits are more influenced by one’s upbringing and the people you meet in your life. At least, I feel this is the case for me; the IB did not change much on this point. If anything, it was the friends I spent time with that enhanced these characteristics in me. However, I am not saying that I am lacking in this aspect – my parents raised me well, I think – but before and after the IB, not much changed.

The second point is easier to relate to the IB, since it is a very strict programme. You learn to take responsibility when the decisions you make have clear consequences. If you do not study, you will probably do poorly or terribly on the exams. If you ignore the rules, you will be punished accordingly. Not that I did any of that, though, haha! Once again, the IB did not show me anything I did not know already. If anything, it rather taught me that there needs to be a balance between studying and other activities (including relaxing and having fun); studying a decent amount every day means you can do excellently without extreme effort and without falling ill for going too far.

Open-minded

They understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to the perspectives, values and traditions of other individuals and communities. They are accustomed to seeking and evaluating a range of points of view, and are willing to grow from the experience.

The IB has certainly opened my mind. This is vastly thanks to ToK, but also thanks to the international atmosphere of the programme. With the classroom a mix of different cultures and traditions, various points of view can emerge, enriching discussions, and the respect for good friends can translate into respect for their values and ideas. We are also more than “accustomed” to exploring and comparing different points of view – it is almost second nature to us!

With the risk of offending some, in which case I do apologise sincerely, the reason I accredit this open-mindedness to the IB programme is that many non-IB students strike me as remarkably stubborn and reluctant to understand others’ values and opinions. However, among the stubborn people I know, their close-mindedness chiefly shows in matters that are not very important, such as discussions about history. For example, I keep hearing people denouncing the way Germany was treated after the First World War. Simplifying their line of reasoning, they say that if the victorious powers had made a more lenient peace treaty, Hitler would not have come to power in Germany. Having studied the inter-war period heavily in history, and knowing a bit about Hitler’s rise to dictatorship, my head almost explodes with factors that (a) made a lenient treaty impossible in practice or undesirable and (b) could have enabled Hitler to achieve absolute power by other means. I gave them a simple argument like reminding them that the people had just experienced the most dreadful war in history, with millions of casualties and more families destroyed. The victorious powers were democracies, and therefore subject to the will of the people, which at that time was blind with grief and fury over the war that they blamed on Germany (much due to government propaganda), and therefore wanted revenge; the victorious powers were also exhausted, economically and militarily, so a treaty where Germany pays for their debts, gives them material to rebuild their country, and reduced the German threat to an army of maximum 100 000 men, which in addition makes their own people content, is of course very attractive. Having this in mind, I am not surprised at all that what happened happened – it seems inevitable. Stupid, in the long run, yes – but nevertheless inevitable. It is when, after all this, I hear things like “well, they should have known better anyway” that I give up…

Caring

They show empathy, compassion and respect towards the needs and feelings of others. They have a personal commitment to service, and act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment.

Just as about being principled, this trait depends much more on how you are as a person and how you were raised. It can, of course, be influenced, for example by making friends that mean a lot to you, that you respect and feel empathy and compassion for.

It is perhaps even odd to try to achieve this in an academic education, but the IB has another unique feature aimed at the development of the individual: CAS, which is an acronym for Creativity, Action, Service. Students are required to fulfil 50 extracurricular hours of work under each of these categories. Creativity usually involves artistic work, some project, or other things – if you are creative, you can think of more things to do! Action is chiefly about exercise, which is essential for every person’s well-being. Service is for the student to do some form of unpaid voluntary social work; this is where the last sentence of the description relates. CAS also requires the student to keep a log, counting the hours, showing evidence, and reflecting over achievements. Monitoring and evaluating your progress is dull, and might take all the fun out of it, but can be an important skill later in life.

I did almost all my service hours as an instructor in karate to a group of beginners (and I often substituted for the instructor of the medium-level group, which rarely was able to attend). It gave me invaluable experience in planning and being pedagogical, and, perhaps at some level, it also made me more compassionate, since I have gone from preferring to ‘torture’ my trainees with heavy exercise to rather convincing them with words to themselves make sure to work hard, as it will make everything easier in the future. Still, this change is not at the scale the IB had in mind, probably, so I must judge my care as having been largely unaffected by the programme.

Risk-taker

They approach unfamiliar situations and uncertainty with courage and forethought, and have the independence of spirit to explore new roles, ideas and strategies. They are brave and articulate in defending their beliefs.

In this aspect, I am not sure if the IB has affected me at all, or negatively. The syllabi were always crystal clear, both in terms of what we needed to know and how we were to be assessed. This made it easier to study effectively and purposefully.

Now, at university, the lecturers give us more of an overview of what they expect us to find out more about. To draw an analogy, we could say that they tell us there will be a test on lakes, show us to a lake, and tell us to jump in and see what we can find. We are more or less left in the blank, expected to either study like freaks or just guess what might come up on the exam. It is the same thing with home-written assignments or essays: they give us a title and a word limit, and that’s it – no mention of what they expect in terms of breadth, depth, specificity, originality, etc. In the case of home-written assignments, you can just do your best and learn from the feedback they give you, but it is not that easy with exam essays, where you need to know precisely what to write as son as you have read the questions, so you really need to have anticipated it and prepared accordingly.

I am not keen on facing this challenge; I have a plan, but I am afraid of the many ways in which it could fail. Thus, I would not regard myself as a risk-taker. Approaching the unknown has rarely appealed to me, so I do not know if I have actually gotten worse since the IB or am about the same. And, actually, the IB has made me more keen to “explore new roles, ideas and strategies” in some ways and cases, so I guess I could say I have improved in some areas.

Defending my beliefs has never been much important to me, since I frankly am not bothered if others do not share my beliefs. It could be that I am open-minded enough to appreciate that there are always different opinions, and that opinions are not more than opinions, and most do not matter enough to cause a fuss over them. Funnily, if you think about it, there is really no need to ‘defend’ you own beliefs unless you are not certain about them: you opinions are your opinions, and no one should be able to convince you otherwise unless you have doubts in the first place, or unless there are some points you have not yet considered.

Don’t get me wrong here! I am not encouraging you to be stubborn! What I am saying is that if you have though your opinion through carefully, and made your decisions, don’t let others offend you for your point of view. If they claim you are wrong, calmly ask them why, and if they can convince you, gracefully accept their view, but do not be angered. They are probably not trying to assault you personally; and, if they are, do not let them get to you – be strong inside! Thus, I would not say that being a risk-taker involves defending your own beliefs; rather, it should involve daring to have your beliefs scrutinised and not being afraid to approach situations where your beliefs may come to question, and then standing up for them.

To conclude, anyway, I am definitely not a risk-taker at the moment, so I definitely need to work on this limitation, especially if I am to engage in major issues of today!

Balanced

They understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal well-being for themselves and others.

I learned this during my time in the IB; I could notice the change clearly somewhere mid-way through the programme. Though, it was not CAS that showed me the importance of balance – although it is one of its key aims – but, rather, the workload that overwhelmed me at a point, after which I realised I needed more rest to be able to continue. Now, I am rarely overwhelmed by schoolwork, thanks to good planning and healthy ‘laziness’. It feels good and assuring that I know when to stop before it goes too far, and that I actively strive to exercise more and more – the only thing that hinders me is really all those bleeding colds I keep catching every now and then!

Reflective

They give thoughtful consideration to their own learning and experience. They are able to assess and understand their strengths and limitations in order to support their learning and personal development.

ToK is probably the main ‘thing’ that makes me reflect (effectively) over what I learn and experience. Ideally, CAS should have built up the routine in me, but I guess CAS never got under my skin the way ToK did (not surprising: ToK is infinitely more interesting and appealing than CAS). I remember that my mentor in the years before the IB had to remind me every week that I needed to do more reflection, and even asked me to take a booklet and make it my weekly ‘reflection book’. I still never reflect on a regular basis; rather, I do it the moment after the experience, or when the situation calls for it. I feel that is quite good enough for now.

(With that potentially confusing statement, considering the purpose of this post, I will leave you, and quitely wish you a good rest of this year, and a wonderful new one!)