Newswise — New Orleans, La.— On the opening day of its annual conference for teachers, coordinators, school heads and other educators who provide an IB education to students in North, Central and South America, the International Baccalaureate (IB) announced new research findings that focus on the implementation of the Diploma Programme (DP) in state schools in Ecuador. The DP is the IB’s highly regarded secondary education program for youths 16-19 years of age. The research team, led by Elisabeth Barnett, PhD, of NCREST, Teachers College, Columbia University, examined the impact of the DP in state schools in Ecuador. Supported by Ecuador’s Ministry of Education (MOE), IB programmes have demonstrated their value as a key to improving the rigour and quality of education country-wide. Overall, this IB research study reveals that implementation of the IB in Ecuador has catalyzed positive change in state school support, teacher training, and student development.
Among state school teachers surveyed, the great majority reported positive impacts in their own pedagogical practices due to their involvement with the DP. Overall, they reported changes to their teaching practice, student assessment, and teaching materials that occurred as a result of new laboratories and instructional materials, better professional development, available technology, support from their peers, more skillful long-term lesson planning and heightened dedication to teaching.
Parents reported that students in the DP were more responsible, made sure their assignments were done well and on time and prioritized their school work. They also noted that students expressed themselves well and handled themselves with confidence.
“Ecuador provides an important IB case study of how the Diploma Programme can elevate the quality of secondary education within a generation,” says IB Americas Regional Director Drew Deutsch. “Ecuador is transforming its state secondary schools through thoughtful and careful expansion of the Diploma Programme and its pedagogy.” Ecuador boasts one of the largest populations of DP students in Latin America with an enrollment of more than 700 DP students.
Ecuador’s state schools have greatly benefited from the MOE decision to embrace the IB. Most IB coordinators surveyed in the NCREST study—-82%—-indicated that they received help from the MOE in setting up and running their IB programmes. Ninety-four percent of the coordinators surveyed indicated that the MOE supported their DP financially. Two-thirds of the coordinators surveyed acknowledged support from the MOE in the form of advice, guidance and provision of educational materials or resources.
Many teachers from the case study schools involved in this research agreed that professional development provided by the IB was a major benefit of participation as an IB teacher. Many acknowledged being well prepared for their roles as teachers by the IB and indicated that they had grown professionally as a result of their training.
Changes to the physical campuses of the IB World Schools were also noticeable and presaged greater changes that came to the schools via technology introduced in support of the Diploma Programme.
Despite obstacles that cropped up related to teacher recruitment and staff turnover, IB teachers and coordinators reported that students were offered well organized, imaginative lessons in highly interactive formats, and that students were actively learning, thinking in sophisticated ways and expressing themselves well.
Fully 94% of surveyed state IB coordinators and 77% of surveyed state teachers agreed with the statement: “Our school has more access to teaching tools and resources because of the IB programme.” More than three-quarters of IB coordinators and more than half of the state teachers surveyed agreed with the statement: “Teachers in our school have more access to professional development training because of the IB programme.”
To read the full research report, visit http://www.ibo.org/research/policy/programmevalidation/diploma/
About the IBFounded in 1968, the International Baccalaureate (IB) is a not-for-profit foundation, which offers four high quality and challenging educational programmes for a worldwide community of schools. For 45 years, IB programmes have gained a reputation for rigour and high academic standards, for preparing students for life in a globalized 21st century, and for helping to develop citizens who will create a better, more peaceful world. Currently, more than 1 million IB students attend nearly 3,500 schools in 144 countries.
Text is available in Spanish and French in addition to English
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