OPENING THE

LEARNING BOX:
Approaches to
Learning &
Approaches to
Teaching in the
IB Continuum

PRESENTED BY
GILES PINTO
MYP
COORDINATOR,
BRANKSOME
HALL
(Toronto, Canada)

Session

Time

1: Introduction to ATL Framework

9:00 10:00

2: Skills of Effective Learning

10:00 11:00

3: Approaches to Teaching

11:00 12:00

4: ATL and Self-Assessment

1:00 2:00

5: ATL and Metacognition

2:00 3:00

IS THIS WORKABLE FOR EVERYONE?

Please remember to note and post your questions as necessary!

FOR MORE DEPTH AND FURTHER INSIGHTS INTO

LEVERAGING PEDAGOGICAL LEADERSHIP, CHECK OUT
THE CATEGORY 3 I.B. WORKSHOPS FOR DP AND MYP

INTRODUCING OURSELVES plus

THE A.T.L. FRAMEWORK BASICS

A FEW THINGS ABOUT ME

MYP Coordinator at one of
the few all girls
Continuum schools in the
Americas
Taught Language &
Literature in the DP and
MYP
Recovering TOK teacher

Just finished my fourth

degree (M.Ed. in
Counselling Psychology)

Communication
skills

Selfmanagement
skills

Communication

Organization

Information
literacy

Creative
thinking

Affective skills

Media literacy

Transfer

Reflection

Thinking skills

Critical thinking

Social skills

Collaboration

Research skills

How does the framework as mapped out above address

the needs of 21st century learners?
How does it connect with your school/district mission and
vision?

THIS ACTIVITY AND MUCH OF THE OTHER SESSION MATERIAL

COMES FROM THE WORK OF LEARNING SKILLS CONSULTANT
LANCE KING: taolearn.com

 Crowd control?
Gaining good qualifications?

Getting into a good university?

Getting a good job?

Preparation for life?

Developing brilliant learners?

How do these qualities connect with

the IB Learner Profile attributes?
PICK ONE QUALITY TO LINK WITH
THE NEXT SLIDE

SKILLS FOR LEARNING

setting learning goals

planning out their study
asking good questions
generating motivation and perseverance
processing information effectively sifting, sorting, comparing,
verifying, trying out different ways to learn
working to deadlines
reflecting on their achievement both process and content
making changes to their learning processes where necessary

Learning skills in the US

What matters based on surveys of 400 top corporate recruiters:
1) Oral and written communication skills
2) Critical thinking and problem solving skills
3) Professionalism and work ethic
4) Collaboration across networks
5) Ability to work in diverse teams
6) Fluency with information technology
7) Leadership and project management skills
Knowledge of mathematics came 14th on the list just ahead of science
knowledge and foreign language comprehension.
(Wagner, 2010; Trilling & Fadel, 2009)

Team workers

Independent
inquirers

Self-managers

Creative
thinkers

Effective
participators

Reflective
learners

Responsibility

Organization

Independent
work

Collaboration

Initiative

Self-regulation

Mexico
Belgium
Italy
Poland
Slovakia
Spain
Turkey

New
Zealand
Singapore
South Korea

Ways of Thinking
Creativity and innovation
Critical thinking, problem solving, decision making
Learning to learn, metacognition
Ways of Working
Communication
Collaboration & teamwork
10 essential skills for
Tools for Working
st
success
in
the
21
Information literacy
Century
ICT literacy
Living in the World
Citizenship local and global
Life and career
Personal & social responsibility including cultural awareness and
competence
(Binkley, Erstad, Herman, Raizen,
Ripley & Rumble, 2010)

 PYP Awareness
MYP Acquisition
teaching specific strategies, techniques

DP Amalgamation
Many skills involved in the completion of every task
But what about new student entries in Diploma 1? Consistent
review is needed.

Divide the outer circle into as many

people there are in your group. For
each persons section, write how
you implement ATL in your
classroom.
Write how you implement
ATL into your subject
department.
Write how you implement
ATL as a whole school.

What are the most important

ATL skills for my students
to learn this year?

Years from now it is the how not

the what that students will have
resonate in their learning.

Three types of ATL skills in the DP

The term skill is used in a broad

sense in the Diploma to encompass:
1. Cognitive skills
2. Metacognitive skills
3. Affective skills

 Metacognitive knowledge students gaining awareness

of the thinking and learning preferences, strategies,

techniques and skills they use at present

Metacognitive performance students using that
knowledge to improve performance, changing ineffective
strategies, trying new ones, learning new skills

active information processing and

retrieval strategies study skills

Organising and transforming information

Asking good questions
Taking good classroom notes
Using memory techniques
Goal setting
Reviewing information regularly
Time management
Organising the study environment

enabling the student to gain some control

over mood, motivation and attitude

Persistence and perseverance

Focus and concentration, overcoming distractions
Self-motivation
Mindfulness
Reducing anxiety
Delaying gratification
Managing impulsiveness and anger
Developing resilience

APPROACHES TO TEACHING

The IB Diploma Programme Model

Note the evolution: what has changed?

Students?
Teachers?
Pedagogical
leaders?

Within the core of the

Diploma Programme
(and also the MYP!):
TEACHING

LEARNING

 Teaching an ATL skill outside the subject based

lessons within a unit of study such as a lesson on
Time Management, Note Making, Collaboration,
Concentration where the EFFORT is focused on
strategies, practises, techniques, and not on the
content of the unit.
Articulating the skill

 Embedding development and practice of an ATL skill

within the subject focused lesson through a series of
learning engagements that use the content of the
subject to build that identified skill
Applying the learning engagement of the skill

Approaches to Teaching and

Learning Deconstructed
The aim of ATL in the Diploma is to improve the quality of teaching
and learning across the programme and support key values and
principles of an IB education.
From MYP Principles into Practice (2014): When specific ATL skills
become an explicit focus for teaching and learning, students can
begin to take responsibility for their own development.
A concept-driven curriculum that uses ATL skills effectively enables
all students to become stronger, more self-regulated learners.

EXAMPLE LOCATION FROM OCC:

Approaches to Teaching
1. Teaching based on inquiry
2. Teaching focused on conceptual understanding
3. Teaching developed in local and global contexts
4. Teaching focused on effective teamwork and
collaboration
5. Teaching differentiated to meet the needs of all learners
6. Teaching informed by assessment (formative and summative)
HOW READILY DO YOUR TEACHERS EMBRACE THIS PARADIGM?
WHAT STRATEGIES DO YOU THINK CAN DEVELOP THESE CAPACITIES?

Assessment of Learning vs. for Learning http://alhsformativeassessment.blogspot.ca/2013/01/look-at-cartoon-linked-here-and-explain.html

There is a need to be explicit in

the teaching of learning skills!

The IB Learner Profile: another look

http://www.ibo.org/myib/digitaltoolkit/files/pdfs/learner-profile-en.pdf

Pedagogical principles
underpinning the Diploma
What is of paramount importance in the pre-university stage
is not what is learned but learning how to learn
What matters is not the absorption and regurgitation either of
fact or pre-digested interpretations of facts, but the
development of powers of the mind or ways of thinking which
can be applied to new situations and new presentations of
facts as they arise.
Peterson (1972)

Why?
Not self-regulated learning environment
Lack the right skills to successfully learn in a selfregulated learning environment
OR
Too supported??

Build the scaffold and then pull away

Soft skills are not well taught in school
Need meta-cognitive knowledge to support affective skills
Lance King

 Prior to the Diploma

Awareness and Acquisition of Skills
teaching specific strategies and techniques

During the Diploma

Amalgamation of Skills
Many skills involved in the completion of every task
But what about new student entries in Diploma 1?

Consistent review is needed.

At this point, they should

be able to.
You should know this by
now
We often find ourselves thinking this..
but what if students dont??

THE
TEENAGE
BRAIN &
THE
VALUE OF
EXPLICIT
SKILL
BUILDING:
The View
from
Science

LUNCH

ATL & SELF-ASSESSMENT

DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER BURNING QUESTIONS ON THE A.T.L.

CATEGORIES?

Prior to DP
scaffold the
thinking process

THINKING SKILLS
DP continue
the scaffold and
extend

To Think Critically
Critical is related to criteria against which one proves a claim
From Roland Case The Critical Thinking Consortium

In order to think critically,

one must have criteria on
which to be assessed and
to make a judgement
Move from factual coverage to critical inquiry

 We must provide tools

We must provide exemplars

It must be valued in assessment

Move from information retrieval

(re-search)
to critical inquiry

Example: Geographic Inquiry Model

Ask questions
Acquire resources
Explore data
Analyze information
Act upon knowledge

Might be reasoned
judgement, but might
not...

Example Questions:
What is the result of refugees
moving from this land across
the border to?
What are the merits and
limitations of the main
globalization indices?
Do answers exist in
textbooks and online?

We must invite more than

information retrieval.

We want to engage our

students and create
opportunities to support deep
thinking about the subject
matter.

Being explicit is
essential.
Teachers have reported that what they like about DP is
that one knows exactly what one must teach.

Now we must focus on the how.

ATL be explicit; provide exemplars

Example Questions:

Make them critical inquiry:

What is the result of refugees

moving from this land across
the border to?

What 3 factors most

significantly affect refugees at
their point of origin?

What are the merits and

limitations of the main
globalization indices?

Which index is most credible

in recognizing disparities
globally?

Make thinking visible

How do these guidelines intersect with
ATL and ATT implementation?
1. Model thinking.
2. Allow thinking time.
3. Provide opportunities for thinking.
4. Create a physical environment
conducive to thinking.
5. Introduce thinking routines.
6. Show that you value thinking.
7. Give them something worth thinking
about!
8. Let go.
9. Focus on big ideas.
10. Focus on learning, not work.
SOURCE:
https://whatedsaid.wordpress.com/2010/07/20/10ways-to-create-a-culture-of-thinking/

Examples of visible thinking routines from Harvard Project Zero (Ritchhart et

al, 2011)

Connect, extend,
challenge

Generate-sort-connect- I used to think ... now I

elaborate
think ...

(routine to help students

(concept mapping routine)
make connections between
old knowledge and new
knowledge)

(routine to help effective

reflection on how and why
their thinking has changed)

Headlines

Think, pair, share

(routine where students

write a newspaper style
headline to capture the
essence of an idea, event,
topic, etc.)

Claim, support,
question
(routine for exploring
claims; Students make a
claim, identify support for
that claim, then ask a
question related to that
claim)

(routine where students

think individually, then
share/ compare their
thinking with a partner)

Backwards Design from

DP Assessed Tasks:

find someone with the

same subject expertise as
you
Turn and talk with one task
student should know by now how to

-what thinking skills must already be honed?

-what explicit vs. implicit skills are necessary?

-do the students have the skills required?

Simple deep thinking Tip:

BEFORE AN ASSESSMENT, use leading words to illustrate
how to analyse:
.because...due to ...therefore..
and an example of this is..(PROOF)
To Student:
USE THIS LANGUAGE IN YOUR RESPONSE
Do it and you move from descriptive to analytical

Thinking in collaborative groups

Build
connections
between
ideas/concepts

DUE TO!!!

Thinking gets messy!

NOVICE
BEGINS
(observing)

LEARNER
DEVELOPS
(emulating)

PRACTITIONER
USES
(demonstrating)

EXPERT
SHARES
(self-regulating)

Even in study
notes, we can
support
students to set
up structures to
support
analysis

C.2
Teaching and learning engages students as inquirers and thinkers.
The written curriculum incorporates relevant experiences for students.
The written curriculum identifies the knowledge, concepts and skills and
attitudes to be developed over time.
C.3
Teaching and learning uses a range and variety of strategies.

Concern with developing students thinking, far

from being a fad, is one of the most persistent
and ambitious aspirations of education

Visual metaphor
In groups, please come up with

Challenges vs. understandings

1 aspect of ATL
that inspires or
motivates you...

A question you still

have

ATL & Metacognition

Tips and Tricks along the way to embed and to be explicit

3 minute reminders for cognitive skills

Oral presentations
Note taking
How the heck do you paraphrase?
Roles in a group
Study method for subject

Exemplars

Theatrical moment - Poor communication find the flaws

A note taking structure
Paraphrasing and citations
Sample study notes/old question breakdown

Tips and Tricks along the way to embed and to be explicit

3 minute reminders for metacognitive skills

reflection
How did I do?
Was there a process I can use again?
How can I transfer this?
What did I learn today?
How could I have done better?
Did I self assess?

Exemplars

I used to think. Now I think?

Reflection strategies
Connection to other subject areas
Break down the rubric

Tips and Tricks along the way to embed and to be explicit

3 minute reminders for affective skills
Resilience What did I do well? What did I not do well? What can
I learn for next time? Mistakes are a good opportunity to learn.
Self motivation What do I want to achieve with this unit? What
challenges will I face? How can I overcome them? What is my
learning journey? What is my goal?
Mindfulness How do I feel today? How can I manage the
demands of today? What will help me right now? I cant control the
past or the future but I can make a good choice right now.

Exemplars
SPIDER WEB for social skills
Strategies for self reflection
Strategies for self-regulation

Moving from learning skills to life skills:

TRANSFERABLE THINKING

THINK & SHARE:

Each person at your
table should
consider one
element and link it
to development of
metacognition,
resilience,
self-motivation and
mindfulness

ATL is the tool to facilitate the learning

and move students on an upwards
trajectory
Can we build lifelong learning skills
that prepare students for the rest of
their lives and also give a value
added perspective to the challenges
of the IB program?

What is assumed
to be understood
in your task(s)?

What could use

more support?

Is there an idea
from the TSMs to
reinforce a skill?

ATL Skills

Content
What dont I understand yet?

What skills have I practiced today?

What questions do I have?

How competent do I now feel in each

skill?

Strategies
What strategies have I used or been
exposed to today?

How effective was each one for me?

U SHAPED DEBATE: To what extent do we have enough information to

make a reasoned judgment on this controversy and its outcome?
[http://tc2.ca/uploads/PDFs/InstructionalStrategies/Ushaped_discussion.pdf]

Novice
(observation)
Recording information
Asking good questions
Negotiate effectively
Recognize unstated
assumptions and bias
Compare conceptual
understanding across
multiple subject groups and
disciplines
Persistence and
perseverance
Focus and concentration

Self-motivation
Delaying gratification
Practice bouncing back after
adversity, mistakes and
failures

Learner
(emulation)

Practitioner
(demonstration)

Expert
(selfregulation)

http://blog.lashgroup.ca/2014/11/08/10-stunningly-beautiful-pictures-of-the-toronto-skyline/