Browsing by Subject "International baccalaureate"

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    Identification of the intended and unintended outcomes of offering the international baccalaureate diploma program at an International School in Egypt
    (2015-02) Belal, Susan Mohamed
    The purpose of this study is to identify the intended and unintended outcomes of offering the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) at the Cairo American College (CAC) in Egypt, both for the students and the school.This mixed methods study involves a qualitative case study including document analysis, interviews, a focus group, and a quantitative tracer study. The document analysis was performed using literature from within and external to the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO). At CAC, interviews were conducted with four school administrators, eight students, and ten alumni, while the focus group was conducted with six teachers. Matriculation data for all students graduating from CAC in 2012 and 2013, including those who did not participate in the IBDP, was obtained as part of the tracer study component. The findings of this study show that the outcomes of offering the IBDP at CAC depend on the style of implementation of the IBDP, teacher interpretation of the curriculum, and choices students make during the program. The administrators, teachers, students, and alumni shared intended outcomes which included university preparedness, enhanced writing skills, and perceived advantage for university admissions. The results of the study indicate that offering the IBDP broadened most students' worldviews. It helped students by exposing them to a range of subjects and by developing their research skills. In addition, offering the IBDP helped to attract students to the school. The most frequently stated unintended outcomes of participating in the IBDP were students earning college credit, as well as developing time management and organizational skills. Other unintended outcomes indicated were the stressful and elite nature of the program. Engagement with the diverse local community was not one of the perceived main outcomes of offering the IBDP at CAC and is found to not be unique to participating in the IBDP. The diversity of the CAC student body was perceived as an integral factor for helping students develop a wider worldview. The tracer study results show that three times as many IBDP graduates were enrolled in the top 50 universities worldwide as compared to non-IBDP graduates.The most relevant theoretical frameworks for this study, due to CAC's diverse student body and the mission statement of the IBDP, are Allport's social contact theory and Mezirows' transformative learning theory. These frameworks help understand the IBDP and its impact.The findings of this study inform educators, educational leaders, and the IBO about the intended and unintended outcomes of offering the IBDP at the CAC, including the factors that impact engagement with the diverse local community and international mindedness in the context of the IBDP. There are implications for educational leaders such as the need for a diverse student body in order to help develop wider worldview in students, as indicated by the findings of this study. The findings also reveal several implications for the IBO with respect to the perceived stressful and elitist nature of the IBDP. The IBO should consider the intense workload both for the students and the teachers, as well as the exclusive nature of the IBDP mostly due to the cost. There are also implications for the IBO in that the outcomes of the IBDP are dependent on the school, teacher, and student. This results in variable outcomes for each participating individual student. For example, the outcomes of creativity, action, and service (CAS) are dependent on students' choices of project. In addition, there are implications for educators as they embark on their journey of teaching course content while trying to implement the ideological aims of the IBO.
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    If you're ESL, can you be anything else?: exploring the local production of ESL students
    (2013-06) Rambow, Adam C.
    In the field of education, there are numerous categories that identify students based on their abilities and aptitudes. Two such terms are "ESL" and "gifted." However useful these labels are for the purposes of identifying students' needs and creating instructional programs, the fact remains that they are also steeped in hegemonic discourses surrounding learner identity (Lightfoot, 2001; Schulz, 2005). Therefore, it is crucial to examine how these broad institutional categories are produced locally. Employing the theoretical frames of disciplinary technology (Foucault, 1977), cultural production (Levinson & Holland, 1996) and figured worlds (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner & Cain, 1998), this ethnographic study explores how teachers and students in a single middle-school classroom, through their daily practices, created a specific, local understanding of what it meant to be "ESL." Findings indicate that in this classroom, the teachers were aware of the social stigma their students faced by being labeled ESL. Part of their strategy to counteract this stigma involved using the language and artifacts of the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IBMYP) to position their students as gifted. The teachers encouraged their students to adopt habits associated with a gifted identity; however, many of these habits were related to maintaining order in the classroom and positioning the students as "docile bodies" (Foucault, 1977). The process was fraught with contradictions, but ultimately opened up the possibility for students to reposition themselves as both ESL and gifted. Little research exists on the way that the institutional category ESL is locally produced in classrooms. There is even less research on how the IBMYP program is implemented in schools with large contingents of linguistically diverse students. Given the disparate implications for academic success that accompany the labels "ESL" and "gifted," this study begins to bridge a gap in an important area.
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    Teachers' views regarding ways in which the intercultural competence of students is developed at an International school in Southeast Asia: a mixed methods study
    (2013-08) Hornbuckle, Gavin Christopher
    This study is a mixed methods investigation of teachers' views regarding the ways in which the intercultural competence (ICC) of students is developed at an international school in Southeast Asia. To gather data for the study a survey was administered to approximately 90 teachers in the high school section of an international school in Asia to which forty-six teachers responded. The statistical software SPSS was used to analyze the survey data. In addition, nine teachers were interviewed and administered the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Demographic data were also gathered. The results of the study indicate that, in the view of teachers, there are four primary ways that the intercultural competence of students is developed at an international school in Southeast Asia: 1) By spending time with students of other nationalities, 2) The way in which the curriculum is taught in the classroom, 3) By a school environment that is supportive of cultural diversity and 4) By being proficient in English. Results of the IDI show that the nine teachers to whom it was administered had a group Developmental Score that fell within the range of low Minimization, indicating a more ethnocentric world-view, which is consistent with other studies investigating the intercultural competence of teachers in K-12 settings. Teachers whose Developmental Scores fell within Polarization focused on student nationality, culture and difference to a greater extent than those whose Developmental Scores fell within Minimization. These finding indicate that teachers believe immersion in cultural difference is sufficient for the intercultural competence of students to develop, however a growing body of literature points out that this is not the case. The IDI results indicate that teachers may not be prepared to be cultural mentors. There is a need for increased focus on intercultural competence in leadership and professional development programs in K-12 settings, as well as further research into the outcomes of curricular and co-curricular programs in international schools.
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    Teaching and learning v. "doing school": the Impact of rigorous curriculum on student development
    (2013-07) Jarva, Carly Kristin
    italic>I think what I learned in the IB [International Baccalaureate] program...well, in a way I felt like - have you read Great Expectations? When Pip gets the stipend from the mysterious person and he's walking out and the clouds are lifting up and he can see all the possibilities - that's how I felt with the IB program. -Student reflection on experience as an IB student Schools are faced with many challenges, with the most emphasis on increasing student performance. This challenge cannot be met without thoughtful consideration around the actual meaning of increasing student performance. Traditionally, increasing student performance translates to increasing student test scores across sub-groups school-wide as related to state mandated standards-based assessments. This study posits, however, that by increasing the curricular rigor offered to students in urban high schools, student performance improves in the short-term through student achievement while also improving student satisfaction in the long term by more aptly preparing students to perform in the post-secondary environment. This very notion of student growth, achievement, and success is nestled within the threads of thoughtful and sustainable program design and arguably - most critically - the power and impact of quality teaching. The argument that students will flourish and thrive when placed in an instructional environment that is simultaneously supportive and challenging is not a groundbreaking discovery. The balance that is required within program design and the support required for teachers to be able to create that environment for students is more difficult to define and even harder still to measure. Therefore, the focus for this research study is the beginning of a larger-scale grounded theory study that will examine several school models grounded in impacting student achievement through rigorous curriculum and the program supports needed in order to create that space for student success. The research in this first installment looks at the role of the rigorous curricular model, International Baccalaureate; the impact of distributed leadership; and the sustainability of program design for organizational change in reference to student success and growth. Through the process of interviewing, forty-three subjects (4 principals, 4 program coordinators, 15 teachers, and 20 students) were asked to identify the most impactful experiences that they have had throughout the development of the International Baccalaureate program at Meadow Brook High School, an urban school in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This research illustrates the perspective of program development and organizational change from the practitioners' point of view. Included in this investigation is how teachers view distributed leadership in their settings as well as the behaviors and supports they associate with it. Also included in this investigation is overall the impact that program design and implementation ultimately has on the overall success and development of students enrolled in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed for themes. A grounded theory approach was utilized in the analysis to bring forth the prominent themes. Upon the themes, further analysis was drawn and implications will be shared. There were three major findings from the study, which help to inform the field of education on distributed leadership, access to rigor for students of minority or limited socio-economic opportunity, as well as the impacts that rigor can have for these students. First, defining distributed leadership as it is related to program sustainability is a complex process. There is some evidence, however, to suggest that distributed leadership influences the satisfaction and perceived value of stakeholders, which by association informs and furthers sustainability. Second, according to the students and staff members interviewed, the major skills impacting student development for the learners engaged in the rigors of the International Baccalaureate Program at Meadow Brook were self-advocacy, organizational management, and skills for critical analysis. Third, the identification of the elements most critical to student learning and engagement of students in the IB at Meadow Brook cannot be answered in a quantitative measure. The answer rather is presented through the qualitative experience and growth that occurs for students through the supports created for them and the rigor of the curriculum.