CfE and PYP both promote student centred learning, with them both promoting a dual approach rom both teachers and pupils to expand upon learning, with pupils hopefully leading discussions which would further the work into other curricular areas. They also promote the idea that learners should not just be taught subject knowledge, but that they should also promote understanding and consolidation of this knowledge through different contexts for learning. This coincides with the shared goal of promoting inquisitive learners and also lifelong learners. They promote that children should learn outside of the classroom and explore subject content outside of the curriculum rather than following it to a tee. This is shown through CfE’s Experience and Outcomes as these are mainly guidelines on what children should be learning, but are left open to interpretation of the median, content and subject content through which they gain these experiences.  Ambitions and attainment of children are also raised through both approaches as they make content within the curriculum more relevant to the pupils and the world around them, promoting a sense of personal connection to the learning that they are undertaking.

Differences in the two approaches is that the PYP curriculum has a more blended approach, with many subject areas being joined together and interdisciplinarity learning being more commonplace than in CfE, where there are provisions made however these are up to teacher directives as to what learning is interdisciplinary. PYP also focuses on teaching a second language from the age of 7, however from my own experience in schools both as a teacher and as a learner I have seen that this was not as heavily focused upon in terms of learning a language rather than learning key phrases and conversation pieces.

These fit into my own personal philosophy for teaching as I believe that education should be more student led to promote an interest in their learning, as through this it is almost certain that work ethic and success will improve as they see a genuine benefit to their work. Making work more appropriate to their personal contexts as well could also help the pupils to see how they can improve their lives and the lives of those around them, a key part of my teaching as I want to improve students self esteem and their view of what they can achieve.

International Baccalaureate (IB) was created with the aim of developing intercultural understanding and respect. It helps people cross the cognitive and physical barriers of language, country and culture. These barriers are crossed in aid of developing interpersonal skills which promote cohesion between learners and allows overall character development, which leads to passionate life long learners that find the methods through which you learn just as important as the curriculum you are taught. IB also allows for those involved in the program to build confidence to achieve goals through a range of learning contexts, meaning that learning takes place outside of the classroom as well as inside of it. This once again aids in character development and teaches those involved how to thrive in a deeply complex world.

This links with my own beliefs about education through the belief that it develops a sense of cross community relations. As I am from Northern Ireland, cross community aspects have been heavily involved in my education as a method to remove the stigma and dogma around Protestantism and Catholicism. I believe that people are similar in many ways, however they choose to see what divides them rather than these similarities. In my teaching I would like to foster an outlook and approach that we should work towards cohesion rather than  boundaries between learners. IB promotes this through its intercultural understanding and I hope this module will aid me further in this aim for my own teaching.