How do the aims of IB align with the aims of CfE?

The International Baccalaureate (IB) is an organisation who strive to overcome boundaries separating languages, countries and cultures through education. According to the aims of IB, it is important that students are developing various attributes to help them to become able and enthusiastic to contribute towards creating a better world. These attributes are known as the ‘Learner Profile’. There appears to be a large focus on developing each individual as someone who can build healthy relationships and work alongside others and use their imagination and ethical reasoning to aid them through everyday life rather on how they perform academically.

Although the IB curriculum differs to the Scottish Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), there are similarities in their general goals and aims.

The IB curriculum aims to “create inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people”. In this, we can see similarities in CfE’s aim of “helping children and young people gain the knowledge, skills and attributes needed for life in the 21^stcentury, including skills for learning, life and work.” Although Scotland’s curriculum specifies that these skills are relevant for living and working in the 21^stcentury, both aims have the same intentions.

While IB aims to ensure that their programmes are challenging and effectively assessed, the CfE has a similar aim to ensure that every child and young person is given the opportunity to progress to the best of their ability in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing.

Various aims of the IB curriculum also has similarities to each of the four capacities of CfE.

• IB’s aim regarding developing the understanding to create a better and more peaceful world and encourage respect conveys the same ideas as creating responsible citizens.
• IB encourages their pupils to work alongside schools, governments and international organisations and CfE carry this aim through by creating effective contributors.
• IB works towards encouraging all of their students to become more active, compassionate and lifelong learners and in the same way, CfE strives to create successful learners.
• The IB curriculum centres on all of its learners and strives to help their students to understand that difference is not a negative trait and should be accepted. This is similar to CfE’s efforts to help each of its pupils to become a confident individual.

During my placement, my class were focusing on the novel ‘Wonder’ as their topic. We did various lessons on accepting and valuing other people, even if they were not the same as you or had different opinions. The pupils were developing their understanding that not everyone is the same, whether it is how they think, look or act and that it is important that everyone is made to feel included, even if they differ from you. This is similar to the IB aim to make sure that their pupils understand that “other people, with differences, can also be right”.