The IB Learner Profile and CfE’s Four Capacities

The IB learner profile consists of 10 attributes that the programme strives for their students to develop throughout their school experience. All IB learners should work towards being;

• Inquirers – being curious and developing their research skills while being enthusiastic about learning.
• Knowledgeable – exploring both locally and globally significant ideas.
• Thinkers – becoming critical, creative and ethical decision makers.
• Communicators – being good listeners and confident in more than one language.
• Principled – being honest, fair and responsible.
• Open-minded – developing a critical appreciation for own cultures and cultures of others.
• Caring – showing empathy, compassion and respecting ourselves and others while also being committed to serving the community.
• Risk-takers – being courageous, resourceful and resilient.
• Balanced – balancing intellectual, physical and emotional wellbeing of ourselves and others.
• Reflective – able to identify our strengths and weaknesses while being thoughtful, realistic and hopeful for the future.

The Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) has four capacities which are a guide to what all young people can become through development of various attributes and skills;

• Successful learners – enthusiastic and motivated about learning and determined to get high standards of achievement while being able to use literacy, communication and numeracy skills and think creatively and independently.
• Confident individuals – having self-respect and ambition while being able to develop and communicate their own beliefs and view of the world.
• Responsible citizens – having respect for others and being able to understand and accept different beliefs and cultures.
• Effective contributors – having an enterprising attitude and able to chip in with group discussions while being able to communicate appropriately in different situations and take initiative.

Although the two systems vary, there are many similarities in what they are aiming to develop in each student. Each of CfE’s capacities are similar to at least one IB’s learner profile attributes and is some cases, more than one.

While IB strives for their pupils to be inquirers, CfE aims to develop successful learners and while these have different titles, the concept is the same. Both are teaching their pupils to be enthusiastic while learning and developing various skills. Similarly, both IB and CfE want their students to be respectful of ourselves and others which is clear in ‘caring’ and ‘responsible citizens’. The attributes ‘Principled’ and ‘Open-minded’ also link closely to the capacity ‘Responsible citizen’ as they aim to help students understand how they should act around others and how to understand and appreciate other cultures and beliefs around the world. IB’s strive for the attribute ‘Communicators’ aligns with CfE’s capacity ‘Effective contributor’ as both intend for their students to be able to communicate within group discussions and are not only able to share their own ideas, but also listen to others ideas too. It is clear that the two systems are closely related in the ways that they want to develop their students.