Middle Years Programme (MYP)

Research shows that students participating in the MYP:

• build confidence in managing their own learning
• learn by doing, connecting the classroom to the larger world
• outperform non-IB students in critical academic skills [647KB] 
• consistently have greater success in IB Diploma Programme examinations
• thrive in positive school cultures where they are engaged and motivated to excel [3.2MB] 
• develop an understanding of global challenges and a commitment to act as responsible citizens.

 

The Middle Years Programme helps students develop both subject-specific and interdisciplinary understanding. The MYP curriculum framework includes:

• Approaches to learning (ATL), helping students learn how to learn by developing skills for research, critical and creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and self-management
• Key and related concepts, helping students explore big ideas that matter
• Global contexts, helping students understand the relevance and importance of their study for understanding their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet.

 

The MYP culminates in an independent learning project, called the Personal Project. Students complete a significant piece of work over an extended period of time, encouraging them to consolidate their learning and reflect on the outcomes of their work.

The MYP organizes teaching and learning through eight subject groups. The programme promotes interdisciplinary study that helps students make important connections between academic subjects.

Integrated teaching and learning helps students analyze complex issues and develop the habits of mind they need to participate in our increasingly interconnected world.

The Middle Years Programme comprises eight subject groups:

• Language acquisition
• Language and literature
• Individuals and societies
• Sciences
• Mathematics
• Arts
• Physical and health education
• Design

Teaching and learning in context

Students learn best when their learning experiences have context and are connected to their lives and their experience of the world that they have experienced.

Using global contexts, MYP students develop an understanding of their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet through developmentally appropriate explorations of:

• identities and relationships
• personal and cultural expression
• orientations in space and time
• scientific and technical innovation
• fairness and development
• globalization and sustainability.

 

Conceptual understanding

Concepts are big ideas that have relevance within specific disciplines and across subject areas. MYP students use concepts as a vehicle to inquire into issues and ideas of personal, local and global significance and examine knowledge holistically. The MYP prescribes sixteen key interdisciplinary concepts along with related concepts for each discipline. 

 

Approaches to Learning

A unifying thread throughout all MYP subject groups, approaches to learning (ATL) provide the foundation for independent learning and encourage the application of their knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts. Developing and applying these social, thinking, research, communication and self management skills helps students learn how to learn. 

 

Service as action, through community service 

Action and service have always been shared values of the IB community.

Students take action when they apply what they are learning in the classroom and beyond. IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate a commitment to service—making a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment. Service as action is an integral part of the programme, especially in the MYP community project.

 

Inclusion and Learning Diversity in MYP

As part of the MYP curriculum, schools address differentiation within the written, taught and assessed curriculum. The MYP allows schools to continue to meet state and national legal requirements for students with access needs. All IB Schools must develop an inclusion/special educational needs (SEN) policy that explains assessment access arrangements, classroom accommodations and curriculum modification that meet individual student learning needs.