Discourses of IB MYP Benefits, Promotion and Implementation in Schools

Abstract

There are widespread concerns in the educational field about the ability of schools to provide students the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to succeed in our rapidly changing technology/information society. One initiative is the development of age-appropriate programmes to suit the middle years of schooling. A particularly interesting example of a programme which intends to fit within this structure is the International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP). This largely qualitative research investigates the discourses surrounding the benefits, promotion and implementation of the MYP. Literature on 'effective schools' and 'best practices' is used to provide a basic framework with which to compare the discourses, enabling the MYP's effectiveness in practice to be determined through the perceptions of practitioners. This affords a broad exposé of multiple aspects of the MYP, both academic and life-skill related. Data were collected from MYP practitioners around the world and analysed using critical discourse analysis, with the assistance of the qualitative analysis programme, NVivo. The findings indicate the MYP is considered an effective programme by the majority of practitioners surveyed. The discourse analysis highlighted a number of areas considered beneficial to student learning in both academic and affective life-skill areas such as study skills, critical thinking skills and relating learning to life experiences. Areas considered by some to be drawbacks were also identified, such as time, costs, and complexity of the programme; and suggestions for improvement to further the goals of the programme are made. Research findings are discussed in depth with the aim that they will be of use to schools implementing or using the MYP, and the IB itself, to promote positive change in schools and improvements in the programme by aiding understanding on how the MYP is perceived to benefit and promote learning, and how the implementation process can be facilitated.