MYP: Mind the Gap [MA Assignment]

The circle closes with this assignment, from IBAP conference in 2013 to the submission of the assignment in 2014. From here it’s onwards and updwards with the Research Methods unit and the dissertation, building (hopefully) on my Web Chart of the International Dimension. 

Building on ideas from my IBAP Regional Conference breakout session in 2013, this assignment focuses on different approaches to and interpretations of inquiry across the MYP-DP divide. It focuses first on how Dewey and Vygotsky saw learning an then brings the discussion more up to date with a little look at different learning theories, shoehorning in some modern approaches based on Hattie, Willingham, Kahnemann and the like.

Since coming up with the idea for conference presentation back in 2012-13, I have read so much on these various tensions that it became overwhelming to write and rewrite the assignment. Even up to the last day of writing I was turning up new papers, chapters and interpretations, and the conversations about similar ideas (progressivism vs direct instruction, essentially) continue to wage on through twitter and blogs. I’m not convinced we’ll even reach a happy medium or sense of overall agreement in how best to teach and learn, but it sure makes for interesting reading.

In summary: we’ll never agree on what makes learning effective, as there are too many contrasting ideologies. However, we can use the emphasis on inquiry in the IB programmes to carefully define what we want from our learners and what we want to achieve as educators. Using Bente Elkjaer’s definition of inquiry as “critical reflective thought” we can find commons ground across the gap, from the more open-ended Deweyesque approach to inquiry of the PYP and MYP to the more structured Vygotskyan DP-oriented model. Students need to be taught, and the role of the teacher is highly important; where content is needed, we must ensure that it is accurate, useful and – most importantly – free from misconception so that it can be built upon in later inquiries. We can equip students with a worthwhile foundation of knowledge and skills from which they can build inquiry, through future-oriented, critical and reflective thought.

There is a false dichotomy between progressivism and more didactic methods of learning; it is striking the right balance for learners at the right time that is key and the paper is bookended by Dewey’s quotes reflecting this.

“What we want and need is education pure and simple, and we shall make surer and faster progress when we devote ourselves to finding out just what education is and what conditions have to be satisfied in order that education may be a reality and not a name or a slogan.”

 (Dewey, Experience and Education, 1938, p.91)

IBAP 2013 “MYP: Mind The Gap” Breakout Slides

Notes: this was 2013, early days of Hattie’s influence and Prezi. So strap in for some seasickness. Link. 

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Some related blog posts:

• MYP: Mind the Gap regional conference presentation
• Learning is about living and as such is lifelong
• Defining inquiry: a pragmatic approach to critical, reflective thought
• An Inquiry Crossfader
• Is every experience a ‘moving force’? Some Dewey graphorisms