Approaches to learning skills (ATL) within the International Baccalaureate (IB) education
Approaches to learning skills (ATL) within the International Baccalaureate (IB) education
As students learn in a classroom setting, they naturally develop their own way of learning. It’s important that the teacher is aware of how they are learning to foster them, and enhance their learning in a way that will be beneficial to their education.
As a way of supporting children to understand how they learn best, the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum encourages them to develop skills that help them learn. The ATL skills help students be ready for and showcase their learning through self-assessments. Over time, children begin to clearly understand what the ATL skills are, and how they learn best. This is the valuable self-assessment aspect that the International Baccalaureate (IB) framework encourages on its students as a result of its curriculum.
ATL skills reflect “dynamic, internally controlled . . . processes that positively influence a student’s tendency to approach, engage with, expend effort on, and persist in learning tasks in an ongoing, self directed manner” (McCombs, 1984).
Approaches to learning skills (ATL) within the International Baccalaureate (IB) education
These skills are explicitly taught and practiced in a meaningful and authentic way everyday at Ashwood Glen. The design of the Montessori program is ideal for our students in that it stimulates learning through inquiry; harnessing each child’s curiosity and exploratory nature. Moreover, the approach allows children to learn at their unique pace and styles.
The IB framework is a concept-driven, transdisciplinary and inquiry-based approach in which students develop the confidence to take responsibility for their learning with the goal of becoming internationally minded individuals, equipped to take responsibility in making a positive difference in their personal and global communities. The framework promotes and encourages academic and intercultural competencies, while simultaneously meeting the social and emotional needs of our students.
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