ACS Doha is an International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) candidate school empowering Qatar’s learners for a lifetime of interest and influence. At ACS Doha we have long been proud to deliver the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP) to our students.
This educational approach helps learners develop into motivated, curious, compassionate, entrepreneurial and internationally minded individuals. These are the qualities that ACS endeavours to foster in future generations.
But when does such a mindset really begin? The earlier, formative years of childhood offer a huge learning opportunity not to be neglected.
Two years ago, ACS Doha consulted its stakeholders – staff, educational leaders, our Board, parents, and students – and found strong agreement that there was a positive alignment between the philosophy and ethos of the school, and that of the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IBPYP), for children aged 3-12.
The IBPYP delivers sound learning techniques alongside language, social studies, mathematics, science, technology, the arts, and personal, social and physical education. It is not a prerequisite for the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme, but it does prepare students by developing their abilities as independent, inquiring learners from the outset.
ACS is now making excellent progress through a rigorous authorisation process to qualify and become an authorised IBPYP school.
We are undertaking this authorisation process during the celebrations of the fiftieth year of ACS schools and we’re scheduled to have our verification visit this year during the fiftieth year of the International Baccalaureate Organisation. It has been a huge and very successful journey for both.
Also this year, the IBPYP programme is changing for all schools, including those already delivering it. The schedule for release of the IBPYP enhancements runs up to full implementation by the end of this year.
This timing is advantageous for ACS. Since we have nothing to ‘unlearn’, we can absorb the new, enhanced programme easily and deliver it freshly, whilst understanding how it leads into our successful MYP and DP programmes.
Parents play a vital role in making our learning community the diverse and global place we want it to be, and this will be no different for the IBPYP. Traditionally, parents didn’t have a firm understanding of their role within our learning community.
We are redefining the roles of all members of the learning community, including teachers, educational leaders, and parents. We need to walk together as one, so we have the same understanding and vision and are pursuing the same mission towards our collective goal: seeing all learners move from compliant to empowered.
This move from compliance to empowerment is at the heart of both the International Baccalaureate programmes and our own ethos at ACS. One of the key concepts in this shift is ‘student agency’.
‘Agency’ is to be understood as managing your own learning. Deriving from the Latin verb ‘agere’, ‘to act, do, move or cause’, ‘student agency’ means that students pursue their educational interests in collaboration with peers, teachers and the curriculum. Instead of learners passively consuming a curriculum, learners collaborate with members of our learning community to take charge of what, where, when, with whom, how and why they learn.
A culture of learner agency supports ‘voice, choice and ownership’ – the right to speak up and be heard, the power to choose, and a sense of control and personal engagement with one’s own education – for everyone within a learning community.
This is strongly in line with the educational philosophy of ACS and our vision for learning in Qatar. Agency leads to student action. At ACS we see the link between our vision – making a difference – and the role of action in the PYP.
In the past, educators in traditional systems all over the world may have believed that students weren’t able to make appropriate choices for themselves, and so curricula were imposed, and students had very little voice and choice about their learning. We want learners to co-create and co-design units of study, and co-construct their assessment criteria.
It’s imperative that our student’s voice is reflected in our curriculum. As we revise our curriculum at ACS it should inspire possibilities rather than limit opportunities.
What difference does a culture of student agency make? All the difference in the world! Students and teachers should have greater ownership over learning, and greater voice and choice in their learning. We should offer opportunities for students and teachers to participate in the school’s decision-making processes, so they have greater control and management of their own learning.
This gradual release of power to the students and teachers makes them, first, increasingly engaged, and then, ultimately, empowered – in pursuit of their own curiosities and passions.
Furthermore, if learning means ‘being able to apply a conceptual understanding across various disciplines’, we feel that we are providing students the capacity to do this. In traditional learning contexts, by contrast, it was difficult to transfer learning and understanding across disciplines.
And what about the early learners? We believe that our youngest learners (aged 3-6) can be truly empowered and agents of their own learning. Self-directed play is the primary vehicle of inquiry for our early learners. It helps development, both emotionally and socially, and allows young learners to form perceptions of themselves and others.
The IBPYP will have an impact throughout the school, but we are particularly excited about the positive impact it’ll have on our early learners, in helping develop them as natural enquirers.
The ACS team is flexible, prepared, and determined. We have a growth mindset and a learning community that embraces innovation. We have supportive parents, passionate teachers open to pedagogical change, and instructional leaders who understand the enhancements and know what steps are necessary to meaningfully apply them and transform teaching and learning at ACS.
When we achieve our vision and mission we can feel confident that ACS graduates will go out into the world from Qatar and make a meaningful impact because they’ve been offered the capacity to do so. As the IB’s mission statement says, the aim is ‘to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.’
ACS Doha learners will be able to think critically and work collaboratively, self-direct and self-manage. These are the entrepreneurs and makers who will be successful in terms of meeting all challenges and situations.
