Evaluation in the IB
One aspect that I really like about the MYP is the program evaluation. In the MYP, depending on whether the program ends are year 3 or 5, students are required to complete a community or personal project of their choice. This project is an opportunity for students to explore their own ideas and take action in the community on an issue that is of interest to them. For the school, these community projects act as indictor of is the IB program is being successful for the students. These projects must be able to apply ATL skills students have learned and allows people to analyze the success of the program based on outcome of the project - basically, how are the teachers/schools doing? According to the MYP Subject Guide, these projects are to encourage and enable students to “participate in a sustained, self-directed inquiry within a global context” and “generate creative new insights and develop deeper understandings through in-depth investigations.”
Students have support the entire time while completing their project. Over the 15 hours for the community project or the 25 hours for personal projects students are expected to meet with their project supervisors for support. The supervisors’ responsibilities are to ensure the projects are meeting the legal and ethical standards, provide guidance and support to students and assess the project using the criteria in the MYP Project Guide.
We had the opportunity to look at some of the projects actual students had completed as part of the MYP. It was very interesting to see students take a personal interest and make it their own project. The particular project my group examined was of a girl who interviewed her family and friends about her coming out as a lesbian. She produced an video of her interviews, a reflection of the process and the interviewees’ reactions as well. The video was well thought out and clearly personal to the students own interest.