International Mindedness
In our cohort, we were asked to write down what we thought it was to be international minded. For me this was a lot harder that I thought it would be. Many thoughts came though my mind: someone who accepts and appreciates diversity, someone who speaks multiple languages, someone who has a knowledge of the world around them. While these may be correct is some ways, I have learned that my understanding was only skimming the surface.
At the core of the IB program is international mindedness. It is what the IB learner profile strives to develop and is a primary aim and context of learning. International Mindedness is defined by IB as an attitude of openness to, and curiosity about, the world and different cultures and developing a deep understanding of the complexity, diversity and motives of human actions and interactions.
What stands out to me most of their definition is the “human actions and interactions”. As someone who has been able to travel to places very different that my home and experience different cultures and meet new people, I feel that understanding how and why people act and interact how they do is very important and doesn’t always make it in to the traditional classroom.
In it quotes Lev Vygotski with his belief that students will make meaning on previous knowledge and experiences. It is up to the teacher to interpret the aspects of the IB learner profile and to use the students prior knowledge, experiences, and the students own inquiry to develop them into international minded thinkers. After reading this it got to question how I bring in my students’ experiences to my classroom to help them understand Spanish and the many cultures that speak it. I’ve come to realize that international mindedness is more than speaking another language and appreciating different cultures. It’s being able to question, understand, and appreciate the differences of our world and strive to be continuously curious about them.