IB vs American: Math Specific

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camelgirl
Posts: 4
Joined: Sun Jan 09, 2022 3:46 pm

IB vs American: Math Specific

Post by camelgirl »

Hi Everyone. I was wondering if someone who has experience in both American Common Core and IB MYP/DP with math specifically could explain any key differences between the two? I currently only have experience with American Common Core but am finding that most schools I am interested in are IB/MYP/DP. I've been able to find general similarities and differences online, but if anyone has specific math experience, I'd love to hear it!
sciteach
Posts: 258
Joined: Sat Dec 13, 2014 7:49 am

Re: IB vs American: Math Specific

Post by sciteach »

To be honest - MYP is more of a teaching philosophy with marking criteria and Common Core is what you teach. As such - it's possible to teach Common Core at an MYP School.

In general though - there are 4 criteria in MYP math which makes it a bit different than national curriculums. They are:

Criteria A: Basically a test which includes unfamiliar questions that requires students to use their knowledge in new situations.

Criteria B: Patterns. Students often complete a small investigation looking at a pattern in math against specific ideas.

Criteria C: Communication. This is kind of a criteria that looks at how you communicate mathematically. It's discouraged to include this criteria with a Criteria A test.

Criteria D: Using math to solve problems. A 10 minute look at the criteria will give you an idea of the differences.

Note that what I have said includes sweeping generalizations but I find the MYP tends to try and teach through the inquiry cycle. This is challenging in mathematics - but a stronger emphasis on explaining and showing how you got your answer is often needed in MYP compared to pure national systems. Others can discuss if thats a good or bad thing.

For you specifically - showing that you are a constructivist teacher is probably a more important thing as a newbie to IB than showing your wares of IB excellence. As you are probably aware - there is a shortage of qualified and competent math teachers internationally which is only getting worse. Being able to teach upper years with proven results can make people hot property. As such - you should be able to get a job much easier than say a PYP or English teacher with 2 years IB experience. Note that there is still strong competition for the best schools. However - I would also study schools well as you are more in a position to choose a general location than any job that is available.
PsyGuy
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Joined: Wed Oct 12, 2011 9:51 am
Location: Northern Europe

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Post by PsyGuy »

DIP and AP (as well as the US NC in general) like all of the predominate SLL IE curriculum are highly congruent. The differences in edu practice (these are practice differences as opposed to conceptual theory of meds/peds/asst differences) between MYP and the US NC for the rest of secondary are two fold:
1) A substantial increase in the use of word problems.
2) A focus on the application of maths to solve real life problems as opposed to the demonstration of proofs.
What this looks like in a classroom for example:
First, the lesson begins with a warm activity that presents a word problem where the students must define what the problem is and what type of maths computation is needed to solve the problem followed by the decoding of the text into a formula/computation and then solving.
Second, the instructional phase follows where students are presented with a real life problem and a discussion ensues about how to solve the problem. This problem is likely to involve multiple calculations and computations. The IS wants to install an automated watering system for its green areas; how much area needs to be watered, how many sprinklers will be required, what is the cost of the project, how much water will be used, how much will the water cost per day/week/month/year, etc? It would be in good form for students to actually identify these values (as in go out and measure) as opposed to being given values. In which this exercise could be the locus for PBL.
This is an opportunity for students to engage in peer/pairs/group consultation as they identify the problems and what math computations will solve them. Once students move into the demonstration (independent/group/seat work) they will demonstrate the proofs for solving these problems. The rubric for assessing this exercise will incorporate both identification, description, and explanation of solving the problem in addition to correct performance of the proof. Assessment at both formative and summative levels will emphasis more than correct computation.
On days where the maths IT is expected to present a cross curriculum lesson:
A language arts integrated lesson may require students to take a set of computations after solving and write them into a word problem, which is then used as a proof set for the class to solve and critique.
A line arts integrated lesson may require students to compose an illustration, to scale, in regards to solving a word problem (students make a diagram of the green spaces to scale to be watered, as in the problem above).
A social studies integrated lesson may address a historical problem (draining the molasses from the Boston Molasses Flood of 1919).
A science integrated lesson for IB often has an environmental or ecological problem basis (how does water effect the growth rate of grass in the example above).
Technology can be integrated in lessons through the composition of spread sheets and other computational and data organization tools.
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