The 10 attributes of the Learner Profile for IB schools have been designed to help students succeed to become lifelong learners and globally minded citizens. A key aspect of the Learner Profile is to extend learning and fuel thirst for education beyond the classroom.
The Learner Profile and the Schoolbox LMS
At Schoolbox, we recognise the advantages of the Learner Profile to create lifelong learners and these attributes underpin many aspects of our Learning Management System (LMS).
Customisable Course and Class Pages
Developing lifelong learners is not only about what to learn, it’s also about teaching students how to learn. The Learner Profile requires students to be Knowledgeable and Thinkers; they should think critically and creatively, and explore knowledge across a wide range of disciplines and engage with issues that have local and global significance.
The Schoolbox LMS enables highly customisable course and class pages so that teachers can input all information that they think is relevant and important to a particular topic. For instance, teachers can choose to discuss issues of global significance and create an assessment that would require students to think critically to discover local solutions.
Project-Based Learning
IB learners are Inquirers and Risk-takers; the curriculum seeks to nurture the curiosity of students and encourage them to work independently as well as collaboratively. Students are encouraged to approach uncertainty with forethought and determination; to work independently and cooperatively and explore new ideas and innovative strategies.
The Schoolbox LMS contains project-learning spaces to provide students with a safe environment to collaborate with fellow students and engage in online discussions. By working through content and learning activities in a central online platform, students are able to be curious and innovative and at the same time, connect with their peers and their teachers in a controlled environment.
Continuous Feedback and Reporting
Developing Balanced learners is another aspect of the Learner Profile where students are required to understand the importance of balancing different aspects of their lives, such as intellectual, physical and emotional.
Tools like continuous feedback and reporting provide the opportunity for students to take ownership of their learning and acquire an understanding of their performance at any given time. This information provides students with an understanding of actions needed to improve or enhance their learning journey; that is, take a balanced approach to their learning.
Similarity Checker
Being Principled is another attribute of the Learner Profile and requires students to act with integrity and honesty, with a sense of fairness and justice; and take responsibility for their actions.
The Schoolbox LMS contains a similarity checker which provides an opportunity to nurture principled behaviour. The purpose of the similarity checker is to allow teachers to see whether a student’s work could be a direct copy and whether there is a need to investigate further for plagiarism.
Collaboration Tools
Emphasis is also placed on students in the IB curriculum to be Communicators. Being able to communicate confidently and creatively is therefore an important attribute of the Learner Profile.
Schoolbox houses a number of collaboration tools that provide opportunities for students to enhance their communication skills and learn from each other.
- Blogs: share their experiences and stories.
- Social stream: socially collaborate on a particular class or topic.
- Forums: participate in open discussion.
- Wiki: share and use resources.
Our LMS also has the capability to communicate via videos, audio and text; thereby opening up different mediums and methods.
The collaboration tools in Schoolbox can also be used to enhance the Caring attribute of the Learner Profile. This attribute requires students to show empathy, compassion, and respect.
For instance, you could integrate a UN twitter feed into a dashboard, group or class page via the social stream component so students can stay abreast of developments.
Self-Assessment and Self-Reflection
Another attribute of the Learner Profile is being Open-minded, which requires students to seek and evaluate a range of points of view and be willing to grow from experience.
Schoolbox contains a number of self-assessment and self-reflection tools which enable this attribute. For instance, the rubric tool in Schoolbox provides a set of criteria in a table format with clear descriptions to show levels of achievement against each criteria. This provides students with exactly what they need to demonstrate to meet a certain level with the assessment or task so they can self-evaluate.
This way, students can be open to receiving constructive feedback and embrace the opportunity to reflect on their performance and critically evaluate their progress against the rubric.
Schoolbox also includes an ePortfolio feature, which supports the Reflective attribute of the Learner Profile.
The ePortfolio enables students to capture their learning journey and showcase their work, interests, passions and experiences. This way, students can take the opportunity to thoughtfully reflect on their own ideas and experiences.
Schoolbox Empowers IB Schools
The Learner Profile consists of key attributes so students can become lifelong learners. The Schoolbox LMS is underpinned by these attributes and empowers IB schools to deliver a curriculum with the student at the forefront.
Talk to us today to see how you can use the Schoolbox LMS and engagement platform to empower your K-12 school.
If you want to read more about student-centred learning practices, check out our other resources:
