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Learning should be at the core of what every good school does, and the overarching question the IPC asks is ‘How does this improve learning?’ The IPC Learning Goals are so central to the IPC that it’s important to think about the language used when talking to the children, with colleagues and with parents. An IPC teacher talks about what children have learned before they talk about what children have done. The clear, precise Learning Goals give schools, teachers and leaders the chance to do that much more easily. The Learning Goals are organised into 3 distinct but connected sections.

3.1.1 Subject Learning Goals

The clearly defined Learning Goals of the International Curriculum were developed with teachers from our member schools and beyond, with reference to over twenty different national and regional curricula. The Subject Learning Goals cover the Knowledge, Skills and Understanding that children should learn in: 

Art 

Design, Technology and Innovation 

Geography 

Health and Well-Being 

History 

ICT and Computing 

Language Arts 

Mathematics 

Music 

PE 

Science

A full set of subject goals is available in the International Curriculum Learning Goals document.

3.1.2 Personal Learning Goals

With a world that is increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, we know that our learners will face challenging circumstances. Whether consciously or not, the Personal Learning Goals cultivate within us, a set of ways of approaching challenges, and they strongly shape our attitudes and capabilities as thinkers and learners. For this reason, if learners are to flourish and overcome challenges, their dispositional qualities must be a key area of focus for teachers and school leaders. It has been argued that there is a need for increased focus on soft skills as we enter the fourth industrial revolution; with increasing levels of artificial intelligence, equipping learners with skills that artificial intelligence cannot emulate is more important than ever before.

The aim of the Personal Learning Goals is to develop character and attitudes, rather than Knowledge, Skills and Understanding. Hence, they are constructed with the preceding sentence: To be ________, I aim to ________.

The 8 Personal Learning Goals are all things we can be: Adaptable 

(a) Communicator 

(a) Collaborator 

Empathetic 

Ethical 

Resilient 

Respectful 

(a) Thinker

Each Personal Learning Goal has a number of indicators with progression through the mileposts. These are included in the International Curriculum Learning Goals document alongside the Subject and International Learning Goals. Opportunities to experience and practice these specific goals will be built into the learning tasks found within each unit of learning. Learning about these qualities through studying people in History and International will help children understand the benefits and complexities around developing these Personal Goals. It is expected that the Personal Learning Goals as part of each school’s shared vision will be promoted beyond the classroom through whole school events such as sports days, celebrations and assemblies.

Schools should take the opportunity to include their community in expectations around modelling and demonstrating the Personal Learning Goals. This may include developing community indicators for each of the Personal Learning Goals.

3.1.3 International Learning Goals

The International Curriculum is unique in defining International Learning Goals that help learners begin the move towards increasingly sophisticated national, international, global and intercultural perspectives on the world around them, whilst developing the capacity to take action and make a difference.

The development of an inquisitive mind and a sense of curiosity about the world and its people is essential for international learning. It facilitates the acquisition of investigative skills which helps learners to overcome feelings of bewilderment or uneasiness that they might experience when faced with unfamiliarity. Furthermore, it raises their awareness of the differences between cultures and societies as well as the commonalities that bind humanity together. An understanding of diversity is essential to fostering mutually beneficial collaboration among different nations and peoples, creating a platform for the sharing of learning around the world.

The expectation that learners will take action as a result of their learning is a particularly crucial part of the International Learning Goals given the volatility of the modern world and the uncertainties that humanity is likely to face in the coming years. The International Learning Goals encourage thoughtful engagement with local and global issues and combined with the Process to Facilitate Learning, provide opportunity for direct intervention so that children feel empowered to enact meaningful change. Moreover, the goals help to bridge the gap between school and the wider world so that learners can immediately begin applying their newly acquired international Knowledge, Skills and Understanding outside of the classroom.

The IPC Route Plan allows schools to check goal coverage for all Subject and International Goals.

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Learning does not follow a single, uniform process, as it can look and feel different for everyone. However, all IPC units all follow the Process to Facilitate Learning, with the learner at the centre, which is structured to make sure that children’s learning experiences are stimulating and therefore effective.

Entry Point

The Entry Point serves to prime learners for new learning, through promoting curiosity and generating excitement for the coming unit. Another role of the Entry Point is to ‘activate schemata’, it should trigger children’s memories that may connect to the unit being introduced.

Knowledge Harvest

Throughout the unit, information gained in the Knowledge Harvest may influence the teaching approach, resources, scaffolding provided, grouping and/or adult intervention which may all help move the child from where they are now to the intended learning goals. During the Knowledge Harvest, children can also ask questions expressing what they want to know which contributes to Learner Agency. The Knowledge Harvest may reveal the need for curriculum compacting which is a technique for differentiating instruction that allows teachers to adjust units, such as not repeating content that children already confidently know. Equally the Knowledge Harvest may indicate that revision of expected previous learning which has not yet been consolidated in the learners’ long-term memory is needed.

Explaining the Theme

As you learn, your brain is looking for connections between your current and previous learning. This is why the Knowledge Harvest and Explaining the Theme are such an important part of any IPC unit – they help children make connections between what they already know and what they are going to learn. Displaying these supports building stronger connections as learning continues.

Research, Record and Reflect

The IPC intentionally develops tasks that promote engagement through being fun, however the focus is on improving learning and the memory of the ‘fun’ activity must not outlast the intended learning. Explicitly signposting the Learning Goals steers the children’s thinking towards learning and away from the activity.

Exit Point

Provide purposeful closure to a thematic unit as they give a platform for learners to celebrate and feed forward what they have learnt. They will require children to demonstrate aspects of all the Personal Learning Goals. Children will need to synthesise their learning and evaluate the significance of different elements in order to focus on what is important for the Exit Point. Exit Points require attendance by community members such as peers or adults to provide the audience and therefore a meaningful experience.

Assessment for Improving Learning and Metacognition

Assessment for Improving Learning and Metacognition are embedded in the IPC Process to Facilitate Learning. Continuous Assessment and planning, monitoring and evaluation (Metacognition) are essential components of all learning.

Action and Learner Agency

Learner Agency can lead to action throughout the unit, during the Exit Point and beyond. Action should be learner-generated in response to learning, it may take place at home, in school or the wider community. Ideas for action and the potential impact should be discussed as they arise within the thematic unit. Action is described in more detail in Foundation 4 – Globally Competent Learners

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The International Curriculum is unique in defining International Learning Goals that help learners begin the move towards increasingly sophisticated national, international, global and intercultural perspectives on the world around them, whilst developing the capacity to take action and make a difference, resulting in them becoming globally competent learners.

Terminology to support the development of internationally minded and globally competent learners includes the use of the following throughout the IPC thematic units:

“Home” country is where the child may have been born and/or has cultural roots

“Host” is where the child is living now, where the school is located

“Heritage” countries are where the child’s family originates from

“Adopted” countries enhance learning by allowing for comparison to the home/host/heritage country through identifying the similarities and differences between countries

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Knowledge, Skills and Understanding are sufficiently different to be taught, learned and assessed differently. We expect teachers to signpost the type of learning to children and engage in dialogue with them about what they are learning, what type of learning it is and how they are learning it.

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The International Curriculum promotes connected learning, in a variety of ways. Connected learning is multifaceted, involving goals, process and products of learning. 

Goals: Connecting subject goals though themes e.g. day and night in Science & Geography goals.

Process: Collaborative learning, within and beyond the classroom. 

Products: Using Art skills to record learning in another subject or using Mathematics skills to present Science results in a graph.

In the IPC, various subjects are included in different thematic units of learning so that learners can engage in dialogue from different viewpoints. This enables children to see the wider context of their learning and to make connections both within and across different subjects. Each subject has its own set of IPC Learning Goals and it is important that learners recognise the subjects as being independent and distinctive, yet interdependent.

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The design of the International Curriculum endorses the assertion that learning and assessment work together; the purpose of assessment is to guide next steps and improve future learning. Assessment is integral to the Process to Facilitate Learning and it is recommended that assessment should take place regularly to allow for instructional adaptations, revised goal setting, feedback or even curriculum compacting.

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The International Curriculum utilizes a variety of learning theories to influence its progressive pedagogy, to improve learning for children all around the world. While each of the four progressive pedagogies in the IPC has its own distinct characteristics, there is overlap which supports the coherence of the curriculum. Each of these is described below. The four main categories of pedagogy are:

Brain based: Promoting retention of Knowledge in the long-term memory

Constructivism: Connecting new learning to prior learning, learners are actively engaged in constructing their own meaning.

Experiential and Active: The learner is fully engaged in learning activities considered to be iterative and active which ensures acquisition of new Knowledge and development of Skills and Understanding. 

Metacognition: Learning is improved through learner reflection on what they are learning, how they are learning, and how learning might be improved.

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A Progressive Pedagogy

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Foundations 6 and 7

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Foundation #5 Knowledge, Skills, Understanding are taught, learnt and assessed. 

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Foundation #5 Knowledge, Skills, Understanding are taught, learnt and assessed. 

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Foundation #7 Assessment for Improving Learning

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Foundation #7 Assessment for Improving Learning

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Foundation 4- Globally Competent Learners

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Foundation 4- Globally Competent Learners

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It encompasses a combination of learning theories to get the most out of students.

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The learning goals takes into account

children's prior knowledge

goals have three sections (subject learning goals, personal goals, international goals )