1)       Research skill: Students' ability to produce and use knowledge develops with the research skill. At this stage the curiosity also manages the students. I conduct students to research in order to improve the knowledge and make it more understandable.

2)       Social skill: Students adopt how mathematics can contribute to other people and other cultures in the social skills approach. I encourage students to reflect the knowledge to the society through applications.

3)       Communication skill: While students express mathematics in writing and orally, they can create an atmosphere of discussion and dialogue among other students in the classroom and reveal different perspectives. As a facilitator I motivate the students to express their mathematical perspectives with each other in a dialog atmosphere.

In essence this always requires an investment in my own learning. A deep understanding of how the curriculum fits together is necessary to enable activities to be planned that really stretch the students whilst reinforcing what they already know. This deep curriculum knowledge only comes from investing time in learning what is required for the curriculum and how we can bring additional content to it. Having taught A level for more years than I care to remember I am confident that I can deliver the ‘content’. The IB curriculum is quite different and is requiring a substantial time investment.

Andragogy and Pedagogy

Given that my aim is to empower the students as a learner I have always been more inclined to an andragogical approach. Certainly, if I am expecting all the learning to take place in the setting of our classroom, I am thoroughly disadvantaging the students. We necessarily must include pedagogy at some stages. Particularly at the beginning of the course if you are new to the students and are building trust and relationships.

Teaching with ATL in mind

If students have been working with strong teacher regulation prior to starting the DP then they will need some time to adapt to a less teacher regulated approach. The pay off for the students of making time for them to adapt will be seen far beyond the time that they leave your classroom. In Higher Education, in the workplace and certainly with their adult relationships the ability for them to be able to self-regulate. Their grade is very important to them so I would tend to try and move to a shared regulatory approach as soon as they are comfortable to do so.