The “Online” IB Learner’s Profile
How cruel is the treatment M21 candidates have received?
One of the most notable things that welcome a student into their IB journey is the prestigious ‘IB Learner Profile’; A list of 10 characteristics all IB students aim to embody; IB students should be inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced, and reflective. This is said to be the core of the IB program, but how many of these qualities have been really demonstrated by the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) itself? Does it actually embody the qualities that asks of its students to be?
If you have been keeping up with the news, you will have noticed many international examinations have been cancelled for 2021, following the despairing developments of the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, the IB, which is considered one of the greatest secondary education diploma programs worldwide, after keeping thousands of students and educators on cliffhangers continuously for months, waiting for the crucial determination of the future of the May 2021 (M21) examination session, has announced they will be following a different approach: ‘The Dual Route Model’, meaning that some of the students will be taking the exams in-person, while others will be graded based on predicted grades and Internal Assessment (IA) tasks. Which route each school will follow depends on the epidemiological situation in their home country at the time the exams are scheduled for, leaving a high degree of uncertainty for the students, not knowing whether they should focus on revising material or working on their IAs. Out of all the possible ways the IBO could have addressed the situation, they decided upon the most problematic and unfair solution, by far. How is it possible to compare students that will sit the exams to those who will not? If two students receive the same mark in different routes and, when it comes to other factors, they are equally qualified, which of the two should a university chose to offer a position to? It is undeniable that there will be discrimination, favouring students who sat for exams, although the students of the other route did not have a choice for how their two years’ worth of hard work will be assessed. How is it possible to find balance between the two approaches? Has the IB truly inquired the consequences of the ‘Dual Route Model’ or thoroughly attempted to think of the best possible solution to the epidemiological situation?
Although IB learners strive to be caring individuals and efficient communicators, recent findings suggest that the IBO itself has not espoused these characteristics that it so much promotes. According to the IBO, a recent questionnaire sent to each school’s IB coordinators showed that 61% of the students are able to sit the exams. In Greece, no coordinator inquired the opinion of their students on the matter and only seems to have assessed the situation based on two factors: 1. Accessibility of students to an examination center and 2. Typically covering the syllabus in their school. A recent attempt, initiated by the country’s IB students, to gather signatures from all around Greece, was made in order to ask of the Greek Minister of Education, N. Kerameus, to cancel the IB examination session, making very concrete arguments on why the case should be so. It was proven that the vast majority of students wish for the cancellation of the M21 IB examination session, following the adverse consequences of the pandemic in both their academic performance and personal lives. Although only Greek students could participate in this initiative, it makes one wonder how accurate the 61% statistic published by the IBO really is. Is the organization truly knowledgeable of the student’s wishes and situation? And if the answer is yes, has it been truly reflective when devising a possible solution to the issue?
One of the most notable factors significantly hindering the students’ learning potential and subsequently, their capacity to score excellent marks in the upcoming exams, is distance learning and the technical difficulties it entails.
When first quarantined, it was paramount that lessons had to be followed up online; some schools were lucky enough to have been able to readily face the situation, but others took a while to adapt, losing even weeks of valuable lessons. Although, at the moment, schools have fully adapted to the devastating situation, many issues pertinent to online schooling continue to arise, some of which could possibly never be truly eliminated.
Lagging audio and low-resolution visual input have become part of the students’ daily routine. The whole of Greece now functions online, which causes the internet connection to be significantly impaired for most. Even if a student or teacher is not directly affected by connection issues, they are indirectly affected when struggling to communicate effectively with others who do face such issues. Teachers cover material and students, losing audio parts, are unable to keep proper notes; Students ask questions and the teacher is incapable of making sense of the incomplete incoming audio; Teachers and students unexpectedly disconnect from the online platform losing hours of valuable time trying to enter the call again; Teachers share video to demonstrate how to solve exercises on paper but the screen sharing becomes frequently frozen on a particular frame, making students unable to keep up with the lesson… These are only a few examples that illustrate the situation. It is also very important to mention that the aforesaid connectivity issues are of particular frequency for students who temporarily live in urban areas attending an IB school and thus, went back to living with their relatives’ in rural areas, during the lockdown. Furthermore, many power shortages have occurred over the two lockdowns during which schools have been functioning online, making students lose even days of online classes, resulting in being unable to catch up with the syllabus.
It should also not go unmentioned that many technical problems have arisen regarding both the software used to carry out online classes (i.e. Zoom, MS Teams) and the hardware (i.e. outdated laptops or malfunctioning microphones and speakers) of the students and teachers. They have reported constantly facing issues while using online platforms to carry out the lessons. At times, features such as starting a call, cannot be used due to the heavy lag. Many have also faced problems with audio and visual equipment, including cases where students’ earphones or speakers break down due to their extensive use during online school, which are incapable of being replaced promptly, considering the issues faced with online shopping and the delayed deliveries.
As if connectivity and technical issues were not impairing enough to the student’s learning potential, many M21 candidates have referred to the difficulty of eliminating distractions at home. This doesn’t necessarily refer to distractions such as watching TV or playing mobile games during the lesson, as such distractions can be eliminated and in fact, most IB students are truly committed to the program and do make an effort to be focused on online classes. This statement mostly refers to the conditions at home; not everyone lives in an undisturbed home environment. Ranging from construction work noises to siblings, parents, children, and loud pets, many students and teachers are unable to concentrate on online school with all of the commotion going on around them. If students do not understand the material from school, this means that they have to use twice as much time to learn the material on their own, reducing the amount of time available to revise old material for the exams or for exercising and spending time on leisure activities, without which the students’ psychology and subsequently the students’ school performance is undermined. Moreover, some students mostly cover schoolwork at school during study periods or at cafes, if the conditions at home are not favorable, something that is now non-feasible. Hence, not only is teaching affected by distractions but so is the completion of relevant schoolwork, at times.
Mathematics, physics, chemistry, and other more practical subjects are particularly hard to be taught online. While conversation-based subjects such as literature or language acquisition courses have worked relatively well, issues are prominent with the rest of the subjects. During class, it is not easy to show your teacher how you worked through a problem and ask them to point out any possible mistakes or flaws in your thinking process. Communication is ineffective through computer screens and online school could never replace learning in person. How are students supposed to receive adequate training for exams online? Even if a school uses state-of-the-art monitoring software, such as ‘Proctorio’, to prevent students from cheating on a test, the examination conditions at home are not even close to being representative of those at school. The latter is far more stressful than the former and at school, as previously explained, distractions prevent students from reaching their optimum potential, when undergoing an exam.
Students’ mental and physical integrity should not be neglected. After months of online school, students have suffered both physiological and psychological implications due to their extensive screen time. They do not only have to follow classes online but also do homework online. There is no time off the screen. From the moment students wake up and embark on their day to the moment they go to sleep (because the IB workload is particularly heavy, especially for year two students at the current time who should typically begin syllabus revision), students hardly take their eyes off the screen.
Extensive screen time culminates in the loss of sleep, as research has shown. As a consequence, without enough rest, students are unable to function properly and keep up with the extensive workload and online school. Being unrest means having a reduced attention span, especially now that classes are online and the screens can be exhausting and damaging to the eyes, making students incapable of keeping up. Furthermore, staying in front of a computer screen all day at the same spot can have devastating consequences on both physical and mental health. It is of paramount importance that students work in different environments, but this is hard to achieve with the set lockdown restrictions.
Lastly, it is undeniable that in no way should the M21 candidate be compared to the N20 candidates. The latter had completed the syllabus before the lockdown and had plenty of time to revise. It was only imminent they would score well in their exams. They did not go through the same devastating situation, previously illustrated, as M21 students did, who had almost both of their IB years online and had to learn the most challenging parts of the syllabus through online learning.
Overall, the IBO and many IB schools have failed to adapt to the current situation properly and efficiently, neglecting their students’ wellbeing. Not knowing what assessment route one will actually follow has lead students to carry out extra work under extra difficult circumstances. The IBO should proceed with worldwide exam cancellation and attempt to devise a fair grading system based on predictions, Internal Assessment tasks, and other evidence of students’ work throughout the two years of the IB Diploma Programme.
~ A concerned IB2 Student
