1. Effective Teaching Practices and Teacher Efficacy Beliefs of International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme Teachers in an Urban School District Council of the Great City Schools Fall Conference October 21, 2010 Presenter: Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr.

2. What is the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP)? A framework of academic challenge that encourages students ages 11-16 years to embrace and understand the connections between traditional subjects and the real world, and become critical and reflective thinkers. The overall philosophy of the programme is expressed through three fundamental concepts that support and strengthen all areas of the curriculum. These concepts are based on:  intercultural awareness  holistic learning  communication

3. MYP Curriculum

4. The Purpose  Explore teaching practices and efficacy beliefs of International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IBMYP) teachers in comparison to Traditional Middle School teachers in a large urban school district

5. The Problem  Many school districts are experiencing budget cuts and faced with eliminating non-traditional academic programs such as the Middle Years Programme  Limited research on effective teaching practices and efficacy beliefs of IB Middle Years Programme teachers

6. Significance of the Study  Research findings of effective teaching practices and efficacy beliefs of IBMYP teachers will contribute to IB research  Supported the need and effectiveness of the IBMYP in a large urban school district  Explored practices and efficacy beliefs of IBMYP teachers in a large urban school district

7. Research Findings There were statistically significant differences between IBMYP and Traditional teachers for the following:  Classroom Management (p=0.05)  Encouragement of Responsibility (p=0.002)  Assessment for Understanding (p=0.04)  Instructional Differentiation (p=0.01)

8. Conclusions  The pedagogy of IB teachers consists of the following instructional strategies: differentiation, scaffolding, experiential learning, inquiry based instruction, cooperative learning, student-centered, and constructivism (IBO, 2010) which lead to a statistically significant difference in instructional differentiation for IBMYP and Traditional Middle School teachers.  IBMYP teachers are trained to establish questions that allow students to ask themselves why they are learning specific material and draw on content from educational cultures from around the world (IBO, 2010) which encourages IBMYP students to take responsibility for their learning.

9. Conclusions - continued  The overall purpose of IBO category II training is to provide a forum for experienced IB educators to focus on program delivery which contributed to limited classroom management issues in IBMYP classrooms.  There is an emphasis on assessment, teaching and learning methodologies, and exploring best practice in the classroom during IBO training (IBO, 2010) which allowed IBMYP teachers to provide a better assessment for understanding for their students in comparison to Traditional teachers.

10. Conclusions - continued Instructional differentiation, encouragement of responsibility for students, classroom management practices, and assessments for understanding is more prevalent in IBMYP classrooms than the traditional middle school classrooms.

11. Questions