The IB at NIS: The Middle Years Programme

The Middle Years Programme (MYP) at NIS offers a holistic approach to education, addressing students’ intellectual, social, emotional, and physical well-being. Through a broad and balanced curriculum, students gain opportunities to develop the knowledge, attitudes, and skills needed to navigate complexity and take responsible action for the future. The MYP emphasizes critical and flexible thinking, ensuring students can evaluate information and apply their learning to complex, unfamiliar situations.

 

 

Students explore eight subject groups—language acquisition, language and literature, individuals and societies, sciences, mathematics, arts, physical and health education, and design—ensuring a breadth and depth of understanding. The program requires the study of at least two languages, fostering an appreciation for diverse cultures and perspectives. Additionally, students are empowered to engage in meaningful community service, learning how to take principled action and use their knowledge responsibly. By preparing students for further education, the workplace, and a lifetime of learning, the MYP equips them with tools for success and a commitment to making a positive impact on the world.

 

A unique approach, relevant for today’s global society

The MYP aims to help students develop their personal understanding, their emerging sense of self and responsibility in their community. MYP teachers organize the curriculum with appropriate attention to:

• Teaching and learning in context: Students learn best when their learning experiences have context and are connected to their lives and the world that they have experienced. Using global contexts, MYP students explore human identity, global challenges and what it means to be internationally-minded.
   
• Conceptual understanding: Concepts are big ideas that have relevance within specific disciplines and across subject areas. MYP students use concepts as a vehicle to inquire into issues and ideas of personal, local and global significance and examine knowledge holistically.
   
• Approaches to Learning (ATL):  A unifying thread throughout all MYP subject groups, approaches to learning provide the foundation for independent learning and encourage the application of their knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts. Developing and applying these skills help students learn how to learn.
   
• Service as Action (Community Service):  Action (learning by doing and experiencing) and service have always been shared values of the IB community. Students take action when they apply what they are learning in the classroom and beyond. IB learners strive to be caring members of the community who demonstrate a commitment to service—making a positive difference to the lives of others and to the environment. Service as action is an integral part of the programme, especially in the MYP community project.
   
• Language and Identity:  MYP students are required to learn at least two languages (language of instruction and additional language of choice). Learning to communicate in a variety of ways is fundamental to their development of intercultural understanding and crucial to their identity affirmation.
   
• Assessment: MYP assessment standards are consistent around the world. In
order to maintain the rigour for which the IB is renowned, the MYP assessment model is criterion-related. Teachers structure varied and valid assessment tasks so that students can demonstrate achievement according to objectives defined by the IB. Tasks are assessed against established criteria, not against the work of other students and teachers assess this acquired skill set, including
how to succeed in written examinations. Typical MYP assessment tasks include open-ended, problem-solving activities and investigations, organized debates, tests and examinations, hands-on experimentation, analysis and reflection. MYP assessment is carried out by teachers, according to the criteria defined by the IB.