Approaches to Learning

Approaches to teaching and learning

You will notice in the new guide that there is a stronger focus on the Approaches to teaching and learning, underpinned by the IB’s pedagogical principles. Importantly, especially in DP studies in language and literature, these approaches do not form a checklist, but are what we do as we work through language and literature:

  • Thinking skills – we use and develop these whenever we react to texts, whenever we interpret, critique or respond.

  • Communication skills – these are also inherently part of our course as we discuss, present, write, create and transform. By communicating about language and literature we also build our ability to participate and grow in a rich language community.

  • Social skills – reading may seem like a solitary pleasure but reading and interpreting is necessarily collaborative. In order to have any thoughts, feelings and conclusions about texts, we collaborate with authors through time, with other communities, and with people in our classroom.

  • Self-management skills – perhaps it is enough to say ‘paper deadline’ or ‘400-page novel’ here.

Research skills – this, too, is an inherent part of delving into texts, works and the topics that interest us.


Thinking skills
Developing thinking skills is a key feature of the constructivist approach to learning that heavily influences all IB programs. The teacher in the IB classroom is the facilitator who provides or shapes learning opportunities that allow students to develop skills of metacognition, reflection, critical thinking, creative thinking and transfer. Deliberate thinking in a classroom situation is best achieved through requiring students to come up with responses to questions that do not only require remembering or explaining.

In studies in language and literature students are asked to engage with authentic disciplinary problems. The three courses are built around the reading, listening and viewing of texts, the development of an informed, creative response to text and the communication of such a response to an audience. All of these activities involve and develop a varied range of sophisticated thinking skills.

Communication skills
Communication skills are important for success in school but are also essential to create an atmosphere of congeniality in the learning community: they help to form and maintain good relationships between students and between students and adults. Furthermore, being able to communicate well contributes to the development of students’ self-confidence and enhances their future prospects.

It almost goes without saying that communication skills are at the heart of studies in language and literature. Specific aspects of communication such as reading, viewing, writing, speaking, listening and performing form a part of the aims of the courses in studies in language and literature. Almost every aspect of the studies of language and literature is related to the development of communication skills in students.

Social skills
Social skills are closely connected to communication skills in that they relate to the development of the learner as a whole and in that they both foreground the value of a community for learning. A starting point for developing students’ social skills is to acknowledge that people differ greatly in terms of their degree of introversion or extroversion and that these differences should be respected. Similarly, different cultures have different expectations on appropriate behaviours in social situations. To be able to understand the perspectives of others, to form good relationships and to gain an awareness of how one’s words and actions have an impact on other people are at the heart of many of the IB learner profile attributes and the aspiration to develop internationally-minded students.

In studies in language and literature, the sensitive, interactive and collaborative engagement in the discussion of a wide variety of texts allows students to consider and develop their own social skills by debating/negotiating the meaning of a text, as students in one same classroom may have different interpretations of one same text. When students are faced with an interpretation that contrasts with or even opposes theirs, they need to listen carefully to the other student(s) that hold such an interpretation, support their own, and arrive collaboratively at an agreement, or when that is not possible, achieve a clear understanding of the differences between two or more views and identify the evidence that could be used to support each of them.

Self-management skills
IB students need to learn to persevere and be resilient as individuals. Learning to manage themselves is important for students in any academic programme and is important for competency in later life.

Self-management skills such as organizational skills, goal setting, and time management as well as affective skills such as managing state of mind, motivation and resilience are important for success in the study of language and literature especially when it comes to lengthy or difficult texts and self-directed research. Students should demonstrate initiative, perseverance and a strong willingness to learn independently. They should also be willing to embrace the opportunities for individual and personal choices the syllabus allows.
Research skills
While good research skills have always been at the heart of academic endeavour, the availability of digital resources and the explosion of the amount of information easily accessible to students make the development of research skills a particularly pertinent part of today’s education. Learning to use those resources and to put those skills into practice in an academically honest way is an important aspect of learning in all IB programmes.

Fundamental research skills such as formulating focused and intriguing research questions, appraising sources, and recording, evaluating and synthesizing information are critical skills in studies in language and literature. Throughout their studies, students have ample and excellent opportunities to practise their skills in both informal and more formal and extended ways. A course that deals with a variety of texts produced in a variety of contexts inherently demands some element of research in order to increase engagement and understanding.