CP Core

The Personal and Professional Skills (PPS) course continues the work started in Career-related Studies and emphasizes development of transferable skills needed to operate successfully in society.  IB CP students are required to complete the PPS 11 2nd semester junior year and PPS 12 1st semester senior year. In the class, students will apply critical thinking skills as they plan, organize, conduct and reflect.  Students will focus on becoming more skillful in the areas of organization, communication, collaboration, reflection, ethical decision-making, cultural awareness, and information literacy in a workplace setting. 

By the end of PPS, students are able to:

• Identify their own strengths and develop areas for growth;

• Demonstrate the ability to apply thinking processes to personal and professional situations;

• Recognize and be able to articulate the value of cultural understanding and appreciation for diversity;

• Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of communicating effectively and working collaboratively;

• Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions.

Servicer Learning, plays a prominent role in all IB programs, including the CP, by providing opportunities for students to make meaningful contributions to their community.  In the CP, the SL experience ideally is connected to the Career-related area of study as well as the student’s Reflective Project and provides opportunities for the development of learning, responsibility, practical skills, social skills and a sense of caring for others.  The concept of community may be viewed from a local or international/global perspective and the concept of service is based on the principles of service learning, which are experiences that are both transformative in nature and that develop knowledge, self, social skills and civic engagement.  

Aims of Service Learning:

Through a SL portfolio development, students:

• Develop and apply knowledge and skills towards meeting an authentic community need

• Develop as leaders who take initiative, solve problems and work collaboratively

• Enjoy the experiences of both learning and service

• Develop a sense of caring about, and a responsibility for, others

• Gain a deeper understanding of themselves, their community and society through meaningful reflection

Service Learning Portfolio:

Through a minimum of 50 hours, students plan, implement and reflect upon their Service Learning experiences.  CP candidates must create a Service Learning portfolio which shows planning, evidence and reflection related to all service learning experiences.  With support from the SL coordinator and within the PPS course, CP candidates use their portfolios to reflect on growth according to the five learning outcomes: 

1. Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

2. Demonstrate participation with service learning experience

3. Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

4. Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

5. Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

Service Learning Handbook

Service Learning Tracking Spreadsheet

CP language development, or LD, ensures that all students have access to and are exposed to a language program that will assist and further their understanding of the wider world.  With a focus on the four communicative processes (oral communication, visual interpretation, reading comprehension and writing), students engaging in the LD component of the CP core complete a language development portfolio which connects their language development with their career-related studies and the PPS course.  Students may meet this requirement in a variety of ways, allowing for flexibility and personalization for each CP candidate.  Students will complete a 50 hour portfolio and project, independent of the school. 

Aims of Language Development:

• Enable students to understand and use the language they have studied in context

• Encourage an awareness and appreciation of the different perspectives of people from other cultures

• Provide students with a basis for further study, work and leisure through the use of an additional language

• Provide opportunities  for enjoyment, creativity  and intellectual stimulation through knowledge of an additional language.

Language Development Portfolio: 

The language portfolio enables students to reflect on their learning and chart their progress in developing language skills and intercultural experiences.  The language portfolio is a private document for the student to reflect on their learning, required but not assessed, and plays a vital role in helping a student to understand their level of language competency, reflect on their language learning and intercultural skills and provide evidence of developed language skills.  Updated regularly over the two years of the CP, the language development portfolio will be an important part of both their academic studies as well as their preparation for further study or use of the language in their career.  Students may complete this portfolio by paper documents or through the creation of an electronic folder.

Language Portfolio Handbook

Language Portfolio Tracking Spreadsheet

The Reflective Project or RP, is an in-depth body of work produced over an extended period and submitted towards the end of the course.  It is a product of the student’s own initiative and should reflect his or her experience of the CP.  Designed to draw together key elements of a student’s program, particularly their career-related studies, Service Learning experiences and the PPS course, students identify an issue of interest that they wish to explore in greater depth that arises from their career studies.  Students further identify an ethical dilemma associated with the issue and then undertake research on the ethical dilemma, including consultation with local and/or global communities. It is the ethical dimension of the issue, and not the issue itself, which is the focus of the RP.  The RP highlights the thinking skills and communication skills developed by students in their PPS course including looking at multiple sides of an issue and then developing a well-reasoned argument based on appropriate supporting evidence.  

Students are assessed on two aspects of the reflective project: the process they use to complete the RP, via use of a Researcher’s Reflection Space and interviews with the RP supervisor (which they may include in the CP portfolio); and, the reflective project itself.  While most students will choose to write a formal essay of approximately 3,000 words (Option 1), students may also submit a shorter essay (1,500 – 2,000 words) accompanied by an additional format such as a short film, a spoken presentation, an interview, a play or a display (Option 2).  Whatever the nature of the project, the work must be presented in a format that can be electronically sent to the IB for moderation purposes.  

Through the reflective project, students will:

• Produce an extended piece of work

• Engage in personal inquiry, action and reflection on a specific ethical issue

• Present a structured and coherent argument

• Engage with local and/or global communities

• Develop research and communication skills

• Develop the skills of critical and creative thinking

Supervision of the RP:  Roosevelt will ensure that each student engaged in the RP receives direct supervision from a qualified person in the school who can provide appropriate guidance and confirm the authenticity of the work submitted.  The supervisor will provide the student with advice, guidance, support and encouragement, discuss the choice of topic with the student, read and comment on the first draft only of the project, and monitor the progress of the project to ensure the project is the student’s own work.