Steps in completing a pdp

There are four steps that schools must follow in order to complete the programme development plan.

The focus for a development plan is something that should reflect the school’s context and priorities. The school might consider using the evaluation process to identify an area of focus, surveying stakeholders, or examining other initiatives in the school for programme development planning. Linking the area of focus to the school’s mission statement, and the IB mission, will keep the plan focused on the overall goals of the school community. 

Examples of areas of focus and possible foci within them:

• Area: The learner; Foci: Agency, learner profile, well-being, academic integrity, communication skills, self-management skills.

• Area: Teaching; Foci: Inquiry-based teaching, teaching designed to remove barriers to learning, teaching based on conceptual understanding.

• Area: The school community; Foci: International-mindedness, language policy, participation in decision-making, learning environment

Once the area of focus is determined, it is important to capture the rationale for this area of focus by articulating a shared understanding of where the school is at the beginning of this plan and why this is relevant. The school is encouraged to involve the school community in this step to create wider ownership of the plan.

Once the school has defined its area of focus, the programme standards and practices framework will be of assistance to support effective planning and implementation processes. It is important in this sense to identify which practices within this framework are relevant to the chosen area of focus.

Identifying a relevant group of practices will go a long way towards a successful implementation of the development plan. Schools are advised to focus, for the construction of the programme development plan, on practices (instead of focusing on requirements or programme specifications) since these express the standards in practical terms and include direct references to programme implementation. Practices are identified by a number consisting of 6 figures (the first four corresponding to the standard they belong in and the last two, after the dash, identify the precise practice being referred to).  

The following questions can help a school to identify relevant practices. Schools start by considering one or two IB practices for each question, remembering to include practices from at least two of the four categories of the standards and practices framework (purpose, environment, culture and learning).

• • What makes it possible for the school to begin developing its area of focus? (condition)

  • Who are the people largely responsible for creating and maintaining the school’s area of programme development? 

  • How does the school create activities and opportunities to fulfil the area of programme development?

  • Why will the school implement the area of programme development? 

The following additional questions can be taken into account in the planning phase of the programme development plan: 

• • Has the school clearly stated the question it wanted to answer or the goal it was seeking to achieve?

  • Has the school clearly identified a rationale for the area of focus?

  • Has the school set a goal that was challenging but achievable?

  • Do the selected practices effectively support the development?

  • Has the school clearly identified who was responsible for the activities?

  • Has the school clearly identified which students were targeted (the whole school or a subset)?

  • Has the school used research or adapted ideas from other schools in ways that made sense in the school context?

  • Has the school found and used support from external sources?

  • Has the school established a safe environment with open communication?

  • Has the school shown sensitivity to their social, cultural or political environment?

The programme development plan which is submitted to the IB as part of the self-study questionnaire needs to be one that has been completely or substantially implemented already by the time of submission. 

The school needs to reflect on the impact this programme development plan will have on students and their learning, and must provide examples of the impact on student learning in the chosen development area. Examples can consist of for example photographs. assessment samples, students' comments, audio or video recordings, etc). It is important that the school should identify data or evidence which will demonstrate and be consistent with the outcome the plan aimed at achieving. 

The following questions can be taken into account when thinking about evidencing and analyzing the evidence:

• Did the school select activities that supported the development of the identified practices?

• Did the school set up structures that encouraged or incentivized learning and adaptation?

• Did the school establish a process to gather usable feedback without creating an undue burden on stakeholders?

• Did the school gather, process and act on information to refine their work as it progressed?

• Did the school identify data or evidence that was aligned with the outcome it had identified?

• Did the school engage in a thorough analysis of the data or evidence?

• Did the school identify a positive impact on students?

• Are leaders, teachers, students or parents able to describe the change or improvement for students?

The IB will provide comments on the planning and analysis carried out by the school with the aim of supporting continuous development and growth in the school as a learning community. These comments will aim at helping the school implement procedures and processes which have a positive impact on the teaching and learning that takes place in it.

The school, on the other hand, needs to engage in reflection about the impact of the development plan on students, the challenges that the school has faced, the evidence the school has gathered to assess the success of the plan, the activities it has carried out and steps followed to inquire into the reflection process.

The school can use the following questions to support their reflection process:

• Can the school identify the factors that lead to this work having, or not having, a positive impact on students?

• Are school leaders able to describe what had been learned from this analysis that can be applied to further development of this area or to developing other areas of the IB programme in the school?