I had the opportunity to participate in the IB Category 1
Diploma Programme (Librarians) workshop that was held in UWCSEA East in
Singapore from 21 to 23 August 2015.
The
facilitator was Dianne
McKenzie, who is a library consultant and teacher trainer
based in Hong Kong. 15 participants (from Singapore, Japan, China, Vietnam,
Canada, UK, US etc) attended the librarian workshop. The workshop aims to
develop strategies that support the diploma programme, with a key focus on the
extended essay.
The workshop started off with a discussion of
objectives, which include definition of role of school librarian and development
of strategies to support school librarian in the role. There was a wide range
of group activities and presentations (eg. Design your perfect library, Persons
that your group think best personify the qualities in IB mission statement,
Application of IB learner profiles etc). A key point was the active
participation as we discussed library’s role in IB standards and practices,
academic honesty, approaches to learning and so on.
The learning point that I had particularly found
interesting is the connection between international mindedness and cultural
intelligence. The novelist Chimamanda Adichie aptly told the story of how she
found her authentic cultural voice in a TED presentation The danger of single story. There
was also active discussion on perspectives on international mindedness from IB
community members in the blog http://blogs.ibo.org/blog/2014/12/01/ten-perspectives-on-international-mindedness/. The workshop
ended with an excursion to the Changi Museum, which was an opportunity for us
to have a better understanding of the importance of international mindedness.
I came away with a deeper appreciation of how library
may apply to support international mindedness, learner profiles and information
literacy from this engaging workshop.
Sep 2015
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