Does the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) contribute to Whole-Person Development? The Rise of the IBDP in Asia and its implications for education reform

Abstract

In Asia, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) is gradually perceived as a pedagogically progressive, internationally validated, high-quality curriculum that is designed to support whole-child/youth development. While there is a growing, positive sentiment about the IBDP in conjunction with whole-person development, little is known about how successful the IBDP is in facilitating whole-person development in school. In this chapter, we review what research tells us about how the IBDP plays out in whole-person development. We found that the research literature largely supports the proposition that the IBDP contributes to whole-person development by facilitating students’ creativity, critical thinking skills, international mindedness, communication, collaboration, and self-management skills. Especially when compared with non-IBDP students and/or graduates, this tendency seems more evident. Our review suggests that the IBDP as a pedagogically well-balanced curriculum may work for whole-person development across different cultural contexts, including Asia. In this regard, we conclude that the reform idea of introducing the IBDP to local school systems in some countries in Asia is worth pursuing. At the same time, however, we provide several caveats for the reform idea, based on the limitations of the existing research literature.