Experiential Impacts Of Technology On Differentiated Learning In International Diploma Programmes: A Phenomenological Study From Teachers’ Perspectives

This investigation set out to explore the self-regulated learning strategies implemented by high-achieving International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) students and those with learning difficulties in a context in which teachers were developing their practice to better align with IB philosophy. Specifically, I aimed to determine whether the strategies used by students in the two categories differed and, if so, what accounted for these differences. The sample included four DP students with diagnosed learning difficulties and six high-achieving DP students. Methods included collecting samples of independent work that reflected their strategy use; accompanying written reflections; and semi-structured interviews utilising a combination of stimulated recall and open-ended questions. Results suggest that only slight differences existed in the number and type of strategies used by participants in each category, but there were some important differences in strategy quality. These differences appeared to be related to the epistemic awareness students demonstrated, rather than their categorisation as having learning difficulties or being high-achieving. Although the IB Diploma Programme is widely considered an appropriate secondary programme for high-achieving students, its potential to enhance self-regulated learning suggests this programme may also be an appropriate option for some university-bound students with learning difficulties. As the literature review for this investigation uncovered only one previous study pertaining to IB Diploma Programme students with learning difficulties, this is a significant contribution to knowledge with implications for admissions as well as teaching and learning in IB schools. The investigation also indicates that epistemic awareness may play a more significant role in self-regulated learning than contemporary theories suggest.

This study examines differences in educational experiences and outcomes for high school (HS) students who participated in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program and earned full diplomas compared to those who participated in the IB Diploma Program but did not earn the diploma. ACT scores, after-HS placement, and HS graduation rates of 256 participants were collected. One hundred and twenty two participants completed an online survey, and 12 participated in interviews. The results revealed that the educational outcomes and experiences for diploma and nondiploma earners were vastly similar. Diploma earners had significantly higher ACT scores, but their college entrance and other academic outcomes were similar to nondiploma earners. However, students who participated in the IB program had significantly higher academic success than other students. Even students who did not earn the full IB diploma had higher graduation rates and high average ACT scores than students at this school, state, and even at the federal level.

The International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma programme, an internationally recognised pre‐university curriculum, is currently offered by approximately 1500 schools in 120 countries. This article will analyse various dimensions of peace education in the IB Diploma programme, with particular reference to its peace and conflict studies course. This course has been a success in qualitative terms but has not managed to draw in large numbers of students. Ian Harris’ typology of peace education will be used to demonstrate how elements of peace education have found their way into the Diploma programme in other ways as well. It is argued that the IB Diploma programme’s commitment to peace education is mostly achieved through international education, but that the four other types of peace education (human rights education, development education, environmental education and conflict resolution education) are also available. By way of conclusion this article suggests how the peace education embedded in the Diploma programme can be made more explicit and more widely available for a larger number of IB Diploma students.

In this study we analyse the relationship between Mexican students’ enrolment in the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) and their college preparedness using a case-study methodology. We found that from the Mexican schools that offer the IB DP, most IB students are fairly successful in their college applications, such that the majority enrols at among the most well-regarded post-secondary institutions in Mexico. The possibility that IB DP grades and/or examination records might help boost students’ college admissions options does not seem to be a primary motivating factor for students’ IB DP enrolment. Rather, we found that students enrol in the IB DP because they think it will help prepare them to successfully handle college-level work. Students and educators believe that various aspects of the IB DP prepare them for college-level work, including the Theory of Knowledge course, the Extended Essay and the Creativity, Action and Service programme.

Purpose This study aims to investigate Vietnamese teachers’ digital competence, specifically their ability and readiness to integrate educational technology into language teaching. Utilizing a qualitative lens, it seeks to uncover teachers’ lived experiences, highlighting both opportunities and challenges associated with technology integration in their pedagogical practices. By examining contextual factors such as professional development, infrastructure and institutional support, the study intends to generate empirical insights that address existing research gaps related to the localized experiences of Vietnamese English teachers. Ultimately, it provides evidence-based recommendations to inform policies and practices, fostering effective and sustainable technology-enhanced language teaching in Vietnamese educational contexts. Design/methodology/approach This qualitative study employs an interpretative phenomenological approach to explore the lived experiences of Vietnamese language teachers regarding educational technology integration. Data collection involved in-depth, semi-structured interviews with language teachers selected through purposive sampling, ensuring participants possessed relevant teaching experience and varied technology proficiency levels. Thematic analysis was utilized for data interpretation, guided by established frameworks such as the technological pedagogical content knowledge model. To ensure rigor, strategies such as member checking, reflexivity and researcher triangulation were implemented. Ethical considerations, including informed consent and confidentiality, were strictly observed to uphold participants’ anonymity and maintain the credibility and trustworthiness of the findings. Findings Findings reveal that teachers possess basic technological competencies and familiarity with common digital tools, but demonstrate limited adoption of advanced educational technologies. Key barriers identified include persistent technical issues, insufficient professional development, infrastructural limitations and inadequate institutional support. Teachers reported frustration from recurrent technical disruptions and limited training opportunities tailored to their practical classroom needs. Additionally, an absence of systematic professional guidance hindered strategic integration of innovative technologies. These constraints underscore the urgent need for comprehensive, targeted professional development, improved technological infrastructure and sustained institutional backing to facilitate meaningful, innovative and effective integration of technology into teaching practices. Originality/value This study provides significant localized empirical insights into Vietnamese teachers’ experiences with educational technology integration – an under-researched area in current EdTech literature. It highlights the specific challenges faced by language educators in Vietnam, offering a critical perspective on the urgent need for systematic institutional support and targeted professional development programs tailored to local contexts. By addressing these research gaps and offering concrete, actionable recommendations for policymakers, educators and administrators, the research contributes meaningfully to both national policy discourse and international scholarship, supporting practical advancements in sustainable, context-sensitive integration of technology into language education practices.

Bernstein (1999, 2000) proposes that contrasting educational discourses construct contrasting retrospective, prospective, decentred (market) and decentred (therapeutic) pedagogic identities. In different times and geographical locations the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) has been projected onto a variety of pedagogic identities. In its earliest years there appears to have been vacillation between a weak form of retrospective identity, expressed as nostalgia for a grouped curriculum that prevailed before the introduction of A level in England, and an educational discourse projecting selected elements of the past into the future. A ‘progressive’ decentred therapeutic identity, exemplified by the IB Learner Profile, is the version the IB currently appears to project. However, this article proposes that the IB is assailed by market forces and that the IB DP is being driven towards a decentred (market) identity.

This study explores the integration of the three core components of the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme—Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS), and the Extended Essay (EE)—through a qualitative analysis of secondary data, including official IB guides, implementation handbooks, and documented case studies. The research aimed to understand how these components function collectively to promote holistic education, align with the IB Learner Profile, and support academic and personal development. Using thematic analysis, six key phases were followed: familiarization, initial coding, theme development, reviewing, defining, and synthesis. Five central themes emerged: Integrated Pedagogy, Reflective Growth, Rigorous Inquiry, Learner Identity Alignment, and Real-World Connected Learning. These themes reveal how the core elements are not isolated but interdependent, enhancing inquiry-based learning, ethical reasoning, self-awareness, and global citizenship. Findings indicate that successful integration of the core requires collaborative planning, consistent reflection practices, professional development, and alignment with the IB mission. The study highlights both the transformative potential of core integration and the implementation challenges due to contextual variability. Recommendations include investing in educator training, improving resource equity, and developing stronger interdisciplinary frameworks. While limited by its reliance on secondary sources, the study provides valuable insights and a foundation for future research focused on student outcomes and cross-cultural implementation.

This article reports on a qualitative investigation exploring the perspectives of International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) students in the Enrichment and Learning Support programmes at an independent, all-girls school located outside of London, UK. The school had been engaged in an on-going effort to align its pedagogy with the IB’s student-centred, inquiry-driven pedagogy to foster a teaching and learning context in which Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills would be valued and taught by teachers, and valued and applied by students. This investigation sought to understand the extent to which teachers at this school were explicitly teaching ATL skills and whether students considered it important for their teachers to do so. Two focus groups were conducted, one with students involved in the school’s Enrichment Programme and the other with students with special educational needs and disability (SEND) who were involved in the school’s Learning Support Programme. Findings indicate that although ATL skills tended not to be explicitly taught in DP classrooms, a range of ATL skills were embedded by DP teachers as part of process-focused instruction; nonetheless, students did not always recognise this as being taught how to learn and were unaware that these skills formed part of the curriculum. Both groups perceived effective Approaches to Learning skills to be fundamental to success and well-being in the IB Diploma Programme and believed these skills should be explicitly taught by DP teachers.

Background and Purpose: Despite being previously exposed to literature for many years during secondary school, Malaysian International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma students tussle to cope with the English syllabus outlined by the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IBO). This is mainly due to the different instructional objectives of learning literature in Malaysia as compared to the IB Diploma’s. In short, students are not trained within the remit of the two key literary competence skills, which are literary reading comprehension and analysis as they progress to a more challenging post-secondary syllabus as such the IB Diploma Programme. Hence, this study investigates how virtual literature circles provide optimal learning opportunities to promote IB Diploma students’ literary competence in reading literature. The research questions focused on the ways that virtual literature circles are able to support students’ literary competence, as well as their experiences upon participating in the discussions.
 
 Methodology: A mixed-method research design was employed in carrying out the aims of the study. Quantitative data were collected through a quasi-experimental method focusing on two groups of IB Diploma students in the experimental and control groups. One-way analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to determine whether there are any significant differences between the independent groups on the dependent variable, which is literary competence, whilst controlling for the effects of their initial abilities which co-vary with the dependent variable. The qualitative data were collected using semi-structured interviews, and the data analysis was conducted using principles of thematic analysis.
 
 Findings: This study found that virtual literature circles enhanced IB Diploma students’ literary competence by encouraging them to become critical readers of literature. It also provides students with the avenue to develop their literary reading comprehension and analysis skills in order to understand, analyse, and interpret literature critically.
 
 Contributions: This research aids in the design and implementation of virtual literature circles as a socially mediated reading approach to assisting ESL students with their literary competence.
 
 Keywords: Virtual literature circles, literary competence, literary reading comprehension skill, literary analysis skill, IB Diploma.
 
 Cite as: Ramli, N. N. (2022). The influence of virtual literature circles of students’ literary competence. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(2), 358-376. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss2pp358-376

This article takes a ‘vertical’ comparative case study approach to the study of the human rights logic of the International Baccalaureate. It explores how the global human rights logic is experienced and adhered to by students taking the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in one state school in Poland. As part of a larger study the article uses the data scores from the Human Rights Competence Development Survey (Parish, 2018) as a measure of the level to which students adhere to the human rights logic of the International Baccalaureate. Semi-structured interviews with a small sample of students and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Coordinator were conducted to explore how those students experience the International Baccalaureate human rights logic in an attempt to understand why they have or have not developed high levels of adherence. The findings indicate that adherence to the human rights logic varies depending on factors both within and beyond the school learning community. What also becomes clear is that there is logic hybridity as the human-rights-promoting logic competes with the more pragmatic concerns of examination success and university ambitions.

The integration of technology in education has become essential, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, which accelerated digital adoption in Ghanaian schools. In International Baccalaureate (IB) schools, technology is embedded in the curriculum, yet many language acquisition teachers struggle with its integration. As a former IB language teacher and department head, I observed firsthand the challenges educators—particularly older ones—faced in adopting digital tools for instruction. This study examines language teachers’ attitudes, perceptions, and preparedness regarding technology use in IB schools in Ghana. Using a mixed-methods approach, I conducted a survey across selected IB schools to assess teachers’ perceptions and factors influencing their technology use. In-depth interviews provided deeper insights into their experiences. Findings highlight four key insights: (1) Teachers generally feel prepared, largely due to self-motivated learning; (2) While attitudes toward technology are positive, resistance persists across demographics; (3) There is a strong demand for specialized professional development in advanced digital tools and troubleshooting; and (4) Infrastructural challenges, such as limited resources and unreliable internet, hinder effective integration. To address these challenges, I recommend targeted training in troubleshooting, graphic design, and advanced educational technology for language instruction. Strengthening mentorship and technical support will ensure equitable access to professional development. Additionally, systemic changes—including policy support, investment in digital infrastructure, and strategic planning—are necessary for the successful integration of technology in IB language classrooms in Ghana. By addressing these barriers, educators can effectively leverage digital tools to enhance language learning.

This article focuses on the Dutch government’s International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) Pilot, allowing Dutch pre-university students to take part in the IB DP. Is it likely to create ‘equal’, or rather ‘equitable’, access opportunities for government-sponsored Dutch international secondary schools? The article advances the position that the IB DP Pilot is creating more equitable access opportunities for middle-class children. It can be expected, though, that less advantaged groups will increasingly be able to benefit from the opportunities that come with access to government sponsored international education.

This is the summary of a series of research studies into the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) in the USA, beginning with the investigation of how the first class of IB DP graduates in an individual school perceived the impacts and benefits of the programme, through further investigations of teacher perceptions of the programme, a follow-up study of the first graduates upon completion of their collegiate study, and a concluding study on the perceptions of IB DP by colleges and universities. In addition to identifying key elements of the IB DP that are perceived as impacting student success, this article summarizes how the research agenda unfolded; that is, how each study in the sequence generated more questions about the IB DP and how what began as a micro study within a single school grew into an examination of the IB DP within a larger context.

This article outlines a study conducted in Finland and Portugal into the reasons why International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme (DP) students choose particular Experimental Science (Group 4) subjects. Its findings suggest that interest, enjoyment, university course and career requirements have most influence on students' choices. Significant differences in the stated influence of certain factors on subject choice were found between nationalities, host countries, and the sexes, and also in the choices of Chemistry, Design Technology and Physics.

ABSTRACTThis study uses interview and survey methods to describe the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme's (DP) development of students' “academic civic mindedness” and “model citizenship” at four public schools in California. Results indicate that the DP pedagogy enables students to develop many of the skills that are necessary for civic advocacy and that the DP places a strong emphasis on students' knowledge of issues related to public policy. The DP develops students' citizenship through promoting their awareness of political and social issues and required active engagement with a local or global issue. Most IB students and teachers feel that the DP develops students' academic civic mindedness and model citizenship to a considerably greater extent than other curricular alternatives. Finally, teachers feel that the strongest limitation to their prioritization of students' citizenship development is their lack of clarity on how to frame the civic implications of what they teach.