IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) Japanese

The IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) is a framework for a five-year programme aimed at students aged 11 to 16 years. It is taught in almost 100 countries worldwide and can be implemented in a concurrent partnership between schools, or in several abbreviated (two, three or four year) formats.

Upon completing the MYP, students are well-prepared for the rigorous study that is characteristic of further education. They also benefit from the consistent educational aims, clear pathways for progression through academic disciplines, and shared approaches to teaching of the MYP, Diploma Programme (DP) and Career-related Programme (CP).

In the final MYP year, students can participate in MYP eAssessment. This is an optional component of the programme which features examinations and externally-evaluated course work, similar to that often required at the end of secondary school, and gives them the opportunity to earn a formal, internationally-recognised certificate.

The MYP Curriculum

The MYP helps students develop both subject-specific and interdisciplinary understanding. Its curriculum framework includes:

• Approaches to learning (ATL), helping students learn how to learn by developing skills for research, critical and creative thinking, communication, collaboration, and self-management.
• Concept-driven teaching, helping students explore big ideas that matter.
• Global contexts (GC), helping students understand the relevance and importance of their study for understanding their common humanity and shared guardianship of the planet.
• Interdisciplinary learning, helping students understand bodies of knowledge from two or more disciplines or subject groups, in order to integrate them and create new understanding.
• Service as action, helping students develop into caring members of the community who act to make a positive difference to the lives of others and their environment.

The Middle Years Programme comprises eight subject groups:

1. Language and literature
2. Language acquisition
3. Individuals and societies
4. Sciences
5. Mathematics
6. Arts
7. Physical and health education
8. Design

At least 50 hours of teaching time is required for each subject group in each year of the programme. In years 4 and 5 however, students have the option to take courses from six of the eight subject groups within certain limits, to provide greater flexibility in meeting local requirements and individual student learning needs.

Interdisciplinary Learning

In each year of the MYP program, students also engage in at least one collaboratively planned interdisciplinary unit that involves at least two subject groups. This allows students to bring together concepts, methods, and forms of communication from two or more disciplines or established areas of expertise so that they can explain a phenomenon, solve a problem, create a product, or raise a new question in ways that would have been unlikely through a single discipline without interdisciplinary understanding.

MYP Projects

The MYP culminates in an independent long-term learning project. Students complete the work over an extended period of time, encouraging them to consolidate their learning and reflect on the outcomes of their work.

Students who complete the MYP in Year 3 or Year 4 complete the community project. All students who complete the MYP in Year 5 complete the personal project. The community project provides an opportunity for students aged 13-14 to collaborate and pursue service learning. All MYP Year 5 students are registered for external moderation of the personal project, promoting a global standard of quality.

MYP projects involve students in a wide range of activities to extend their knowledge and understanding and to develop their skills and attitudes. These include:

• Deciding what they want to learn about, identifying what they already know, and discovering what they will need to know to complete the project.
• Creating proposals or criteria for their project, planning their time and materials, and recording developments of the project.
• Making decisions, developing understandings and solving problems, communicating with their supervisor and others, and creating a product or developing an outcome evaluating the product/outcome and reflecting on their project and their learning.

As students become involved in the self-initiated and self-directed learning process, they will find it easier to construct in-depth knowledge on their topic, and develop an understanding of themselves as learners.

Language Acquisition - Japanese

Language Acquisition is a compulsory component of the MYP in every year of the programme. Schools must provide sustained language learning in at least two languages for each year of the MYP.

At Kaneko Japanese Academy, we provide tuition to students studying Japanese as their Language Acquisition subject for the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP).

In this subject group, teaching and learning is organised into six phases, which correspond to three increasing proficiency levels of the target language:

• Emergent (Phases 1 and 2)
• Capable (Phases 3 and 4)
• Proficient (Phases 5 and 6)

These phases do not necessarily correspond to particular age groups or MYP year levels, and students do not necessarily begin in phase one – they can begin at any phase, depending on their prior experiences, and may exit from any phase on the continuum.

Below is a link to more information about Language Acquisition subjects:

• Language Acquisition Subject Brief

Assessment of Language Acquisition Subjects

The assessment criteria for the MYP Language Acquisition subject group are:

• Criterion A - Comprehending spoken and visual text
• Criterion B - Comprehending written and visual text
• Criterion C - Communicating in response to spoken and/or written and/or visual text
• Criterion D - Using language in spoken and/or written form

These four assessment criteria are equally weighted against each other, and each criterion is assessed using nine possible achievement levels (0 to 8), divided into four bands:

• Band 1: Limited performance (1-2)
• Band 2: Adequate performance (3-4)
• Band 3: Substantial performance (5-6)
• Band 4: Excellent performance (7-8)

Assessment of MYP Subjects

The IB uses both internal and optional external assessment (eAssessment) in the MYP.

Click below for more information on assessment of the Middle Years Programme.

MYP Assessment   Return to the IB Home Page