ISB’s curriculum is not just American, here’s what it is.

In a traditional American classroom, learning is restricted to the American curriculum.  

Now this is not necessarily a bad thing given the Common Core Standards are research- and evidence-based, clear, understandable, and consistent, aligned with college and career expectations, as well as many other qualities that benefit students.  

But rather than focus solely on what works best in the U.S., a customized international curriculum – ISB pulls from the best educational benchmarks from around the world.

“We choose sets of standards that we know are aligned to our core values and our core mission,” said Ruth Poulsen, ISB’s former Director of Curriculum and Assessment. “And then we build our curriculum from those standards.”

To help you understand exactly what this means, we explore five characteristics of ISB’s approach to learning. 

1. Customized international curriculum

What exactly defines a customized international curriculum? At ISB, we researched  the best curriculum standards from around the world and curated our approach to education accordingly. Learn more about the benefits of curriculum curation.

“We take what's useful from the American system and draw from other systems that other schools of thought around education [are using] in order to really be authentic to where we are in Beijing and our context here in China,” said Ms. Poulsen. 

We also take into consideration the community here at ISB,  what students both need and want, and how we can empower our students with purpose and compassion

2. Standards-based school 

At ISB, we are a standards-based school meaning we have a predetermined set of learning outcomes that focus on deep, complex skills such as creating, analyzing, and evaluating. Learn more about factors to consider when choosing an international school.

“Standards-based means we're trying to be very clear about our learning goals,” said Ms. Poulsen. “We're trying to, as accurately as possible, know exactly what those end goals are for each student.”

The goal of a standards-based learning environment is alignment in everything we do, from teaching to the learning experiences of our students to the assessments. When everything is aligned and everyone is clear on the learning outcomes, the educational journey is one of transparency. 

Here’s a breakdown of the standards our core subjects are based on:

• English: Common Core
• Math: Common Core
• Science: Next Generational Science Standards
• Social Studies: C3 Standards (College, Career, and Civic Life)
• Health and Physical Education: Ontario, Canada Standards
• Visual and Performing Arts: National Core Arts Standards
• World Languages: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages
• Chinese: American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, Common Core: English Language Arts, and Chinese National Curriculum Standards 
  
  

3. Integrated learning 

“We focus on integration in certain areas of our curriculum, where we're taking more than one discipline and connecting them to create more authentic units.”

Take Algebra, Geometry, and Trigonometry, for example; all of these topics are deeply connected. The equations in Algebra are connected to the visualizations in Geometry.

According to Ms. Poulsen, when you teach these subjects in an integrated course, students are better able to make connections in a stronger way than students who learn through a more traditional approach. 

“Students make that connection right then and get deeper conceptual understanding and deeper pattern analysis where students can really see the logical ways that math fits together, explains the world, and creates patterns,” said Ms. Poulsen.

4. Social and emotional learning

“There's a misconception that a school that has students who achieve academic excellence must be the opposite of a school that really focuses on social and emotional learning. And that schools that focus on social and emotional learning are not focused on academics,” said Ms. Poulsen.

These two fallacies couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Research shows that social and emotional learning helps students to be more successful in life,” said Ms. Poulsen. 

When students can articulate their emotions, understand how to resolve conflict, know their boundaries, communicate efficiently, and advocate for themselves, they’ll be better prepared for any challenging situations that may arise in academic life. 

“All of these are tools and skills we teach in social and emotional learning.”

5. Student-centered learning 

The way we learn is as unique as we are – meaning no one student will approach comprehension in the same way. At ISB, our teachers deeply understand and value this fact and know their students personally, tailoring their education in a way where each student can excel. 

Student-centered learning is highly beneficial to our learners. For example, students take an active role in their education, develop key character traits, and are better prepared for the university of their choice.