The core develops many of the student characteristics and attributes described in the IB learner profile and has three distinct qualities.
The CP core:
- is driven by student voice, choice, and ownership of learning
- emphasizes connected, enduring and transferable knowledge, skills and attitudes
- offers a variety of opportunities for authentic evidencing and ongoing assessment of learning.
The four components of the core are designed to be connected—by their nature, their learning outcomes, and their intentional connections. Viewed as a whole, the core aims to:
- anchor the programme to the IB mission through the development of the IB learner profile attributes and international-mindedness
- contextualize and enhance the DP courses and career-related studies, drawing together all the aspects of the framework
- promote the development of enduring personal, academic and professional knowledge, skills and attitudes
- reflect the understanding that learning is iterative, interconnected and a cornerstone of ongoing personal and community well-being.
Schools should design the delivery of the components by considering the needs, interests and backgrounds of their students
Four interrelated components form the core.
Personal and professional skills
Personal and professional skills is designed for students to develop attitudes, skills and strategies to be applied to personal and professional situations and contexts now and in the future.
Through the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, critical and ethical thinking, and intercultural understanding, the course supports student learning in the other core components and elements of the CP and prepares students for future pathways toward higher education, further training, or employment as well as for their personal lives.
Learn more about personal and professional skills in a workshop for CP teachers.
Community engagement
Community engagement offers opportunities for students to learn in, from and with communities as well as to apply knowledge and skills acquired in other areas of learning.
In this component, students situate themselves in the context of their community and identify, explore and understand issues relevant to them and their communities that they can respond to through engagement in and with communities.
Learn more about community engagement in a workshop for CP teachers.
Reflective project
The reflective project is an in-depth body of work produced over an extended period of time and submitted towards the end of the CP. Through a reflective project students identify, analyse, critically discuss and evaluate an ethical issue arising from an area of career-related interest.
The reflective project is intended to promote high-level research, writing and extended communication skills, intellectual discovery and creativity.
Learn more about the reflective project in a workshop for CP teachers.
Language and cultural studies
The language and cultural studies (LCS) component invites students to better understand and expand their own linguistic and cultural repertoires, and imagine how they could further engage with a range of linguistic and cultural groups.
As partners in inquiry, students and teachers explore their linguistic and cultural repertoires and reflect on them in the context of local and global communities.
Learn more about language and cultural studies in a workshop for CP teachers.
Find out how to become an IB World School, in order to implement the CP.
