THE LIVING HEXAGON
CONFERENCE
11 October 2004
GAUTAM SEN
Mission of the IB Organization
The International Baccalaureate Organization
aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and
caring young people who help to create a
better and more peaceful world through
intercultural understanding and respect.
Mission of the IB Organization
•To this end the IBO works with schools,
governments and international organizations to
develop challenging programmes of international
education and rigorous assessment.
•These programmes encourage students across
the world to become active, compassionate and
lifelong learners who understand that other people,
with their differences, can also be right.
AIMS and VALUES
implicit in IBO Mission
• Intellectual rigour and high academic standards
• Critical enquiry and open-minded reflection
• Peace, understanding and respect between people
of different cultures
• Understanding and appreciation of one’s own culture
• Service to local community and creative activity
WHAT KIND OF WORLD WILL OUR
STUDENTS LIVE IN?
 More uncertain, complex and dynamic global
interdependence
- between nature and human societies, and
- between nations, institutions and communities.
 Greater demand for skills of collaboration, resolving
conflicts and building peace and justice.
 Greater need for intercultural understanding as well as
for cultural self-confidence.
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE HEXAGON FOR
BETTER PREPARING STUDENTS FOR SUCH
A WORLD
 More uncertain, complex
and dynamic global
interdependence
between nature,
communities and
institutions
 Deeper and more
complex knowledge in
three subjects of six; at
least one of six must be a
social science.
 Requirement in all
subjects and in Extended
Essay to investigate
issues and problems.
 Requirement in TOK to
reflect critically and draw
links between different
areas of knowledge.
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE HEXAGON FOR
BETTER PREPARING STUDENTS FOR
SUCH A WORLD
 Greater demand for skills
of collaboration, resolving
conflicts and building
peace and justice.
 Requirement in TOK to reflect
on strengths and weaknesses
of different moral and cultural
perspectives.
 Requirement to investigate
issues and problems in
Extended Essay and all
subjects.
 Requirement in CAS to
engage in team work and
community service.
OPPORTUNITIES IN THE HEXAGON FOR
BETTER PREPARING STUDENTS FOR
SUCH A WORLD
 Greater need for
intercultural
understanding as well as
cultural self-confidence.
 Requirement in TOK to reflect
on strengths and weaknesses
of different moral and cultural
perspectives.
 Requirement to learn a foreign
language.
 Requirement in Language A1
to study one’s own literature as
well as world literature in
translation.
 Requirement in CAS to
engage in community service.
WHAT IS THE LIVING HEXAGON ?
• The Hexagon is our instrument
for preparing our students for
tomorrow’s world. Are we fully
exploiting its opportunities?
• How can we connect with the
real world issues through
organized links between
different vertices and between
the core and the vertices?
• Internationalism and
Transdisciplinarity?
ENLIVENING THE HEXAGON
Opportunities for transdisciplinary exploration
in PYP – Exhibitions
in MYP – Areas of Interaction and
Personal Project
in DP - TOK, transdisciplinary
subjects
NOW –
LIVING HEXAGON CONFERENCES?
ENLIVENING THE HEXAGON – AIMS OF THE
CONFERENCES
CONNECTING WITH THE REAL WORLD
THROUGH
• COMPASSIONATE INTERNATIONALISM (as
opposed to its hegemonic or bland varieties)
• RIGOROUS INQUIRY
• TRANSDISCIPLINARITY
• CONNECTIONS BETWEEN CORE AND
VERTICES
• ENJOYABLE LEARNING.
HOW IS THE LIVING HEXAGON CONFERENCE
MEANT TO WORK?
• The Host School(s) invite(s) student
presentations on GLOBAL THEMES
chosen for the conference for each
Hexagon Vertex.
• Participant schools suggest ISSUES or
TOPICS within the Global Themes.
• Presentations represent students attempts
at connecting hexagon vertices, and core
with vertices.
EXAMPLE OF A POSSIBLE CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Group
Global Themes (examples only) –
selected by host
Issues or topics (examples only) –
offered by participating schools,
selected by host
Language A1
Human Rights, Education, Peace
and Conflict, Intercultural
Encounters
The experience of return to the
native land in diasporic literature.
Migration and displacement – the
experiences of refugees.
Prose and poetry in times of war.
Language A2, B
Media, Education and Social
Change
The language used by media in
reporting social or political
conflicts.
Language acquisition among
refugees and other internationally
mobile children. (CAS-relevant)
The conventions of courtesy in
Turkish and XXX
Individuals and Societies
Social Change, Human rights,
Peace, Security and Conflict,
Intercultural Encounters, Economic
globalization and human rights
The economic geography of
international education.
How the MacDonalds business
model has changed the traditional
food business in Turkey.
EXAMPLE OF A POSSIBLE CONFERENCE PROGRAM
Group
Global Themes (examples only) –
selected by host
Issues or topics (examples only) –
offered by participating schools,
selected by host
Experimental Sciences
Food, Health, Environment, Energy
The industrialization of food
production and distribution –
implications for health and the
environment
Genetic modifications of food –
differences between practices and
perspectives of traditional farmers
and the biotech industry
Mathematics
Interpretations of Economic data,
Ethnomathematics, mathematics of
conflict and its resolution
The mathematics of kinship
relations.
Game theory and conflict
resolution.
What do economic statistics hide?
Arts
The economic aspects of artistic
production, cultural protection and
preservation vs. openness and
appropriation, tradition vs.
modernity
The changing technology of batik
production.
How tourism promotes artistic
revival.
“World music” and the synthesis of
traditions.
POSSIBLE FORMATS FOR THE CONFERENCE
• Organized by students, with adult supervision. (Invariant)
• Organized and hosted by The Koç School every year.
• Organized by a different group of schools within the
IBAEM region each year on a voluntary basis; hosted by
one member of group.
• Organized around a single Global Theme rather than
one for each hexagon vertex. (Due to Sr. Carmelo
Manceras, IS Sotogrande)
• Organized as a web conference to lower costs and
widen participation.
• If successful on a regional scale, organized by a different
group of schools from a different region each year on a
voluntary basis; hosted by one of them.
• Organized by a different group of schools each year in
each region, not necessarily simultaneously.
POSSIBLE FORMATS FOR THE CONFERENCE
AM
AM
PM
PM
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Plenary 1 Welcome and
Keynote address
4 Parallel session in Gr 4
3 Parallel sessions on EE,
TOK and CAS
Break
Break
4 Parallel sessions in Gr
1
4 Parallel session in Gr 5
Lunch Break
Lunch Break
4 Parallel sessions in Gr 2
4 Parallel session in Gr 6
Break
Break
4 Parallel sessions in Gr 3
Cultural programme or
visit to a site of
interest/relevance
Plenary 2 Closing
QUESTIONS AND POSSIBLE
PROBLEMS
• Additional workload for students? Not if
announced and planned for sufficiently ahead of
time.
• Where does this fit in IB assessments? Internal
assessments? Extended Essay? TOK? World Lit
Essay? CAS Diary? Any of these, or special
assignments?
• Who provides continuity?
• Funding? UNESCO involvement?
• Participation of state schools even outside IB
system?