Survey research plays an important role in collecting stakeholder input and informing the IB’s decision- making, including issues related to school satisfaction, teacher feedback, and alumni voices. One major responsibility of the Survey Research team is to implement and maintain quality assurance frameworks (QAF) for IB professional development and school services.
The frameworks employ multiple methods for the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative information. This allows the IB to continuously monitor the quality, consistency, and effectiveness of these services as well as to identify areas of need.
Professional development
The IB provides professional development to educators around the world through a variety of modes, including face-to-face, online, and blended models. This breadth provides exciting professional development opportunities and encourages innovation to meet the needs of a diverse group of educators. Such opportunities also present challenges, in particular the need to ensure that the quality of IB professional development is not only maintained, but enhanced. The crucial element to the success of all of these initiatives is the QAF for IB professional development.
The QAF is based on the workshop goals and objectives outlined in the IB's global workshop architecture. It is designed to ensure that educators attending IB workshops anywhere in the world have a consistently high-quality experience, enabling them to successfully implement IB programmes in their schools. The QAF provides the IB with a comprehensive set of data that measures the effectiveness of IB workshops, including the quality of content, effectiveness of leaders or facilitators, and quality of logistics.
School services
As the IB continues to grow, it is imperative to maintain the high level of quality of programmes while enabling many schools to benefit from the IB experience. An important component of achieving this goal is to ensure that schools involved in both the authorization and evaluation processes receive high-quality and consistent service. The QAF provides the IB with a comprehensive set of data that measures quality and consistency of IB authorization and evaluation processes. This enables the IB to improve current offerings and innovate in areas most important to IB educators.
Curriculum review
Following a curriculum development cycle, the Survey Research team supports the development and refinement of IB curriculum and teacher support materials by collecting teacher input on the curriculum. This approach ensures that IB curriculum is not only cutting-edge but also stays relevant and practical for IB educators in their daily teaching environment.
Teacher feedback on assessments
During each assessment session, the IB collects teacher feedback on IB assessments. The IB carefully considers the information that teachers provide during grade award meetings and in preparing future assessment materials. This process is extremely important to ensure that teachers’ views are taken into account in decisions about grade boundaries and to improve the quality of IB assessments.
