Developing Thinking Skills Across the IB Curriculum

Embedding Thinking Skills Across the IB Programmes

The International Baccalaureate (IB) aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring learners who think critically and reflectively about the world around them. To achieve this, the IB’s Approaches to Learning (ATL) framework identifies thinking skills as one of five essential skill domains that students need to develop throughout their Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP), and Diploma Programme (DP) journeys.

The Structural Learning Toolkit is a practical, research-informed approach to nurturing higher-order thinking, metacognition, and critical thinking across all stages of the IB continuum. Combining the Thinking Framework with three key strands — Map It, Say It, and Build It, the toolkit provides flexible, classroom-ready tools that support students as they develop, refine, and apply their thinking in increasingly complex ways.

This article outlines how the Structural Learning Toolkit aligns with IB principles and supports students in becoming self-regulated, reflective learners capable of conceptual understanding and independent inquiry.

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Primary Years Programme (PYP): Building Foundations for Thinking and Inquiry

The PYP encourages concept-driven, inquiry-based learning, helping students make sense of the world through transdisciplinary themes. The Structural Learning Toolkit supports these aims by embedding visual, verbal, and hands-on strategies that help young learners organise their ideas, collaborate with peers, and reflect on their own learning processes.

• Map It (visual learning) helps students organise concepts, categorise information, and create concept maps that reveal patterns and connections across subject areas and inquiry units.
• Say It (exploratory talk) develops students’ ability to explain their reasoning, ask open-ended questions, and engage in collaborative dialogue, supporting the development of communication skills, social skills, and critical thinking.
• Build It (multi-sensory learning) provides opportunities for younger students to physically manipulate objects, representing and reworking their ideas — a highly effective approach for kinesthetic learners and early inquiry tasks.

This structured approach directly supports ATL thinking skills, particularly the ability to analyse information, generate new ideas, and apply thinking strategies to real-world problems.

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Middle Years Programme (MYP): Deepening Conceptual Understanding and Reasoning

The MYP aims to develop students’ ability to think critically and conceptually across subject groups. The concept-based curriculum requires students to analyse, evaluate, and apply knowledge and skills in unfamiliar contexts — all of which are central to the Structural Learning Toolkit.

• Map It helps MYP students structure extended inquiries, map causal relationships, and organise arguments for interdisciplinary projects and Personal Projects. This supports ATL skills around planning, organising information, and synthesising ideas.
• Say It enhances Socratic seminars, debates, and collaborative learning experiences, giving students structured opportunities to justify opinions, respond to counterarguments, and refine their reasoning through dialogue.
• Build It helps students construct models, represent abstract concepts, and simulate systems, fostering deeper engagement with scientific inquiry, geographical processes, and design projects.

These strategies not only develop thinking skills but also support self-management, encouraging students to become more aware of their own learning processes — a core goal of the ATL metacognition sub-skill.

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Diploma Programme (DP): Supporting Critical Thinking and Independent Inquiry

In the Diploma Programme, students must master the ability to think critically, evaluate evidence, and develop coherent, well-structured arguments across a range of disciplines. The Structural Learning Toolkit helps learners develop the thinking habits and cognitive flexibility essential for success in Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Extended Essay (EE), and Internal Assessments (IAs).

• Map It supports DP students in organising their Extended Essay research, breaking down complex arguments into manageable parts, and tracking how different lines of inquiry connect to overarching concepts.
• Say It provides structured approaches to oral presentations, helping students prepare for TOK presentations, group discussions, and collaborative research projects, ensuring they can explain and defend their thinking with clarity and precision.
• Build It offers a physical, hands-on way to represent systems and relationships, which can be particularly useful in sciences, geography, and economics, where students are asked to model processes and analyse systems thinking.

The toolkit also fosters the reflective mindset required to thrive in the DP, helping students track their thinking over time and develop a clear metacognitive awareness of how they learn best — key elements of ATL self-management and reflection skills.

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Why the Structural Learning Toolkit Aligns with IB Pedagogy

• Concept-Driven Learning: Graphic organisers and visual tools help students surface and organise key concepts, building transferable understanding across subjects.
• Inquiry-Based Teaching: Exploratory talk routines (like Talk Tactics) encourage students to ask questions, challenge ideas, and co-construct understanding.
• Metacognition and Self-Directed Learning: Reflection tools embedded within the toolkit help students track their thinking strategies, supporting lifelong learning skills.
• Collaboration: The Say It strand promotes structured dialogue, helping students work together to explore, explain, and evaluate ideas.
• Flexible Across Contexts: Whether supporting PYP exhibition, MYP Personal Projects, or DP Extended Essays, the Structural Learning Toolkit is adaptable across the IB continuum.

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Access the Full Structural Learning Toolkit

To explore how the Thinking Framework, Map It, Say It, and Build It approaches can enhance thinking and learning across your IB curriculum, visit our website and download the full Structural Learning Toolkit.

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