Explore how ATL skills can be embedded in the classroom to enhance learning, foster critical thinking, and develop lifelong learners across IB programs.
Nancy Macharia, D (2022, March 22). ATL Skills: A teacher's guide. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/atl-skills-a-teachers-guide
The Approaches to Learning Skills (ATL Skills) are a foundational component of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, spanning its four distinct pathways: the Primary Years Program (PYP), Middle Years Program (MYP), Diploma Program (DP), and Career Path (CP). These skills are carefully designed to teach students "how to learn," equipping them with strategies to succeed across disciplines while fostering a shared language between teachers and learners to support reflection and growth throughout the learning process.
The ATL Skills framework emphasizes the development of five broad skill categories:
Within these categories, skills are further refined into sub-skills, aligning intentionally with the goals of inquiry-based learning and transdisciplinary education. For example, research skills encompass information literacy and media literacy, critical for navigating today’s complex information landscape.
In recent years, education has shifted from focusing solely on generic skills to embracing approaches that integrate both individual skill development and subject-specific knowledge. This balance ensures that learning remains holistic, fostering not just academic achievement but also the attributes of the Learner Profile—qualities that prepare students to engage meaningfully with local, national, and global communities.
In this article, we will explore the ATL Skills within the Primary Years Program (PYP), delving into how these skills, paired with the Learner Profile, empower students to thrive in inquiry-based learning environments. By adopting the ATL Skills framework, schools can create enriched learning experiences that guide students in becoming adaptable, reflective, and lifelong learners.
Approaches to Learning Skills (ATLs) are foundational to the IB's focus on equipping students with transferable learning strategies that transcend individual disciplines. For teachers new to the IB, understanding how to teach ATLs effectively involves recognizing their cross-disciplinary nature and embedding them seamlessly into lesson design.
Take research skills as an example: students might learn to identify relevant information using techniques like skimming, scanning, or pinpointing keywords. These same skills could be applied during a social studies project analyzing primary sources or a literacy session reading non-fiction texts. The key lies in explicitly teaching these skills and modeling their application in varied contexts, ensuring students grasp how to transfer them across subjects.
Explicit teaching means going beyond telling students what to do—it involves showing them how it looks in practice. This can include:
Collaboration between teachers and students is essential in this process. One effective method is to co-construct success criteria that clarify what successful demonstration of an ATL skill looks like. For instance, when teaching communication skills, success criteria might include active listening, clear articulation of ideas, or appropriate use of tone. Success criteria serve as a visual and conceptual guide, helping students monitor their own progress and reflect on their development.
Importantly, ATLs are not mastered overnight. Students build their understanding incrementally, through repeated opportunities to practice and refine these skills. Teachers can scaffold this process by revisiting skills in different contexts and providing feedback that highlights growth areas.
By integrating ATLs into daily classroom activities, teachers foster a culture of intentional skill-building, empowering students to become reflective, independent learners capable of applying their skills in diverse scenarios. For those new to the IB, this approach not only aligns with the program’s ethos but also creates a rich, student-centered learning environment.
Approaches to Learning Skills (ATLs) are integral to the success of transdisciplinary learning, a hallmark of the IB framework. ATLs act as the connective tissue that unifies disciplines, ensuring that students develop transferable skills they can apply across a range of subjects and real-world contexts. For teachers new to the IB, understanding how to leverage this connection is key to designing meaningful and cohesive learning experiences.
ATLs enhance transdisciplinary learning by providing students with the tools to navigate complex, interconnected ideas. For instance, research skills, such as information literacy and media literacy, empower students to ask questions and seek answers that span multiple disciplines. Whether investigating a science inquiry or a global issue in social studies, the same skills provide a foundation for deeper understanding. Similarly, thinking skills like analyzing and synthesizing ensure that students can draw connections between seemingly disparate knowledge areas.
To maximize the impact of ATLs in transdisciplinary units, teachers should intentionally select the skills that align most closely with the purpose and objectives of the unit. For example, in a unit on sustainability, self-management skills like goal-setting and organization might be emphasized, while communication skills might play a central role in a unit requiring group collaboration and presentations.
Planning purposeful learning engagements that target these skills is essential. Teachers can scaffold these engagements with clear success criteria, ensuring students understand the role of ATLs in achieving their learning goals. By revisiting the ATLs throughout the unit, students internalize these skills and see their relevance in a transdisciplinary context.
A helpful analogy is to think of ATLs as the spokes of a wheel, all revolving around and connected to the central hub of transdisciplinary learning. Each spoke (skill) supports and strengthens the structure, ensuring the wheel moves forward smoothly. In the same way, transdisciplinary learning relies on the intentional integration of ATLs to create a cohesive and meaningful experience.
By aligning ATLs with the purpose of a unit and weaving them into learning engagements, teachers provide students with a toolkit for navigating the complexities of transdisciplinary inquiry. This approach not only enhances students’ learning experiences but also equips them with the skills needed for real-world problem-solving.
Questioning is an integral part of the Primary Years Program as students are encouraged to be inquirers. While planning units of inquiry, teachers should consider identifying questions that enable students to reflect on the skills that connect to the concepts that they are inquiring into. For example, when teachers ask “how” questions, students are inclined to gravitate towards a skill-related response. For example, how did you find out information about children’s rights?
A student may respond by sharing that they interviewed a member of the learning community. According to Kaye (2014), students should be encouraged to research using Media, interviews, surveys, or observations (MISO) depending on the scope of their inquiry. Student engagement can also be enhanced using higher-order questioning. With the right sort of questioning, students' collaboration skills and communication skills can both be addressed.
Creating an activity with students that uses an inquiry approach often brings with it ample opportunities to practice strategies that lead to greater student responsibility. Coaching students to identify when they are utilising personal learning strategies such as communication skills or critical literary skills will help to build a common whole-school approach to nurturing inquisitive learners who can think for themselves.
Fourth-grade students were inquiring about children’s rights worldwide. The teachers identified research skills as a tool that would provide students with a lens on factors that impact children’s rights worldwide. Using various forms of research such as listening to current news, reading non-fiction texts that highlight various local and global issues, students were able to identify a topic that they would research further, and ultimately take action. After reflection, students were able to make connections about how different factors that affect childrens’ rights are inter-connected. These connected skills taught through explicit teaching strategies in relevant activities help children adopt the ATL Skills in purposeful ways.
Communication skills are concerned with how one expresses themselves confidently and creatively in diverse ways. Students are encouraged to collaborate and share their ideas using different learning modalities. Communication skills are grouped into sub-categories such as:
For example, during class engagements, teachers should aim and create opportunities for students to share their learning with other learners and reflect. Whilst enforcing communication skills, teachers would also assist students to connect with the learner profile of communicators which focuses on students ability to express themselves confidently and creatively using various learning modalities. The emphasis should therefore be on listening carefully to the perspectives of other students. In order for students to see the connection between the ATLS and Learner Profile, teachers may consider using Guy Claxton’s (2010) split-screen which assists students to understand what they are going to learn and how they will learn the concept;
Teachers should be intentional about teaching objectives that enforce thinking skills. The lessons should be planned in a way that encourages students to become more skilful in their thinking. Thinking strategies such visible thinking routines assist students to focus their attention on certain concepts and ultimately develop high order thinking skills. In the classroom, making thinking more explicit would provide students with opportunities to think more clearly.
A consideration or adjustment is for teachers to create learning engagements that allows students to reflect on their thinking process using skilful crafted thinking skills- related questions. An example of a practice that may support students thinking is ongoing reflective journaling where students can document their learning throughout the unit. Teachers can connect thinking skills to the Learner profile of thinker by using the attributes through the unit. Students demonstrate the Learner Profile of thinker when they use critical and creative thinking skills in various contexts to explore complex problems and to take action. Students show initiative in making decisions that are ethical.
Self-management refers to the ability for students to manage their behaviors, thoughts, and emotions in a manner that supports the progression of learning productive way. This has been a skill that has been brought to the fore during Covid-19 period where students have had to work independently when schools transitioned to Distance Learning. Self-management like all other ATLS require time to develop and they look different depending on the age and context.
Students demonstrate that they have acquired self-mangement skills when they can plan learning strategies and take action to achieve their goals. The goals should be realistic and achievable but teachers may be required to scaffold the process. A checklist may be a useful strategy for students to use as they develop their independence and ultimately mastery.
Social skills are concerned with students cooperating and accepting responsibility as they work with other students. Students are expected to respect others, resolving any conflict that may arise and to be involved in group-decision making as they adopting a variety of group roles during the learning and sharing process. Depending on the focus of the unit, the teacher may assist students to make connection with the Learner profile attribute of principled.
Students demonstrate the Learner Profile of principled when they interact with others with integrity and honesty. The teacher may set up learning experiences where students work in pairs or in groups so that students can collaborate and while doing so be able to have a sense of fairness and respect other students perspectives. The set up can take the form of games or discussions. For example students can watch a video together and then discuss its content.
As educators, our primary focus for teaching should be fostering the interrelated skills of the ATL framework. The ability to communicate effectively, think flexibly, and work collaboratively are just a few examples of the essential skills we aim to cultivate in our students.
To do so, we must incorporate the language of the learner by providing student-facing language, so they can grasp the fundamental concepts we are teaching. Debating and discussion questions allow students to apply and connect concepts to their personal lives, while key questions framed through the lens of inquiry-based learning help build towards a deeper conceptual understanding.
Incorporating the interdisciplinary nature of the skill-cluster approach to teaching can lead to exciting ideas for skill-based activities that encourage growth through meaningful assessment. The development and application of these interrelated skills not only prepares students for academic success but also enhances their ability to think critically and work collaboratively in various social situations.
They form the foundation for lifelong learning, where growth is a continuous, iterative process of reflection, self-improvement and consistent practice.
Incorporating ATL skills into instruction alongside the Learner Profile provides students with meaningful opportunities to practice and apply the skills clusters that promote lifelong learning. These skills are more than just tools for academic success—they are integral to developing self-regulated learners who can tackle the complex challenges of the future.
Teachers can enhance this process by integrating metacognitive skills into daily reflections, encouraging students to think critically about how they learn. For example:
Reflective questions like these create a common language around learning, helping students understand and articulate their skill development. Beyond fostering a sense of ownership, this approach builds connections between skill indicators and real-world applications, ensuring students can transfer what they’ve learned across disciplines.
To fully embed ATL skills into classroom practice, it’s essential to align them with both formative and summative assessments. For instance, during group projects, teachers can assess organisation skills and collaboration, while written reflections can showcase students’ ability to apply affective skills, such as managing emotions or working under pressure. This alignment makes the application of skills a natural extension of subject content, rather than an add-on.
Providing scaffolding for skill development is equally important. For example, breaking down the steps of a research task or modeling a critical thinking process ensures students have the tools they need to succeed. Over time, this scaffolding can be gradually removed as students build independence.
Integrating ATLs into instruction doesn’t require reinventing the wheel. Instead, it’s about using deliberate strategies to help students engage with their learning on a deeper level. By balancing skill development with subject content, teachers empower students to thrive in the classroom and beyond, preparing them not just for exams but for life.
Nancy Macharia is an experienced IB Educator and Primary Years Curriculum Coordinator at an IB school. She is an instructional designer and is passionate about developing students’ Service and Action learning capabilities. She can be contacted using this email address: shikuk@hotmail.com
The Approaches to Learning Skills (ATL Skills) are a foundational component of the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, spanning its four distinct pathways: the Primary Years Program (PYP), Middle Years Program (MYP), Diploma Program (DP), and Career Path (CP). These skills are carefully designed to teach students "how to learn," equipping them with strategies to succeed across disciplines while fostering a shared language between teachers and learners to support reflection and growth throughout the learning process.
The ATL Skills framework emphasizes the development of five broad skill categories:
Within these categories, skills are further refined into sub-skills, aligning intentionally with the goals of inquiry-based learning and transdisciplinary education. For example, research skills encompass information literacy and media literacy, critical for navigating today’s complex information landscape.
In recent years, education has shifted from focusing solely on generic skills to embracing approaches that integrate both individual skill development and subject-specific knowledge. This balance ensures that learning remains holistic, fostering not just academic achievement but also the attributes of the Learner Profile—qualities that prepare students to engage meaningfully with local, national, and global communities.
In this article, we will explore the ATL Skills within the Primary Years Program (PYP), delving into how these skills, paired with the Learner Profile, empower students to thrive in inquiry-based learning environments. By adopting the ATL Skills framework, schools can create enriched learning experiences that guide students in becoming adaptable, reflective, and lifelong learners.
Approaches to Learning Skills (ATLs) are foundational to the IB's focus on equipping students with transferable learning strategies that transcend individual disciplines. For teachers new to the IB, understanding how to teach ATLs effectively involves recognizing their cross-disciplinary nature and embedding them seamlessly into lesson design.
Take research skills as an example: students might learn to identify relevant information using techniques like skimming, scanning, or pinpointing keywords. These same skills could be applied during a social studies project analyzing primary sources or a literacy session reading non-fiction texts. The key lies in explicitly teaching these skills and modeling their application in varied contexts, ensuring students grasp how to transfer them across subjects.
Explicit teaching means going beyond telling students what to do—it involves showing them how it looks in practice. This can include:
Collaboration between teachers and students is essential in this process. One effective method is to co-construct success criteria that clarify what successful demonstration of an ATL skill looks like. For instance, when teaching communication skills, success criteria might include active listening, clear articulation of ideas, or appropriate use of tone. Success criteria serve as a visual and conceptual guide, helping students monitor their own progress and reflect on their development.
Importantly, ATLs are not mastered overnight. Students build their understanding incrementally, through repeated opportunities to practice and refine these skills. Teachers can scaffold this process by revisiting skills in different contexts and providing feedback that highlights growth areas.
By integrating ATLs into daily classroom activities, teachers foster a culture of intentional skill-building, empowering students to become reflective, independent learners capable of applying their skills in diverse scenarios. For those new to the IB, this approach not only aligns with the program’s ethos but also creates a rich, student-centered learning environment.
Approaches to Learning Skills (ATLs) are integral to the success of transdisciplinary learning, a hallmark of the IB framework. ATLs act as the connective tissue that unifies disciplines, ensuring that students develop transferable skills they can apply across a range of subjects and real-world contexts. For teachers new to the IB, understanding how to leverage this connection is key to designing meaningful and cohesive learning experiences.
ATLs enhance transdisciplinary learning by providing students with the tools to navigate complex, interconnected ideas. For instance, research skills, such as information literacy and media literacy, empower students to ask questions and seek answers that span multiple disciplines. Whether investigating a science inquiry or a global issue in social studies, the same skills provide a foundation for deeper understanding. Similarly, thinking skills like analyzing and synthesizing ensure that students can draw connections between seemingly disparate knowledge areas.
To maximize the impact of ATLs in transdisciplinary units, teachers should intentionally select the skills that align most closely with the purpose and objectives of the unit. For example, in a unit on sustainability, self-management skills like goal-setting and organization might be emphasized, while communication skills might play a central role in a unit requiring group collaboration and presentations.
Planning purposeful learning engagements that target these skills is essential. Teachers can scaffold these engagements with clear success criteria, ensuring students understand the role of ATLs in achieving their learning goals. By revisiting the ATLs throughout the unit, students internalize these skills and see their relevance in a transdisciplinary context.
A helpful analogy is to think of ATLs as the spokes of a wheel, all revolving around and connected to the central hub of transdisciplinary learning. Each spoke (skill) supports and strengthens the structure, ensuring the wheel moves forward smoothly. In the same way, transdisciplinary learning relies on the intentional integration of ATLs to create a cohesive and meaningful experience.
By aligning ATLs with the purpose of a unit and weaving them into learning engagements, teachers provide students with a toolkit for navigating the complexities of transdisciplinary inquiry. This approach not only enhances students’ learning experiences but also equips them with the skills needed for real-world problem-solving.
Questioning is an integral part of the Primary Years Program as students are encouraged to be inquirers. While planning units of inquiry, teachers should consider identifying questions that enable students to reflect on the skills that connect to the concepts that they are inquiring into. For example, when teachers ask “how” questions, students are inclined to gravitate towards a skill-related response. For example, how did you find out information about children’s rights?
A student may respond by sharing that they interviewed a member of the learning community. According to Kaye (2014), students should be encouraged to research using Media, interviews, surveys, or observations (MISO) depending on the scope of their inquiry. Student engagement can also be enhanced using higher-order questioning. With the right sort of questioning, students' collaboration skills and communication skills can both be addressed.
Creating an activity with students that uses an inquiry approach often brings with it ample opportunities to practice strategies that lead to greater student responsibility. Coaching students to identify when they are utilising personal learning strategies such as communication skills or critical literary skills will help to build a common whole-school approach to nurturing inquisitive learners who can think for themselves.
Fourth-grade students were inquiring about children’s rights worldwide. The teachers identified research skills as a tool that would provide students with a lens on factors that impact children’s rights worldwide. Using various forms of research such as listening to current news, reading non-fiction texts that highlight various local and global issues, students were able to identify a topic that they would research further, and ultimately take action. After reflection, students were able to make connections about how different factors that affect childrens’ rights are inter-connected. These connected skills taught through explicit teaching strategies in relevant activities help children adopt the ATL Skills in purposeful ways.
Communication skills are concerned with how one expresses themselves confidently and creatively in diverse ways. Students are encouraged to collaborate and share their ideas using different learning modalities. Communication skills are grouped into sub-categories such as:
For example, during class engagements, teachers should aim and create opportunities for students to share their learning with other learners and reflect. Whilst enforcing communication skills, teachers would also assist students to connect with the learner profile of communicators which focuses on students ability to express themselves confidently and creatively using various learning modalities. The emphasis should therefore be on listening carefully to the perspectives of other students. In order for students to see the connection between the ATLS and Learner Profile, teachers may consider using Guy Claxton’s (2010) split-screen which assists students to understand what they are going to learn and how they will learn the concept;
Teachers should be intentional about teaching objectives that enforce thinking skills. The lessons should be planned in a way that encourages students to become more skilful in their thinking. Thinking strategies such visible thinking routines assist students to focus their attention on certain concepts and ultimately develop high order thinking skills. In the classroom, making thinking more explicit would provide students with opportunities to think more clearly.
A consideration or adjustment is for teachers to create learning engagements that allows students to reflect on their thinking process using skilful crafted thinking skills- related questions. An example of a practice that may support students thinking is ongoing reflective journaling where students can document their learning throughout the unit. Teachers can connect thinking skills to the Learner profile of thinker by using the attributes through the unit. Students demonstrate the Learner Profile of thinker when they use critical and creative thinking skills in various contexts to explore complex problems and to take action. Students show initiative in making decisions that are ethical.
Self-management refers to the ability for students to manage their behaviors, thoughts, and emotions in a manner that supports the progression of learning productive way. This has been a skill that has been brought to the fore during Covid-19 period where students have had to work independently when schools transitioned to Distance Learning. Self-management like all other ATLS require time to develop and they look different depending on the age and context.
Students demonstrate that they have acquired self-mangement skills when they can plan learning strategies and take action to achieve their goals. The goals should be realistic and achievable but teachers may be required to scaffold the process. A checklist may be a useful strategy for students to use as they develop their independence and ultimately mastery.
Social skills are concerned with students cooperating and accepting responsibility as they work with other students. Students are expected to respect others, resolving any conflict that may arise and to be involved in group-decision making as they adopting a variety of group roles during the learning and sharing process. Depending on the focus of the unit, the teacher may assist students to make connection with the Learner profile attribute of principled.
Students demonstrate the Learner Profile of principled when they interact with others with integrity and honesty. The teacher may set up learning experiences where students work in pairs or in groups so that students can collaborate and while doing so be able to have a sense of fairness and respect other students perspectives. The set up can take the form of games or discussions. For example students can watch a video together and then discuss its content.
As educators, our primary focus for teaching should be fostering the interrelated skills of the ATL framework. The ability to communicate effectively, think flexibly, and work collaboratively are just a few examples of the essential skills we aim to cultivate in our students.
To do so, we must incorporate the language of the learner by providing student-facing language, so they can grasp the fundamental concepts we are teaching. Debating and discussion questions allow students to apply and connect concepts to their personal lives, while key questions framed through the lens of inquiry-based learning help build towards a deeper conceptual understanding.
Incorporating the interdisciplinary nature of the skill-cluster approach to teaching can lead to exciting ideas for skill-based activities that encourage growth through meaningful assessment. The development and application of these interrelated skills not only prepares students for academic success but also enhances their ability to think critically and work collaboratively in various social situations.
They form the foundation for lifelong learning, where growth is a continuous, iterative process of reflection, self-improvement and consistent practice.
Incorporating ATL skills into instruction alongside the Learner Profile provides students with meaningful opportunities to practice and apply the skills clusters that promote lifelong learning. These skills are more than just tools for academic success—they are integral to developing self-regulated learners who can tackle the complex challenges of the future.
Teachers can enhance this process by integrating metacognitive skills into daily reflections, encouraging students to think critically about how they learn. For example:
Reflective questions like these create a common language around learning, helping students understand and articulate their skill development. Beyond fostering a sense of ownership, this approach builds connections between skill indicators and real-world applications, ensuring students can transfer what they’ve learned across disciplines.
To fully embed ATL skills into classroom practice, it’s essential to align them with both formative and summative assessments. For instance, during group projects, teachers can assess organisation skills and collaboration, while written reflections can showcase students’ ability to apply affective skills, such as managing emotions or working under pressure. This alignment makes the application of skills a natural extension of subject content, rather than an add-on.
Providing scaffolding for skill development is equally important. For example, breaking down the steps of a research task or modeling a critical thinking process ensures students have the tools they need to succeed. Over time, this scaffolding can be gradually removed as students build independence.
Integrating ATLs into instruction doesn’t require reinventing the wheel. Instead, it’s about using deliberate strategies to help students engage with their learning on a deeper level. By balancing skill development with subject content, teachers empower students to thrive in the classroom and beyond, preparing them not just for exams but for life.
Nancy Macharia is an experienced IB Educator and Primary Years Curriculum Coordinator at an IB school. She is an instructional designer and is passionate about developing students’ Service and Action learning capabilities. She can be contacted using this email address: shikuk@hotmail.com
