Developing academic persistence in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program: educational strategies and associated personality traits
Andrei Holman, Emilia Alexandra Pascal, Cristina Bostan, Ana Maria Hojbotă, Ticu Constantin
We present two qualitative studies on the educational mechanisms used for fostering students’ academic persistence in one of the educational programmes of the International Baccalaureate (IB), an international private educational system, namely the Diplomma Programme, a two-year college-preparatory curriculum. The first study is a qualitative analysis of the official IB documents, and the second is a focus-group investigation of the perspectives of the IB teachers working in three IB high schools located in Romania. Both studies aimed to reveal the educational strategies of the IB Diploma Programme implementation employed for developing students’ academic persistence and the personality traits that are considered by the IB representatives (teachers and curricula developers) as important in this process. Results highlight a specific set of such strategies and traits. We discuss both their intrinsic connection to academic persistence and their differences in comparison to the psycho-educational dynamics of the traditional Romanian educational system.
academic persistence, educational strategies, personality, International Baccalaureate, documents analysis, focus-groups
ANDREI HOLMAN – Al. I. Cuza University, Iaşi, Romania, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, E-mail: andrei.holman@uaic.ro
Emilia Alexandra Pascal – Al. I. Cuza University, Iaşi, Romania, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, E-mail: emilia.pascal@uaic.ro
Ticu Constantin – Al. I. Cuza University, Iaşi, Romania, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, E-mail: tconst@uaic.ro
