What the learner profile is
The learner profile is the IB's statement of its mission in the form of ten attributes. It is common to the PYP, MYP, DP and CP, which is what makes it the thread of the IB continuum: a five-year-old and a seventeen-year-old are working on the same list, at very different levels.
It describes a person, not a subject. That is why it appears in unit planners, reflections and reports rather than in a syllabus, and why it takes a school some care to use well. The IB's own documentation is the authority on its wording and use.
The ten attributes, in plain terms
The attributes are inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective. In everyday classroom terms:
- Inquirers: curious, and building the skills to investigate questions on their own and with others
- Knowledgeable: exploring ideas and issues that matter locally and globally, in depth and across subjects
- Thinkers: using critical and creative thinking to solve problems and make reasoned decisions
- Communicators: expressing ideas confidently in more than one way, and collaborating well
- Principled: acting with integrity and honesty, taking responsibility for their actions
- Open-minded: appreciating their own cultures and others', and weighing different views
- Caring: showing empathy and compassion, and acting to make a positive difference
- Risk-takers: approaching uncertainty with courage, and being resilient when things fail
- Balanced: understanding the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional wellbeing
- Reflective: thinking carefully about their own learning and experience
How schools use the profile
In planning, a unit names the attributes it gives particular attention, so the profile is developed on purpose rather than left to chance. In the classroom it gives students and teachers a shared vocabulary for behaviour and learning: a student who has tried a hard problem and failed can be told, accurately, that they are being a risk-taker.
In reflection and reporting, it is a way to describe growth that a mark cannot. A comment that a child has become more reflective across a term says something a percentage does not.
It is not a checklist or a grade
The profile is developed and reflected on, and it is generally not something students are graded against. Turning it into a scored rubric tends to produce students who perform the attributes, which is the opposite of the intention. How a school reports on it is the school's decision within the IB's guidance and its own assessment policy.
Where skodle fits
This section names our own product, so read it as that. The learner profile is a matter of teaching and culture, and it works without software.
Where skodle helps is in keeping the profile visible in the work. PYP units name the learner profile attributes they develop, students can tag their IB portfolio evidence and reflections with learner profile attributes and approaches to learning, a teacher reviews each entry, and families can read the portfolio with the review status shown. A gap report also flags any attribute that no unit ever uses, which is a quick check that the profile is being developed on purpose. The platform runs through the IB Engine, so the same student record follows a child up the school.
The limits. skodle does not score the learner profile and would be the wrong tool if a school wanted it to; it does not judge whether an attribute has been demonstrated, and a reflection means what the student and teacher make it mean. The unused-attribute check covers PYP and MYP units and counts what people tag.
Using the profile in reflection
The strongest use is at the point of reflection. Ask students to choose an attribute they demonstrated this week and to give the evidence, and one they want to develop and how. A short, regular habit of this beats an annual poster.
What parents can do
The attributes are as useful at home as at school. Asking a child which attribute they used today, and what it looked like, extends the vocabulary and is more informative than asking what they did.
Related IB ideas
The learner profile sits alongside approaches to learning, the skills students develop, which for the MYP are covered in ATL skills in the MYP, and alongside the programmes themselves, introduced in what is IB education.
