The Areas of Interaction (AOIs)

The five Areas of Interaction are: Approaches to Learning, Community and Service, Health and Social Education, Environments and Human Ingenuity.

The Areas of Interaction represent ‘real world contexts’, and are the means by which teachers and students can link their teaching and learning within the Middle Years Programme to real world issues.

The IB itself states that some of the purposes of the AOIs are to:

• give meaning to what is learned through the exploration of real-world issues
• encourage higher-order thinking skills to deepen understanding
• help students develop positive attitudes and a sense of personal and social responsibility
• engage students in reflection to better understand themselves as learners
• lead students from academic knowledge to thoughtful action

The Areas of Interaction provide common organizing strategies and also allow for the diversity of student needs. Using all of the areas of interaction as contexts for learning gives teachers a great opportunity to engage students with environmental, health, and community issues of sustainability that affect students today and to explore how humans can solve problems in the future.

The overall goal of the AOIs is that students might progress via a 3-stage process known as the Inquiry cycle to use their learning to develop better awareness of relevant issues, and potentially engage in thoughtful and positive action of some kind. The three stages of the ‘Inquiry cycle’ envisage students 1) developing awareness and understanding of issues and their own responsibilities through their learning, 2) reflecting on their understanding of those issues, and of their own involvement in them, and 3) having acquired a better understanding of the context and of their responsibilities, being able to engage in positive and thoughtful action in relation to it.

The Five Areas of Interaction

Approaches to Learning

• How do I learn best?
• How do I know?
• How do I communicate my understanding?

This Area is concerned with teaching students how to learn, and how to acquire the skills and confidence to take control of their own learning. The goal of the ATL framework in place is to enable students to apply a range of ATL skills in different learning situations. It is envisaged that this can happen via the ‘Inquiry cycle’, with students initially becoming aware of the nature of the skills and knowledge needed to learn effectively and understand their purpose in teaching and learning; reflecting on their own learning and learning processes, along with their preferred learning styles; and acting to develop learning skills and habits which will particularly support their own learning – throughout their lives.

At TISA, the importance of “learning to learn” underpins the whole of the school curriculum. An explicit set of skills and areas of ATL knowledge has been established and agreed upon by all MYP teachers, and specific subject areas / homerooms have been given direct responsibility for ensuring the delivery of those skills and aspects of knowledge to students in the relevant grade levels. Meanwhile teachers in all subject areas are expected to reinforce those skills, and encourage students to apply and reflect on them in different ways in different contexts. It is hoped through all of this that we might encourage students to become lifelong learners, equipped with a range of strategies and skills (and the confidence to use them) which will always be of benefit to them as they move through their lives.

Community and Service

• How do we live in relation to each other?
• How can I contribute to the community?
• How can I help others?

The Mission Statement of the IB stresses that education extends beyond intellectual achievement, and gives significant emphasis to a Community and Service element in its MYP programme. Within the program, students consider how they might engage with their immediate family, classmates and friends in the outside world as a member of these communities. Students are able to learn about their place within communities and be motivated to act in a new context. Outside of the classroom, students are expected to be involved in Community and Service to put their understanding of the community and how they can take action to improve their community into practice, whether it is in the classroom, the wider school, Baku, or in a global context. Students are encouraged to take responsibility for their own action and at the higher grades, take the central role in organizing and planning the action that they take within the community.

In classes at TISA, students study the dynamics of local, national and global communities and the role of individuals and organizations within them. The supplementary MYP Community and Service programme at TISA aims to develop in our students the following qualities:

• sensitivity to the needs of the community and society in general
• awareness of the role of the individual within a community
• a willingness and the skills to respond to the needs of others
• an altruistic attitude which enriches the life of the student through enhanced insight into different social patterns and ways of life

All students from M1-M5 participate in the Community and Service programme. The requirements for each homeroom are as follows:

Homeroom		Requirements to be fulfilled during the academic year
M1		At least 2 different activities, one of which must be within school, one must be a homeroom activity
M2		Same as M1, with an additional independent activity, lasting one term
M3		Same as M2, in addition, one of which should if possible have links with a local school.
M4		At least 3 different activities, one of which should have links With a neighbouring community.
M5		At least 4 different activities, with at least 2 activities covering 2 terms and developing and establishing links with the wider communities within Baku.

All students considering an activity for Community and Service, including after school activities, must complete a “Student Proposal Form and the form in turn must be authorized by the Community and Service coordinator. By participating fully in Community and Service, students develop positive attitudes and a sense of personal and social responsibility – qualities which should prove of value to them in their lives as a whole.

Please note that the successful completion of the school’s Community and Service requirement in the final year of the MYP programme is a condition of the award of the MYP Certificate at the end of the programme. The school must inform the IB in the case of each individual student whether this condition has been met, and the MYP Certificate is issued only to students who have successfully met this and all of the other qualifying conditions.

Health and Social Education

• How do I think and act?
• How am I changing?
• How can I look after myself and others?

Health and Social education concentrates on preparing the student for a physically and mentally healthy life in which he/she is aware of potential hazards and is able to make informed choices. Respect for body and mind is the cornerstone upon which all learning is built. It also delves into the range of human issues that exists in human societies, such as social structures, relationships and health. The area can be used by students to find out how these issues affect societies, communities and individuals, including students themselves. Through the area of health and social education, students can identify and develop skills that will enable them to function as effective members of societies. It also provides students with opportunities to inquire into physical, social and emotional health and intelligence, key aspects of human development that can lead to a complete and balanced lifestyle.

At TISA we supplement the attention given to this subject in academic subject lessons with specific homeroom classes in which students can be informed about and discuss such various physical, social and emotional health issues. These lessons are given by faculty members, the guidance counsellor, and experts in the community and they extend throughout the year.

This area is wide in scope and at TISA it is considered at four different levels:

• ourselves in the wider society
• ourselves and others
• understanding ourselves
• looking after ourselves.

Environments

• Where do we live?
• What resources do we have or need?
• What are my responsibilities?

The Environments area asks the student to develop an understanding of conservation; an awareness of their own and other people’s interdependence with the environment: an acceptance of responsibility to maintain an environment fit for present and future generations.

Environments considers environments to mean the totality of conditions surrounding us. This area of interaction focuses on the place of human beings within a wide range of environments including natural, built and virtual. In their interactions, students will come to an appreciation and understanding of their effects on their environments.

• The natural environment includes all living and non-living things that occur naturally on Earth along with its systems, landscapes and resources. The areas of interaction
• The built environment includes the settings for human activity, ranging from the large-scale civic surroundings to personal places, such as homes.
• The virtual environment includes electronic environments, Internet environments and the concept ofpersonal space.

At TISA environmental awareness starts on our own campus, with our students being encouraged to recycle, and take responsibility for keeping the school neat and clean. A range of activities including educational visits in the school locality and to regions of Azerbaijan incorporate studies of the environment.

Human Ingenuity

• Why and how do we create?
• What are the consequences?

Human Ingenuity encompasses considering the way in which human minds have influenced how we think, work, play, interact with each other, find solutions to problems, cause problems, transform things, and rationalise thought. It also considers the consequences of human thought and action. Through the subject curriculum it looks at human contributions in areas such as art, culture, (traditions and rituals for e.g.), systems (methods of government, education, laws etc), communication, technology, and thought (principles, ethics, attitudes) and assesses the nature and impact of these.

Human ingenuity is the way in which human minds have influenced how we think, work, play, construct and conduct friendships and other relationships, interact with each other, find solutions to problems, cause problems, transform things and rationalize thought. It also considers the consequences of human thought and action. Human history is full of examples of humans as thinkers, inventors and creators from all subject areas. Human ingenuity goes beyond looking solely at individuals, and looks at human contributions both in context and as part of an ongoing process, seeing them as logical, clever and reasoning, as well as illogical, fallible and devious.

At TISA, subject teachers at all levels of the curriculum encourage their students to think about aspects such as the development of systems and processes, the impact of inventions and products, and the meaning of and purpose of creativity, as these arise within their subject curricula, and to consider the impact of them all. Human ingenuity encourages students to see the relationships between diverse subjects, as it inquires into a broad range of human activities including:

• systems—laws, methods of government, transport, education, healthcare
• communication—statistics, language, mathematical formulae, codes
• technology—buildings, machinery, tools
• thought—principles, concepts, ideas, opinions, attitudes
• art—painting, sculpture, embroidery, theatre, music
• culture—fashion, rituals and customs, food