IB Learner Profile

The International Baccalaureate (IB) learner profile is a framework for holistic learning that represents a range of human capacities and responsibilities that go beyond academic success. The framework is developed and used by the IB, an international education non-profit that offers educational programs to a community of IB World Schools across 150 countries. IB programs are designed to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect. The learner profile focuses on a set of values and attributes identified by the IB as critical to developing internationally-minded, respectful, and responsible members of local, national, and global communities.

View All Term Definitions

IB Learner Profileinquirersknowledgeablethinkerscommunicatorsprincipledopen-mindedcaringrisk-takersbalancedreflective

Breakdown by Domain


Domain Key

Cognitive
Emotion
Social
Values
Perspectives
Identity
14%
3%
23%
51%
6%
3%

Key Features


Context & Culture

  • IB allows for schools to adapt and/or add Learner Profile attributes to the framework to meet the needs of their specific school communities
  • Notes that how skills are developed, deployed, and expressed is influenced by context and culture

Developmental Perspective

  • Notes that IB's Primary Years, Middle Years, and Diploma Programs are designed to develop Learner Profile attributes in aligned yet increasingly robust and sophisticated ways as students mature
  • Summarizes various ways that students might display progress in their development and use of learner profile attributes (e.g., transferring to new settings, strengthening skills, understanding how attributes are related)
  • No learning progression provided

Associated Outcomes

  • A study of IB alumni at universities in the Asia Pacific demonstrated a link between Learner Profile implementation and increased intercultural understanding

Available Resources


Support Materials

  • Provides informational handouts, posters, and videos that describe the IB programs and Learner Profile attributes
  • Offers webinars, presentations, and trainings on a variety of topics, including those that specifically focus or reference the learner profile and those that cover non-academic skills more generally (e.g., social and emotional learning; skills for global learning and engagement; personal, social, and physical education and wellbeing; and more)

Programs & Strategies

  • The IB offers four educational programs that provide authorized IB World Schools with a detailed academic curriculum or curriculum framework that also focuses on building attributes of the IB learner profile:
    • The Primary Years Programme for ages 3-12
    • The Middle Years Programme for ages 11-16
    • The Diploma Programme for ages 16-19
    • The Career-Related Programme for ages 16-19

Measurement Tools

  • Due to the highly contextualized nature of how the attributes are developed and expressed, the IB recommends that attributes be assessed via students documenting evidence of personal growth themselves through a portfolio process that draws on students' experiences in and outside of school to encourage reflection and inform future action

Key Publications

Explore other Frameworks