Congratulations to Senri International School mathematics teacher Hiroshi Baba on the publication of his book. “International Baccalaureate (IB) Mathematics” and is intended not only for teachers in Japanese public and private schools but for anyone interested in learning more about IB mathematics curriculum. The book will be instrumental for those IB candidate schools becoming authorized to offer the IB Diploma Programme. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology (MEXT) has set a target of 200 high schools in Japan to offer the Diploma Programme. Baba sensei’s book will aid that effort for mathematics teachers looking for resources in the Japanese language. Japan is trying to globalize its curriculum to prepare students for working on an international level in our ever increasing interconnected economy and lifestyles.
There are differences between the IB Higher Level Mathematics course, the most rigorous IB mathematics offering and the mathematics level 3, the most rigorous Japan national curriculum mathematics offering. The IB higher level includes units on inverse trigonometric functions and vector products not found in the Japanese national curriculum. There are other topics that are covered in Japan that are not found in the IB. The book offers ideas for teaching these concepts and units not found in the national curriculum.
OIS and SIS are making efforts to more closely align their timetables and classes to allow students from both schools to take IB Diploma Programme (DP) courses. The idea is to give our students more course offerings and more classmates to take the full DP. Eventually, many IB DP courses will be offered in both English and Japanese in several subject areas, including mathematics. Baba sensei has played an integral part in this initiative. He has been at SIS for 23 years and besides serving as the coordinator of the mathematics department, he is also founder and coach of the SOIS triathlon club and editor of Interculture, besides his teaching, homeroom and committee duties. SOIS commends Baba sensei on his new book and helping advance education in Japan to become more globally minded. He truly is living our mission statement of contributing to a global society. Banzai!
TIS Director's Blog 
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