About Me
Monica Hwang
Instructional Designer
Professional Learning Facilitator
Areas of Curriculum Expertise
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IB MYP & DP Language and Literature
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IB MYP Arts & DP Visual Arts
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IB DP Theory of Knowledge
IBEN Roles
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IBEN Workshop Leader Trainer
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IB Asia Pacific Field Representative
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IB Workshop Leader for
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MYP Arts, DP Visual Arts
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DP Language and Literature, Self-taught
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DP Theory of Knowledge
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DP Extended Essay
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Approaches to Learning
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Interdisciplinary Study
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IBED Workshops
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IB MYP Examiner for Personal Project
I believe meaningful learning begins when students can connect what they learn with who they are and who they are becoming.
Education is not a predetermined composition; it is something gradually shaped through experience, inquiry, reflection, and choice.
For me, academic achievement and personal development are not competing goals. Students should be challenged to think critically, question assumptions, navigate uncertainty, and take intellectual risks, while developing the agency to make increasingly purposeful choices about their own learning.
Having experienced international education across diverse cultural contexts and taught within the IB continuum for over thirteen years, I have learned that every learner brings a different perspective, identity, and way of seeing the world. This shapes my approach to learning design: intentional in composition, responsive to the individual, and adaptable enough to allow for different pathways and possibilities.
Rather than fitting learners into a prescribed mould
(one-size-fits-all), I believe education should create the conditions for them to develop their own voice and gradually stylise their learning in ways that are authentically their own.
Ultimately, I want learners to leave education with more than strong academic results. I want them to have the confidence and agency to make thoughtful choices, the curiosity to continue learning, and a strong enough sense of self to navigate what comes next. Education should not produce identical finished pieces; it should give each learner the tools, space, and identity to shape a life that is distinctly their own.
Professional Development
Collective Efficacy for Learner Agency
Professional learning is most powerful when it is collaborative, reflective, and rooted in authentic practice.
Educators, like students, need more than knowledge to develop their practice. They need opportunities to inquire, challenge assumptions, exchange perspectives, experiment with ideas, and consider how new understandings can be meaningfully applied in their own contexts.
Effective adult learning creates professional spaces where educators learn with and from one another. Working across multiple IB programmes and professional roles has shaped an interconnected understanding of curriculum, assessment, teaching, and programme implementation.
Experience in MYP assessment development and 'Personal Project' moderation has deepened my understanding of assessment design, evaluation, and standards. Facilitating IB workshops across diverse cultural and educational contexts has strengthened my approach to adult learning.
My work as an IB Asia-Pacific Field Representative and Programme Leader has further broadened this perspective across the PYP, MYP, DP, and CP. Engaging with schools at both the classroom and organisational levels has reinforced the importance of developing collective capacity, shared understanding, and professional cultures in which practice is made visible, examined, and continually refined.
An interest in how educators and schools grow led me to deepen my understanding of instructional leadership through the 'Instructional Leadership Certificate' at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. It also strengthened my interest in how professional learning can be intentionally designed and structured to move beyond one-off professional development towards sustained, collective changes in thinking and practice.
At the centre of my work is a deep commitment to building instructional capacity through curriculum and learning design, authentic unit planning, assessment literacy, and personalised professional learning.
