Content knowledge is king in IB Psychology. It’s the foundation upon which all other critical and conceptual thinking skills are built. In this post, I put this idea to the test by writing one essay that could address six different concepts. The purpose of this post is not to encourage rote memorisation of entire essays , but rather to show how excellent understanding of the topic and research are the most important things in Paper 1 essays. If students have this, they can explain any concept. If they don’t, it’s very difficult.
For the below essays, I wrote a base answer using my triple cheeseburger approach. This includes having three main elements: the topic, the research and the concepts. I just inserted placeholder topic sentences in two places to put in different content relevant to each concept (in red). The essay follows this basic plan:
- Intro (standard)
- Topic (key term plus some research)
- Concept
- Research
- Concept
- Conclusion
The base essay is around 500 words. The complete essays range from about 700-900. These essays would score anywhere from 11-15/15.* If it were me marking them, I’d give them a 13-14 – more than enough to get a high 7 in Paper One.
*It’s not helpful to give a precise score for an example essay. In the real exam marking, there’s always going to be a range. That’s understandable. What’s more helpful is to have a range.
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Now I know what you’re thinking – I’ve cheated by having the same essay question just with a different concept. You’re right. That is cheating a bit. The standard question was:
- “With reference to brain development in the context of Human development, discuss the concept of (insert concept).”
I like this question, though. I think it’s fair. With students only given topic headings I am hoping IB will ask similar generic questions that will allow students to show their knowledge and understanding.
Change
I’ve broken my triple cheeseburger rule in some ways – the first patty on the topic (brain development) doesn’t have much to it. But that’s made up for in the other sections.
Bias
These are by no means perfect answers – they’re realistic ones.
Perspective
Students will want to memorise studies, and I’m OK with that because it will give them confidence. But we should push them beyond that.
Causality
I really love this new idea that we teach studies, but also we’re really trying to get our top students to understand how and why research methods are used to study certain topics.
Measurement
I haven’t yet tried to write an essay with zero studies – that’s my next project to see if it can be done.
Responsibility
Fingers crossed the IB asks fair questions with these essays. If students get asked to evaluate a theory using a concept I won’t be happy.
I hope this helps.
Travis Dixon is an IB Psychology teacher, author, workshop leader, examiner and IA moderator.