Course Offerings - Individuals & Societies

Individuals And Societies Program Chart

IB DP Group 3 Individuals & Societies

High School Individuals & Societies

The Individuals and Societies Program encourages students to achieve their full potential as individuals and as members of the global community. The program offers a combination of courses to encourage the systematic and critical study of human experience and behavior; physical, economic and social environments; and the history and development of social and cultural institutions. Students will develop the capacity to identify, critically analyze and evaluate theories, concepts, and arguments about the nature and activities of individuals and society. This enables students to collect, describe, and analyze data used in studies of society, to test hypotheses and to interpret complex data and source material. The Humanities program aims to develop awareness in the student that human attitudes and opinions are widely diverse and that an authentic study of society requires an appreciation of such diversity.

Grades 9 and 10 Individuals & Societies (IB MYP)

Students demonstrate their learning in assessment tasks based on four criteria: Knowledge, Concepts, Skills, and Organization and Presentation

Content

Grade 9

Students start their Individuals and Society (I&S) journey by examining social and belief systems and their relationship to prejudice and discrimination. Next, students engage in an interdisciplinary unit investigating migration and the media with the Design, Language, and Literature departments. Students start semester two by looking at Chinese history from the mid-1800s to the beginning of the Republic. Finally, students examine sustainability through the lens of economic development in Africa and other parts of the world.
The unit structure of Grade 9 is as follows:

  1. Systems: Prejudice and Persecution

  2. Migration: Why do people move?

  3. China from the fall of Ching to Republic

  4. Sustainability and Development

Grade 10

For the final MYP year, the department has adopted an integrated approach to Individuals and Societies. This involves addressing concepts and themes that encompass a wide variety of disciplines, such as politics, economics, history, and geography, simultaneously. Students will explore the economic transformation of China under Deng Xiaoping through the lens of global interactions and undertake an independent investigation into a conflict of their choice to better understand the nature of conflict, change, and human rights; examine global inequalities and development through quantitative exploration and case studies.

The unit structure of grade 10 is as follows:

  1. Rise of China 1978-2008
  2. Conflict & Cooperation
  3. Global Inequality & Development

Assessment in Grades 9 and 10 Individuals and Societies will use various methods that may include, but are not limited to, oral and audio-visual presentations, discussion, academic essays, unit tests, and project-based assessment.

Grades 9 and 10 Global Crises and Sustainability

This is an inquiry-based course. Students choose one of three possible variations at the beginning of each unit. Students are encouraged to follow their interests and challenge themselves where possible. Thinking critically, being organized and being curious are important behaviors and attitudes in this course. Each unit follows the same pattern; a period of direct teaching, a case study, followed by students following their own plan. Assessment will be a combination of student choices and teacher direction.

  1. The unit structure of Global Crises and Sustainability is as follows: 
  2. How do we know? 
  3. Climate change 
  4. Struggle and Justice 
  5. Populations under pressure 

Assessment

Summative assessment tasks cover four assessment criteria:
• Criterion A: Knowing & Understanding
• Criterion B: Investigating
• Criterion C: Communicating
• Criterion D: Thinking Critically

Grades 11 and 12

Global Issues

Content

Looking at current global issues, students will explore the social, political, economic, and historical concerns surrounding them. Within a semester political concepts (power, human rights, development, sovereignty) covered in-depth allow the students to gain the appropriate knowledge to successfully analyze and evaluate the impact of the concept in a global and individual context.

Year 1: Power, Sovereignty, and International Relations

• Key concepts: power, sovereignty, legitimacy, cooperation, human rights, justice, liberty, equality, development, inequality, trade, aid.
• Theoretical understanding: Realism, Liberalism, Communitarianism, Communism, Socialism, and Capitalism.

• Topics: Power, non-state actors, international cooperation and governance, the nature and practice of human rights, controversies and debates surrounding human rights, nature and role of development, and factors affecting development.

Assessment

• Two summative assessments (50% each);
• 5-6 short summative assessments

Year 2: Peace and Conflict

• Key concepts: peace, conflict, security, humanitarian intervention, conflict resolution, and post-conflict transformation.
• Theoretical understanding: Galtung’s conflict triangle, Just War Theory
• Topics: concepts and theories of peace and conflict, analyzing conflict, post-conflict transformation

Assessment
• Two-three summative assessments
• Two-three formative each semester
Students choose an appropriate format for a final project-based assessment, allowing for differentiation and student-centered learning. Projects could include platforms such as documentaries, reports, presentations, advisory defense of research panels, and e-books. In addition, the student will be fully involved in implementing the evaluation process. Quizzes, reflections, and short writings, among other possible formative assessments, will inform the teacher and students regarding their process toward the final assessment.

IB DP Geography SL and HL

History is a dynamic, contested, evidence-based discipline that involves an exciting engagement with the past. It is a rigorous intellectual discipline focused on six critical historical concepts: perspectives, significance, change, consequence, continuity, and causation. History is an exploratory subject that fosters a sense of inquiry. It is also an interpretative discipline, allowing opportunity for engagement with multiple perspectives and a plurality of opinions. Studying history develops an understanding of the past, leading to a deeper understanding of the nature of humans and the world today.

The IB Diploma Program history course is a world history course based on a comparative and multi-perspective approach to history. It involves the study of various types of history, including political, economic, social, and cultural, and provides a balance of structure and flexibility. The course emphasizes the importance of encouraging students to think historically, develop historical skills, and gain factual knowledge. It puts a premium on developing the skills of critical thinking and analysis and on developing an understanding of multiple interpretations of history. In this way, the course involves a challenging and demanding critical exploration of the past.

Assessment

• Paper One (40% SL; 25% HL)
Higher and Standard Level students will cover the following themes:
○ Population in transition
○ Disparities in wealth and development
○ Patterns in environmental quality and sustainability
○ Patterns in consumption

• Paper Two (35% S; 35 % HL)
Higher Level students cover three of the themes below. Standard Level students cover two of the themes below.
○ Freshwater issues and conflicts
○ Oceans and their coastal margins
○ Extreme environments
○ Hazards and disasters – risk assessment and response
○ Leisure, sport and tourism
○ The geography of food and health
○ Urban environments

• Paper Three (HL 20%) Higher Level students only
○ Measuring global interactions
○ Changing space – the shrinking world
○ Economic interactions and flows
○ Environmental change
○ Sociocultural exchanges
○ Political outcomes
○ Global interactions at the local level

• Fieldwork (SL – 25%; HL 20%)
Higher and Standard Level students must complete an individual report based on fieldwork research.
The report is a maximum of 2,500 words in length and must include primary data gathering. This report is internally assessed and moderated by the IB.

Distinction Between SL & HL

Students at standard level (SL) and higher level (HL) are presented with a syllabus with a common core consisting of prescribed subjects and topics in world history. In addition, students at HL are also required to undertake an in-depth study of three sections from one of the HL regional options. While many of the skills of studying history are common to both SL and HL, the difference in recommended teaching hours at SL and HL signals a clear distinction between the demands made on students with the greater depth of study required for HL.

Pathway through the history course currently offered at WAB

Assessment

Internal Assessment
     Individual oral – 25%

External examination
     Paper 1 (Writing) – 25%

External examination
     Paper 2 (Listening and Reading) – 50%

IB DP Psychology SL and HL

IB DP psychology takes a holistic approach that fosters intercultural understanding and respect. In the core of the IB psychology course, the biological approach demonstrates what all humans share, whereas the cognitive and sociocultural approaches reveal the immense diversity of influences that produce human behavior and mental processes. Cultural diversity is explored, and students are encouraged to develop empathy for and an understanding of the feelings, needs, and lives of others within and outside their own culture. This contributes to an international understanding.

The aims of the psychology course at SL and at HL are to:
•  Develop an awareness of how psychological research can be applied for the benefit of human beings
•  Ensure that ethical practices are upheld in psychological inquiry
•  Develop an understanding of the biological, cognitive, and socio-cultural influences on human behavior
•  Develop an understanding of alternative explanations of behavior
•  Understand and use diverse methods of psychological inquiry

Distinction between SL and HL

Both SL and HL students are assessed on the syllabus core (levels of analysis) in Paper One. In addition, SL students are evaluated on their knowledge and comprehension of one option in Paper Two, whereas HL students are assessed on two options.
HL students are assessed on their knowledge and comprehension of qualitative research methodology in Paper Three. For the internal assessment, the report of a simple experimental study conducted by HL students requires inferential statistical analysis and a more in-depth approach than that required of SL students.

Content

The options have been chosen to reflect developing fields in psychology. The five options are:

• Abnormal psychology

• Developmental psychology

• Health psychology

• Psychology of human relationships

• Sport psychology

Students at SL must study one option. Students at HL must study two options.

Assessment

• Two papers for the SL course (75%) and an experimental study (25%).
• Three papers for the HL course (80%) and an experimental study (20%)

Global Politics SL and HL

Assessment

Internal: 20% (HL), 30% (SL) Type: Project

External: 80% (HL), 70% (SL) Type: Written examination

Course Description

Global Politics is a course for students who want to understand more about how the world they live in works, what makes it change, or what prevents it from changing. Students develop their understanding of political concepts and their knowledge of specific content by exploring real world case studies and examples. The course draws upon a variety of disciplinary traditions in the study of politics and international relations, and more broadly in the social sciences and humanities. The scope of global politics extends over a wide range of topics and areas of study, many of which will find links with other Diploma Program subjects. Students build an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding by critically engaging with contemporary political issues and challenges that interest them. 

Units of study include: 

 

  1. Core Topics: understanding power and global politics
  2. Introduction to Engagement Project
  3. Thematic Studies: Rights and Justice
  4. Thematic Studies: Peace and Conflict 
  5. Thematic Studies: Development and Sustainability 
  6. Engagement Project: Planning and Research 
  7. Global Political Challenge 1 
  8. Engagement Project: Preparatory Tasks 

 

IB DP Economics SL and HL

Economics is an exciting, dynamic subject that allows students to develop an understanding of the complexities and interdependence of economic activities in a rapidly changing world.

At the heart of economic theory is the problem of scarcity. While the world’s population has unlimited needs and wants, there are limited resources to satisfy these desires. As a result of this scarcity, choices must be made. The economics course at both SL and HL uses economic theories to examine how these choices are made:

•  at the level of producers and consumers in individual markets (microeconomics)
•  at the level of government and the national economy (macroeconomics)
•  at an international level where countries are becoming increasingly interdependent through international trade and the movement of labor and capital (the global economy).

The choices made by economic agents generate positive and negative outcomes that affect the relative well-being of individuals and societies. As a social science, economics examines these choices through models and theories. The Diploma Program economics course allows students to explore these models and theories and apply them, using empirical data, through an examination of the following six real-world issues which are posed as economic questions:

• How do consumers and producers make choices in trying to meet their economic objectives?
• When are markets unable to satisfy important economic objectives – and does government intervention help?
• Why does economic activity vary over time, and why does this matter?
• How do governments manage their economy, and how effective are their policies?
• Who are the winners and losers of integrating the world’s economies?
• Why is economic development uneven?

Given the rapidly changing world, economic activity and its outcomes are constantly in flux. Therefore, throughout the course, students are encouraged to investigate real-world issues. Through their inquiry, it is expected that students will be able to appreciate both the values and limitations of economic models in explaining real-world economic behaviors and outcomes. Economics students will develop the knowledge, skills, values, and attitudes that will encourage them to act responsibly as global citizens.

Aims

The aims of the economics course at SL and HL are to enable students to:

• develop a critical understanding of a range of economic theories, models, ideas, and tools in the areas of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and the global economy
• apply economic theories, models, ideas, and tools and analyze economic data to understand and engage with real-world economic issues and problems facing individuals and societies
• develop a conceptual understanding of individuals’ and societies’ economic choices, interactions, challenges, and consequences of economic decision-making.

The topics are:

•   Introduction to Economics
•   Microeconomics
•   Macroeconomics
•   Global Economy

Note: Higher-level students also study extension material within these topics.

Distinction between SL and HL

The HL course in economics differs from the SL course in economics in terms of the following:

• recommended hours devoted to teaching (240 hours for HL compared to 150 hours for SL)
• extra depth and breadth required (extension material for HL only)
• nature of the examination questions. Both SL and HL students develop quantitative skills. Still, HL students will need to further develop these, as appropriate, in analyzing and evaluating economic relationships in order to provide informed policy advice. These skills are specifically assessed in HL paper 3.

Content of the Economics Course

Unit 1: Introduction

• What is Economics?
• How do Economists approach the world?

Unit 2: Microeconomics

• Competitive markets: demand and supply
• Elasticity
• Government intervention
• Market Failure
• Economics of the Environment

Unit 3: Macroeconomics

• Measuring Economic Activity
• Aggregate demand and aggregate supply
• Macroeconomic objectives
• Fiscal and monetary policy
• Supply-side policies

Unit 4: The Global Economy

• International Trade & Protectionism
• Exchange Rates
• The Balance of Payments
• Economic Integration
• Economic Development
• Measuring Development
• Sustainable Development
• Barriers to Development

Assessment

ExternalHLSL
Extended Response             20%30%
Data Response30%40
Policy Response30% 
InternalHLSL
Portfolio of 3 commentaries20%30%