Global politics internal assessment

Internal assessment

Purpose of internal assessment

Internal assessment is an integral part of the course and is compulsory for both SL and HL students. It enables students to demonstrate the application of their skills and knowledge, and to pursue their personal interests, without the time limitations and other constraints that are associated with written examinations.

The internal assessment requirements of global politics at SL and at HL are briefly as follows.

• At SL and HL, students undertake an engagement through which they explore a political issue of personal interest experientially. They then produce a written report, in which they explain what they learned about the political issue through the engagement, and analyse and evaluate the issue, supported by additional complementary research.

• At HL, students additionally conduct in-depth research into two case studies of two global political challenges and prepare an oral presentation on chosen political issues in the case studies. The presentations are video recorded.

More information on the content of the internal assessment tasks is given in the “Syllabus content” section of this guide.

Time allocation

Internal assessment is an integral part of the global politics course, contributing 25% to the final assessment in the SL course and 40% to the final assessment in the HL course.

It is recommended that a total of approximately 20 hours of teaching time should be allocated to the engagement activity at SL and HL. This should include time for:

• the teacher to explain to students the requirements of the engagement activity and the ethical guidelines for the engagement activity

• students to work on the engagement activity and ask questions

• consultation between the teacher and each student

• reviewing and monitoring progress, and checking authenticity

The teaching time allocated for the HL extension work is 90 hours. This includes time for:

• the teacher to explain to students the requirements of the HL extension

• the whole class to familiarize themselves with the six global political challenges

• students to do their research

• students to do practice presentations

• the prescribed individual meetings between the teacher and students to review and monitor progress, and to check authenticity

• video recording and assessing the presentations

Guidance and authenticity

The written report submitted for the engagement activity at SL and HL and the video recorded presentations submitted for the HL extension must be the student’s own work. However, it is not the

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intention that students should decide upon a title or topic and be left to work on the internal assessment components without any further support from the teacher. The teacher should play an important role during both the planning stage and the period when the student is working on the internally assessed work. It is the responsibility of the teacher to ensure that students are familiar with:

• the requirements of the type of work to be internally assessed

• the ethical guidelines for the engagement activity at SL and HL

• the assessment criteria for the engagement activity at SL and HL and the marking rubric for the HL extension; students must understand that the work submitted for assessment must address the criteria and the rubric effectively.

Teachers and students must discuss the internally assessed work. Students should be encouraged to initiate discussions with the teacher to obtain advice and information, and students must not be penalized for seeking guidance. As part of the learning process, teachers should read and give advice to students on one draft of the written report for the engagement activity and on one draft of the written outline for each HL presentation. The teacher should provide oral or written advice on how the work could be improved, but not edit the draft or the outline. For the written report for the engagement activity, the next version handed to the teacher must be the final version for submission; for the HL extension, each presentation must only be performed once, for the video recording.

It is the responsibility of teachers to ensure that all students understand the basic meaning and significance of concepts that relate to academic honesty, especially authenticity and intellectual property. Teachers must ensure that all student work for assessment is prepared according to the requirements and must explain clearly to students that the internally assessed work must be entirely their own. Where collaboration between students is permitted, it must be clear to all students what the difference is between collaboration and collusion.

All work submitted to the IB for moderation or assessment must be authenticated by a teacher, and must not include any known instances of suspected or confirmed academic misconduct. Each student must confirm that the work is his or her authentic work and constitutes the final version of that work. Once a student has officially submitted the final version of the work, it cannot be retracted. The requirement to confirm the authenticity of work applies to the work of all students, not just the sample work that will be submitted to the IB for the purpose of moderation. For further details refer to the IB publication Academic honesty, The Diploma Programme: From principles into practice and the relevant articles in General regulations: Diploma Programme.

Authenticity may be checked by discussion with the student on the content of the work, and scrutiny of one or more of the following.

• The student’s initial proposals

• The first draft of the written report for the engagement activity and the written outline of each HL presentation

• The references cited

• the style of writing compared with work known to be that of the student

• the analysis of the written work by a web-based plagiarism detection service

• the style of delivery of the oral presentations compared with delivery known to be characteristic of the student.

Different political issues must be studied for the requirements of the engagement activity, the HL extension and a potential extended essay students may choose to write in global politics.

Group engagements may be undertaken by students. However each student must study a different political issue and individually write up his or her own written report. Group work is not permitted for the HL extension.

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Engagement activity

Duration: 20 hours

Weighting: 25% at SL; 20% at HL

Written report on a political issue explored through engagement and research

Students are required to write a maximum 2,000-word written report in which they explain what they learned about their chosen political issue through their engagement, and analyse and evaluate the issue, supported by additional complementary research. The requirements of the task are the same at both SL and HL. The maximum mark for the written report is 20 marks and it is assessed using assessment criteria.