The IB recommends that all Diploma courses, even those at standard level, should be two years long, with a recommended minimum of 150 contact hours. However, the truth is that some teachers are having to teach the course in one year. This is challenging, but perfectly possible. Here are a few tips to help you do it: Teach three contexts, … Read More
The Four Class Practicals in IB Psychology (2027): One Topic, Four Methods
First assessment May 2027 · Standard Level and Higher Level The class practicals are new for the 2027 IB Psychology specification, compulsory, and the skills and understanding they develop are critical for Paper 2 Section A and the Internal Assessment. The single most useful decision you can make is to keep the topic constant and change only the method. One … Read More
The 6 Concepts of IB Psychology
The old IB Psychology specification placed a huge emphasis on learning a large number of key studies in Psychology. Students could approach the exam having learnt 40-60 studies and feel confident in their ability to answer the majority of short- and extended-response questions… however, they often struggled to evaluate theories or even the studies themselves beyond a superficial level. The … Read More
New psychology curriculum guide is out on Tuesday
The new psychology curriculum guide will be published on MyIB on Tuesday 4th February. It is for teaching from August/September 2025, and there are a lot of changes to the approach to learning, though not so many to the content. You will be glad to learn, however, that the rote learning of studies is very much reduced as the focus … Read More
A few changes to the new curriculum
Those of you with sharp eyes will have noticed that the new curriculum, to be taught from August/Sep 2025 and first examined in May 2027, has undergone some last-minute ‘tweaks.’ The big change is that the SL students will be required to submit an IA proposal, and in order that they have the necessary 20 class hours to work on … Read More
New curriculum content – approaches and research methodology
The new psychology course covers biological, cognitive, and sociocultural approaches, as well as research methodology. Paper 1, Section A, includes short-answer questions on these approaches, allowing students to apply them to various contexts. Answers should be concise and focused, with examples not necessarily limited to psychological studies. Get ready to adapt to the new structure!
One-year Standard Level teaching plan for the new psychology curriculum – updated!
The IB does not recommend that the Psychology SL course is taught in one year only. However, I am aware that some teachers are in the position of having to do that. Naturally, this will require a lot of planning before and organisation as you go through the year. We hope this post will help. We have updated the one-year … Read More
Two-year teaching plan for the new psychology curriculum – updated!
This two-year plan is for a combined HL/SL class. It will also work if you are lucky enough to teach your HL and SL students separately. Tomorrow I will provide a one-year plan for teaching SL students. Though the IB Diploma psychology is recommended as a two-year course, I know that some teachers have to fit it into one year! … Read More