By next year (2026) all the teacher support packs will be ready with complete lesson plans, workbooks, etc., but in the meantime you might be looking for a simple unit plan that requires little planning. The following ideas were devised in collaboration with Paul Wright. Paul and I were working through what to do with HL-only classes once a week. This is what we came up with.
Step One: Choose a Topic (1 lesson)
First, in pairs or threes, students could choose one topic from one of the contexts. Here are my suggested topics to choose from as these link well with the extensions and the textbook.
- Human relationships:
- Aggression
- Romantic relationships
- Conformity
- Learning and memory:
- Attention
- Memory
- Decision-making
- Conditioning (operant or classical)
- Health and well-being:
- Depression
- Drug abuse (addiction)
- Human development:
- Moral development
- Attachment
- Brain development
Then they choose one of the three HL extension topics that they think have the biggest effect on the above behaviours:
- Technology
- Motivation
- Culture.
What they have now is a theme that will be similar to what they’ll get in Paper 3. For example, here are some possible combinations:
- Technology’s effect on attention
- Culture’s effect on conformity
- Motivation’s effect on addiction*
*My warning for students is that motivation is the most difficult to do, as it can be a cause or an effect, and there will not be as much research on it as there will be the other two.
Optional: It might work well to have students devise a research question from their topic. This could give them some structure to complete the rest of the activities. For example, “Does technology affect attention?” or “Does culture affect conformity?”
Step Two: Treasure Hunt (2-3 lessons)
Example line graph on the effects of technology on depression. “Figure 1 | Depression on the rise. Rates of depression among teenagers in the United States have increased steadily since 2012. Rates are higher and are increasing more rapidly for girls than for boys. Some researchers think that social media is the cause of this increase, whereas others see social media as a way of tackling it.” Source: Haidt and Allen, Nature (Link). Graph recreated from original source by ChatGPT.
Students are to find one example of each of the following graphs from a peer-reviewed study on their topic of choice.
- Frequency table
- Bar graph
- Histogram
- Line graph
- Scatterplot
- Box and whisker plot
They screen shot the graph and add it to a shared slideshow or google doc. For each graph, they should write a 1-2 sentence analysis of what the graph is demonstrating. This achieves a few aims:
- Gets them familiar with writing about research
- Will develop their knowledge of the context-relevant behaviours
- Will familiarise them with graphs and how to analyse them (which is the most important thing to know how to do in Paper 3).
I would allow two lessons to find the graphs. If after two lessons they cannot find an example of one or more of the graphs, I would give one lesson to create their own. For example, if they can’t find a line graph and they’re studying the effects of technology attention, they should create their own. ChatGPT or other AI software might be good for making graphs, or my students like nzgrapher.
Remember Paper 3 will have either real or made-up graphs for the sources, so this is keeping in line with what they can expect in Paper 3.
Step Three: Qualitative Study (1 lesson)
Students find one qualitative study on their chosen topic. Once again, if after one hour they cannot find one they are to make their own. After they’ve found their study, they can move to Step Four.
Example qualitative study on the relationship between motivation and aggression.
Step Four: Past Paper Creation – Paper 2, Section B (1-2 lessons)
a. Students take one of the studies they’ve found and write a brief summary of their study. This should match what they will find in Paper 2, Section B (see spec paper below). You may want to make them print out their studies and write their summaries by hand. This will ensure they’re actually reading the research and summarising it themselves, rather than ChatGPT-ing it.
b. Students write the exam question using this format: “Discuss the following study with reference to two or more of the following concepts: (insert four chosen concepts of their choice that they think are most relevant for the study).
Now not only have students familiarised themselves with the topic in the context, they’ve also learned how to summarise studies and you’ve got a bank of practice exam questions to use for exam preparation.
Source: IB Specimen Paper from MyIB.
Step Five: Past Paper Creation – Paper 3 (3-5 lessons)
Your students should now have everything they need to make their own Paper 3 Practice Exams. The graphs and qualitative study they found can be used to make five sources, just like the specimen paper. Paper 3 will have one theme and because your students have found the data and graphs for one behaviour they’ve already got their theme.
I would print out copies of the specimen Paper 3 and give to each group so they have a template to work from. Their exam should contain:
- One central claim*
- Five sources
- Four graphs with a brief summary
- Results from one qualitative study with a brief summary
- Four questions (using the format explained in the guide and Chapter 16)
The central claim could be written using this format: “The sources in this examination have been collated to assess the claim that …… (insert central claim regarding effect of HL Topic X on Context Topic Y).
Hopefully buy in from students should be high too because it’s easy to explain why they’re the ones making the past papers – they’re the first cohort so there are none that already exist!
Step Six: Past Paper – Guided Practice Take the Test (3-4 lessons)
Students could write answers to the specimen Paper 3 from the IB. There is guidance on how to answer each question on pages 389-393 of the textbook. It could be a good idea to work through these questions together, as guided practice.
Step Seven: Past Paper – Independent Practice (2-3 lessons)
Next they complete their own practice exams they’ve created, or they could swap with another group and complete each other’s. This could be done independently.
In Summary
This plan gives you 14-20 lessons of highly- relevant, HL-specific exam preparation content and a bunch of practice exams without you having to lift a finger. In addition, students have learned about:
- Types of graphs
While you won’t have to work hard outside of class in preparing materials for these lessons, I do think you’ll have to work pretty hard during class time giving feedback and advice for students as they work through this content.
- Qualitative studies
- Structure of Paper 2 (B) and Paper 3
- How to answer Paper 3 questions
Additional Ideas
- Presentations: Have your HL students create presentations to share with the class and the SL students about what they found out.
- Paper 2, Section B: SL and HL students could complete the Section B practice questions they created.
- Class Practical: Have SL students join the HL groups and they conduct a class practical based on their chosen topic. I would recommend using a qualitative interview method as this will be the simplest. They could go through the steps of a thematic analysis of their data (Pp 359-360 has the steps of a thematic analysis to help).
Travis Dixon is an IB Psychology teacher, author, workshop leader, examiner and IA moderator.