1. Extended Essay Session 3 Sydney workshop 14-15 July 2011

2. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Topic choice: Choosing topics NOT teachers!  The greatest hurdle for the student  They need guidance – a system 1.Which discipline? 2.Find a topic 3.Is it appropriate 4.Is it narrow enough? 5.Does it involve any ‘double-dipping’?

3. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 What is the difference between a topic and a research question? p13 ‘The research process’

4. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Extended Essay Topics What can the essay represent to the student?  The opportunity to investigate a topic of general interest  Or of specific relevance to family or culture  A useful document for university entry  Flexibility in style of criteria so that it can really be ‘owned’ But it can be an extension of the a subject course and useful for examinations. Should it be?

5. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 How far is passion needed?

6. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Problems of topic choice 1.Topics not linked to a discipline 2.There is a criteria for writing the question. The Student MUST do it themselves 3.Students like macro questions. 4.The criteria and guidelines must be checked for every question before proceeding. 5.Students are dogmatic!

7. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Problems of topic choice: Example

8. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Problems of topic choice  Hanaho’s list 1.The extent at which morals are sneaked into children’s literature 2.Humanity’s fascination with immortality. 3.Metaphors in children’s rhymes and their origin (eg Ring a Rosie and the Black Death) 4.Communism and capitalism 5. Chaos Theory

9. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Problems of topic choice  Atlantis  King Arthur  ‘Something to do with PE.’  Ancient Greek Theatre and its reflection on the social, religious and political life of the Greeks

10. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Typical Problem After five months a student comes to the IB/EE coordinator and says one of the following: ‘My topic is too boring’ ‘My supervisor does not help me, he never returns work submitted’ ‘My supervisor agrees that this topic will not work, there is not enough information/the experiments have failed’ Think about the best way to help this student

11. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Sorting out problems: a real one from 2011 a real one from 2011

12. © International Baccalaureate Organization 2007 Read the Guide subject information about topic choice in your subject TASK: Work in pairs on topic/question choice problems. Make suggestions to the student as to where to go next. You might even conduct a second interview.