The former Swedish prime minister, Olof Palme wrote (in Swedish) something to the effect that politics is a 'desire for change, and in change there is the promise of improvement'. Palme wrote this in the early part of the 1960s, before he became prime minister for the first time, and at a time when he was still a relatively young man. In fact, Palme wrote this in the same year that Bob Dylan released ´The Times They are a-Changin´´. Palme, perhaps, was capturing the zeitgeist of the time. His words seem optimistic, containing the apparent truth that politics almost certainly begins with a desire for change, and that change, in this sense, is understood as involving improvement

Like Olof Palme, the IB has improvement in mind when it considers and implements curriculum change. The change process, after all, is called curriculum development. Sometimes, positive change in one direction can lead to the perception of things becoming less good in another direction. Teachers seldom agree on whether something – a summative assessment task, say – is good or bad, an improvement or impoverishment of what went before. Teachers spread globally and working in very different contexts are likely to disagree. The IB, for its part, takes this diversity of circumstance seriously, and the heterogeneity of teaching contexts is an underpinning concern of curriculum development.

Below, we outline some of the key changes to the Extended Essay (for first teaching in August 2025; for first assessment in May 2027). Our pages will be updated in the coming months to reflect these changes – some of which seem quite significant. Here, we provide no detailed evaluation of the changes, although they appear generally promising. You may, of course, have a different view (and we have a comments section, below, for any insights of your own!).

What changes seem noteworthy?

The new guide is still intended to support the writing of a 4000-word research-based essay that estimates 40 hours of student engagement, but it now has two primary audiences; teachers (i.e., supervisors) and students. The inclusion of student-sections in the new guide should be quickly apparent. The guide is significantly compressed relative to earlier iterations. Albeit, at 124 pages in the PDF publication, it is still substantially longer than the average post on Mr. Musk’s X platform. If the new guide intends to be more user-friendly and accessible, we think it succeeds. There are many visuals, including (the darling text of Paper 1 exam writers) infographics that enhance the readability of the guide.

In its altered form, students will have the opportunity to follow one of two pathways: A subject-focused pathway or an interdisciplinary pathway (where students integrate two subjects). The interdisciplinary pathway opens up a whole range of exciting opportunities for students (and possibly a number of ensuing, perhaps unanticipated issues; time will tell). The guide, in any case, carefully delineates the pathways, and there is a preceding generic guidance section for all students.    

There is a very useful section on ethical research practices. This could be worthwhile reading sooner rather than later. Here, you may find something immediately valuable to your teaching practice.

The new guide, like its predecessor, obliges students to reflect on the process of researching, writing, and refining their essay. In the new guide, this reflection is captured in one (assessed) 500-word reflective statement.

The Extended Essay will be marked out of a total of 30 marks in revised assessment criteria labelled as follows:

• Framework for the Essay, 6 marks
• Knowledge and Understanding, 6 marks
• Analysis and Line of Argument, 6 marks
• Discussion and Evaluation, 8 marks
• Reflection, 4 marks

What about changes for Language A students?

Most changes to the guide for students writing an essay in Language A (including English A) are cosmetic, but there are a couple of updates worth paying attention to. The 3 categories currently in place are no longer explicit, although some of the essence of these remain. The new guide certainly does not permit a free-for-all approach, but the removal of the fixed categories means, at least, that you and your students will no longer have to become concerned with identifying a category into which the essay should fit. A change of greater import relates to films, where the guide says this: If the text is a film, the focus must be clearly on the screenplay (the written or spoken word), its delivery and effect. We think that is clear enough. There are also a few reminders; for example, students are discouraged from writing about ‘young adult’ novels. In most cases this is probably good advice. Further advice suggests that students should avoid writing about recently published work as there may be a lack of available secondary sources. Maybe. Or, this could be an opportunity waiting to be exploited.

Here, at InThinking, we will publish detailed resources to support you ahead of first teaching. In the meantime, we encourage you to read IB Extended Essay publications (available on MyIB). The publications reveal changes effective for the Extended Essay from August 2025, but they may also be a harbinger of future changes in English A: Language and Literature. That is, for example, it would be a curious thing if Language A Extended Essay students are ‘limited’ to writing about the screenplay of a film, its delivery, and effect, and not to have exactly this restriction in place for English A: Language and Literature. We have, of course, no privileged insider knowledge.

David and Tim