Delivering the existing 2020 curriculum

In planning a two year course which will enable students to fulfill the assessment requirements, three factors need to be considered: content, concepts and skills which should link together in order to give students an in-depth understanding of the historical content and equip them to answer the different styles of questions on the three papers.

1. Planning your content

There is a wide choice of topics which should allow you to create a flexible programme suited to the interest of the students, the location and cultural setting of the school. You will need to choose one prescribed topic for Paper 1, two world history topics for Paper 2, three in-depth topics from one of the four regions for Paper 3.

(see relevant pages for a description of the content for each of these papers)

Here are some points to consider when planning your content:

• Both case studies must be covered for the Prescribed Subject that you choose for Paper 1
• Within each topic for Paper 2, a range of examples and regions need to be covered to allow students to answer comparative style questions
• Paper 3 for Higher students assesses in-depth knowledge, so students must have a good grasp of detail and you should aim to cover three topics
• The Internal Assessment (IA) can be on any topic/time period

Ideally, you will be able to construct a course that while covering different regions also has areas of overlap in content between the papers. This will ease the burden on students regarding the amount of content that they have to cover.

For example, you may choose Move to Global War for Paper 1 which will overlap with the content needed for studying the case study Second World War in the Causes and Practices of Wars Topic for Paper 2. It also overlaps with Topic 15 in the European regional Paper 3.

Look at  1. Choosing your content for examples of course outlines in which there is overlap between the three papers.

2. Integrating ATT

There are six elements which need to be considered when you plan your course. You need to be:

• Teaching through inquiry
• Teaching through concepts
• Teaching developed in local and global contexts
• Teaching focused on effective teamwork and collaboration
• Teaching differentiated to meet the needs of all learners
• Teaching informed by assessment

Linked to the second of these points, all content should be linked to one of the six key IB concepts:

• Change
• Continuity
• Significance
• Causation
• Consequence
• Perspectives

3. Intergrating ATL

In addition, you need to consider ATL in your planning. These are to ensure that students cover a range of skills while covering the content. The five Approaches to Learning are:

• Thinking skills
• Communication skills
• Social Skills
• Self-management skills
• Research skills

You will see that we have identified the ATL in each of the activities that we have suggested for each of the topics on this website.

For more on these points please go to these pages: