SL Psychology in one year
Sunday 9 March 2025
Careful planning
Your school may offer SL Psychology in one year. You may not reach the IB's recommended 150 hours, but you can still complete the course requirements with careful planning.
Down to the details
Many school years start in mid-August (late January in the Southern Hemisphere), and the exams begin in May (November). With school holidays, no-contact days, and other demands on the timetable, you will have approximately thirty teaching weeks. You may be allocated around four hours a week of teaching time, and students will also need to complete work independently as assignments.
Below is a suggested one-year plan based on four hours weekly. More independent student work will be needed if you have fewer hours than these.
- Use your first week to show how the contexts create the framework for the content and concepts. (Note: you do not have to apply all concepts to material in each unit; choose the two or three that are most relevant.)
- The contexts may be taught in any order. You may want to choose your first unit according to your personal preference or based on the research method for the practical.
- Ensure you have done at least two practicals before introducing the IA. Students have to design a study, so choose the practicals that are the most helpful in supporting the IA.
- Once the IA draft is completed in class, the final IA can form an independent assignment for students.
- Whichever unit you teach first will take more time since you will have to introduce biological, cognitive, and sociocultural content and the IB assessments.
- Later units will take less time as you will revise the material with students rather than teach it for the first time.
Upcoming post
Mapping a context. How to integrate concepts and content into your human development unit.