Official Advice
Purpose of internal assessment
Internal assessment is an integral part of the course and is
compulsory for both SL and HL students. It enables students to
demonstrate the application of skills and knowledge, and to
pursue their personal interests, without the time limitations
and other constraints that are associated with written
examinations. The internal assessment should, as far as
possible, be woven into normal classroom teaching and not be a
separate activity conducted after a course has been taught.
The
internal assessment requirements at SL and at HL for history are
the same. All students complete a historical investigation into
a historical topic of their choice. The internal assessment
allows flexibility for students to select a topic of personal
interest. The topic need not be related to the syllabus and
students should be encouraged to use their own initiative when
deciding on a topic. The free choice of topic means that the
historical investigation provides a particularly good
opportunity for students to engage with topics that are of
personal interest, or topics related to their own local or
national history.
Please
note: Each individual student must complete an individual
historical investigation—group work may not be undertaken.
Time
allocation
Internal assessment contributes 25% to the final assessment in
the SL course and 20% in the HL course. This weighting should be
reflected in the time that is allocated to teaching the skills
and understanding required to undertake the work, as well as the
total time allocated to carry out the work.
It is
recommended that a total of approximately 20 hours (SL and HL)
of teaching time should be allocated to the work. This should
include:
·
time
for the teacher to explain to students the requirements of the
internal assessment
·
class
time for students to work on the internal assessment component
and ask questions
·
time
for consultation between the teacher and each student
individually
·
time to
review and monitor progress, and to check authenticity.
Guidance and authenticity
The
historical investigation submitted for internal assessment must
be the student’s own work. However, it is not the intention that
students should decide upon a title or topic and be left to work
on the internal assessment component without any further support
from the teacher. The teacher should play an important role
during both the planning stage and the period when the student
is working on the internally assessed work. It is the
responsibility of the teacher to ensure that students are
familiar with
·
the
requirements of the type of work to be internally assessed
·
the
assessment criteria; students must understand that the work
submitted for assessment must address these criteria
effectively.
Teachers and students must discuss the internally assessed work.
Students should be encouraged to initiate discussions with the
teacher to obtain advice and information, and students must not
be penalized for seeking guidance. As part of the learning
process, teachers should read and give advice to students on one
draft of the work. The teacher should provide oral or written
advice on how the work could be improved, but should not edit
the draft. The next version handed to the teacher must be the
final version for submission.
It is
the responsibility of teachers to ensure that all students
understand the basic meaning and significance of concepts that
relate to academic honesty, especially authenticity and
intellectual property. Teachers must ensure that all student
work for assessment is prepared according to the requirements
and must explain clearly to students that the internally
assessed work must be entirely their own. All work submitted to
the IB for moderation or assessment must be authenticated by a
teacher, and must not include any known instances of suspected
or confirmed academic misconduct. Each student must confirm that
the work is his or her authentic work and constitutes the final
version of that work. Once a student has officially submitted
the final version of the work it cannot be retracted. The
requirement to confirm the authenticity of work applies to the
work of all students, not just the sample work that will be
submitted to the IB for the purpose of moderation. For further
details, refer to the IB publication Academic honesty in the IB
educational context, The Diploma Programme: From principles into
practice and the relevant articles in General regulations:
Diploma Programme.
Authenticity may be checked by discussion with the student on
the content of the work, and scrutiny of one or more of the
following.
·
The
student’s initial proposal
·
The
first draft of the written work
·
The
references cited
·
The
style of writing compared with work known to be that of the
student
·
The
analysis of the work by a web-based plagiarism-detection service
·
Please
note: The same piece of work cannot be submitted to meet the
requirements of both the internal assessment and the extended
essay.
Internal assessment details—SL and HL
Historical investigation
Duration: 20 hours
Weighting: 25% SL, 20% HL
Students at both SL and HL are required to complete a historical
investigation into a topic of their choice. The historical
investigation is made of up three sections.
Students have a free choice of topic for their historical
investigation—the topic need not be related to the syllabus, and
students should be encouraged to use their own initiative when
deciding on a topic. However, the topic must be historical, and
therefore cannot be on an event that has happened in the last 10
years.
Students should choose their own topic, with their teacher’s
guidance and approval. Teachers must approve the topic and
question for investigation before work is started. It is crucial
that there are sufficient sources to support the investigation,
and that the investigation can be assessed by the criteria for
internal assessment. Teachers must also make students aware of
any relevant ethical considerations when undertaking their
investigation, for example, the need to show sensitivity or to
respect confidentiality.
The
investigation is an opportunity for students to demonstrate the
application of their skills and knowledge to a historical topic
of their choice. The emphasis must be on a specific historical
inquiry that enables the student to develop and apply the skills
of a historian by selecting and analysing a range of source
material and considering diverse perspectives. The activity
demands that students search for, select, evaluate and use
evidence to reach a relevant conclusion consistent with the
evidence and arguments that have been put forward.
Section 1: Identification and evaluation of sources
This
section requires students to analyse in detail two of the
sources that they will use in their investigation. The sources
can be either primary or secondary sources. In this section
students must:
·
clearly
state the question they have chosen to investigate (this must be
stated as a question)
·
include
a brief explanation of the nature of the two sources they have
selected for detailed analysis, including an explanation of
their relevance to the investigation
·
analyse
two sources in detail. With reference to the origins, purpose
and content, the student should analyse the value and
limitations of the two sources in relation to the investigation.
A
crucial element of this section of the internal assessment task
is formulating an appropriate question to investigate. The six
key concepts for the history course (causation, consequence,
continuity, change, significance and perspectives) can be a very
useful starting point in helping students to formulate a
question.
The
following are examples of historical investigations recently
submitted by students.
·
How
systematic were the deportations of the Jewish population of
Dusseldorf to Minsk between 1941 and 1942?
·
How
significant were economic problems as a cause of the Bamberg
Witch Trials (1623–1633)?
·
What
were the most important reasons for the failure of Operation
Market Garden?
·
To what
extent was weak leadership responsible for the collapse of the
Egyptian Old Kingdom in 2125 BC?
Section 2: Investigation
This
section of the internal assessment task consists of the actual
investigation. The internal assessment task provides scope for a
wide variety of different types of historical investigation, for
example:
·
a
historical topic or theme using a variety of written sources or
a variety of written and non-written sources
·
a
historical topic based on fieldwork, for example, a museum,
archeological site, battlefields, places of worship such as
mosques or churches, historic buildings
·
a local
history study.
The
investigation must be clearly and effectively organized. While
there is no prescribed format for how this section must be
structured, it must contain critical analysis that is focused
clearly on the question being investigated, and must also
include the conclusion that the student draws from their
analysis.
In this
section, students must use a range of evidence to support their
argument. Please note that students can use primary sources,
secondary sources, or a mixture of the two.
Section 3: Reflection
This
section of the internal assessment task requires students to
reflect on what undertaking their investigation highlighted to
them about the methods used by, and the challenges facing, the
historian.
Examples of discussion questions that may help to encourage
reflection include the following.
·
What
methods used by historians did you use in your investigation?
·
What
did your investigation highlight to you about the limitations of
those methods?
·
What
are the challenges facing the historian? How do they differ from
the challenges facing a scientist or a mathematician?
·
What
challenges in particular does archive-based history present?
·
How can
the reliability of sources be evaluated?
·
What is
the difference between bias and selection?
·
What
constitutes a historical event?
·
Who
decides which events are historically significant?
·
Is it
possible to describe historical events in an unbiased way?
·
What is
the role of the historian?
·
Should
terms such as “atrocity” be used when writing about history, or
should value judgments be avoided?
·
If it
is difficult to establish proof in history, does that mean that
all versions are equally acceptable?
Bibliography
A
bibliography and clear referencing of all sources must be
included with every investigation, but these are not included in
the overall word count.
Word
limit
The
word limit for the historical investigation is 2,200 words. A
bibliography and clear referencing of all sources must be
included in the investigation, but are not included in the
overall word count.
Below
are suggested word allocations for each section of the
historical investigation. Please note that these word
allocations are suggestions only.
