As coordinators, a streamlined EE process for your school context is a continual work of reflection. Each year, you reflect on what worked and what can be improved. Learning about how other schools are implementing their EE programs is another way to discover new strategies or improve existing ones.
Hear from other coordinators and what has worked for them in the “Coordinators speak,” section in the resource here.
To get started, check out these six actionable to-dos that many established EE programs around the world have in common:
- The EE guide and subject-specific guides should be available as ready-access documents for students and supervisors
- Students should be given a minimum of 10 months to complete the EE process. These must have concurrency of learning; going over their DP year one & two.
- Schedule time for students to work between their draft feedback and final essay. A month would be ideal. Strive to have your students finish the EE well before the IBDP exams.
- Students should be introduced to plagiarism detection tools like Turnitin early on in the process.
- In MYP, while writing the personal project, there should be an explicit focus on the skills that students require to complete their EE. If your school does not follow the MYP curriculum, these skills may be developed through academic subjects as well as activities outside the classroom such as MUN, Genius Hour etc.
- Schools should create a directory of resource persons from the community (including parents and industry experts) who have either previously supervised students or are accessible and willing to help out students. This directory should be made available to students, so they can also initiate community interactions.