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This criterion assesses the student’s engagement with their research focus and the research process. It will be applied by the examiner at the end of the assessment of the essay, and is based solely on the candidate’s reflections as detailed on the RPPF, with the supervisory comments and extended essay itself as context. Only the first 500 words are assessable. (IB Extended Essay Guide, P.101-102)
Examples of the levels of reflection
Examples of the levels of reflection
Good reflection goes beyond being describing what you have done and involves some critical thinking in that students need to analyze the success of their approach to the extended essay and evaluate the overall success of the essay itself and how things would change if you were able to do it again. The table below shows how you can achieve a more evaluative reflection as opposed to descriptive reflection.
The 3 reflections required for the Extended Essay
The 3 reflections required for the Extended Essay
Students must complete 3 reflections during the process of completing the extended essay. The initial reflection, interim reflection and the final reflection, which are described below.
The total word count for all 3 reflections is 500 words. It is recommended that the word count is split across the 3 reflections as follows:
Initial reflection - 100-150 words
Interim reflection - 150-200 words
Final reflection - 200 words
Reflection 1 - Initial reflection (Roughly 100-150 words in length)
Reflection 1 - Initial reflection (Roughly 100-150 words in length)
This reflection must be written after one of the early sessions with your supervisor where you outline:
- Your ideas regarding the topic in general
- The research question you have in mind
- Initial background reading or research you may have conducted
- Possible approaches
- Initial thoughts about the answer to your research question
Guiding Questions for writing your initial reflection:
- What exactly do you want to find out? What am I interested in researching and why?
- What interests you in the topic and why is it relevant? What are my motivations for undertaking research in this area?
- What sources do you plan to use? Do you have a range of sources?
- What problems do you anticipate in your research? Have you found any sources with conflicting viewpoints?
- How do you think you might use your sources? Do you have enough sources?
- Are there any ethical issues I need to consider before pursuing this area of research?
- Is there sufficient focus to my research area?
Reflection 2 - Interim reflection (Roughly 150-200 words in length)
Reflection 2 - Interim reflection (Roughly 150-200 words in length)
This reflection session will occur in the latter half of your EE process, once the extended essay draft is completed and you have discussed it with your supervisor. You meeting with your supervisor will:
- Discuss how the research question has become more refined.
- Discuss any challenges you have encountered & what solutions you have attempted.
- Discuss how your thinking on your topic has evolved.
Guiding Questions for writing your interim reflection:
- Where was I? Where I am now? Where am I going?
- What has changed and why?
- Have you changed the research question in any way? If so, why and what has been the change?
- What sources do you find helpful? Any struggles that you had with research or using the research sources that you found?
- How have you evaluated your sources?
- Have you adopted a structure for writing based on what the IB requires?
- How have you arranged the essay? How challenging has this been?
- How has the argument to the research question developed?
- Are there things that you still need to find our or write about based on the feedback from you supervisor?
- What do you need to do next?
Reflection 3 - Final reflection (Roughly 200 words in length)
Reflection 3 - Final reflection (Roughly 200 words in length)
This final reflection should be written BEFORE the Viva Voce meeting, presented to your supervisor and refined with their guidance. This reflection should:
- Offer your final reflections on the overall extended essay process and the essay that you produced
- Discuss any achievements realized or challenges overcome
- Discuss elements that allowed you to complete the task that may not be readily apparent in the essay itself.
- Discuss any relevant ATL's (Approaches to Learning) such a self-management, research skills, critical thinking skills and communication skills that you have developed through the process supported by examples.
Guiding Questions
- What conclusions have you drawn about the topic?
- What did you discover that surprised you?
- Is writing the EE mainly about process or product AND why?
- What would you have done differently and why?
- What have been the high and low points of the research and writing processes?
- What would you have done differently?
- What is the most important thing that you learned?
- What was your greatest challenge and how did you overcome it?
- What would you change if you did another EE?
- What was the most valuable experience that you took away from the process?
- What IB learner profile attributes did you develop through the process? How?
- Would you like to continue reading on this topic?
- What further questions did this process or your research raise?
Examples of completed RPP forms for different subjects
Examples of completed RPP forms for different subjects
Biology EE RPP exemplar - 5 marks
History EE RPP exemplar 1 - 5 marks
History EE RPP exemplar 2 - 4 marks
Lang & Lit EE RPP exemplar 1 - 3 marks
Lang & Lit EE RPP exemplar 2 - 4 marks
Lang & Lit EE RPP exemplar 3 - 3 marks
Math EE RPP exemplar 1 - 3 marks
Math EE RPP exemplar 2 - 4 marks
Visual Arts EE RPP exemplar 1 - 3 marks
Visual Arts EE RPP exemplar 2 - 4 marks
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