REFLECTIONS

Reflection, through the act of writing, gives students the ability to record and structure experience and to make sense of the world. They take ownership of their experiences and discover a voice with which to communicate experience and thought.

This notion of voice is referred to in assessment criterion E (engagement). Our personal voice is related to the way we perceive and describe experience and the words that we use to communicate thought and feeling.

The written reflection captures thought and also enables us to formulate thought.

The act of writing becomes not only an act of memory, remembering and recounting, but also an act of becoming.

We develop not only our understandings as we write, but our identity, too.

This initial reflection session should be a dialogue between the student and the supervisor based on the student’s initial explorations. It is recommended that the student sends their supervisor an outline of their research proposal ahead of the meeting in order to give the supervisor the opportunity to review their work. This will ensure that the reflection session is focused and productive. 

Topics of discussion that should arise during this session include:

• a review of the requirements and assessment criteria for the subject

• a review of ethical and legal implications, if applicable

• a dialogue about possible approaches and any potential problems that might arise

• a discussion of strategies for developing the student’s ideas for the essay and expanding the research so that the essay starts to take form

• probing and challenging questions that will help the student focus their thinking; this should lead to the development of the student’s working research question

• an outline of the next steps that the student should undertake in order to refine their question; this should take the form of a research and writing timeline.

This session is a continuation of the dialogue between supervisor and student in which the student must demonstrate the progress they have made in their research. They must also be able to discuss any challenges they have encountered, offer their own potential solutions and seek advice as necessary.

During this session the supervisor might discuss:

• a completed piece of sustained writing from the student in order to ensure that they understand the academic writing requirements, including referencing formats

• whether an appropriate range of sources has been accessed and how the student is critically evaluating the origin of those sources

• what the student now has to do in order to produce the full draft of their essay, and ways and means of breaking down the task into manageable steps.

By the end of the interim reflection session both student and supervisor should feel satisfied that there is:

• a clear and refined research question

• a viable argument on which to base the essay

• a sufficient range of appropriate sources

• a clear vision for the final steps in the writing process.

The viva voce is a short interview between the student and the supervisor, and is the mandatory conclusion to the extended essay process. Students who do not attend the viva voce will be disadvantaged under criterion E (engagement) as the Reflections on planning and progress form will be incomplete.

The viva voce is conducted once the student has submitted the final version of their extended essay. At this point in the process no further changes can be made to the essay. The viva voce is a celebration of the completion of the essay and a reflection on what the student has learned from the process.

The viva voce is:

• an opportunity to ask the student a variety of open-ended questions to elicit holistic evidence of the student’s learning experience.

• an opportunity for the supervisor to confirm the authenticity of the student’s ideas and sources

• an opportunity to reflect on successes and difficulties encountered in the research process

• an aid to the supervisor’s comments on the Reflections on planning and progress form.

The viva voce should last 20–30 minutes. This is included in the recommended amount of time a supervisor should spend with the student.

In conducting the viva voce and writing their comments on the Reflections on planning and progress form, supervisors should bear in mind the following:

• The form is an assessed part of the extended essay. The form must include: comments made by the supervisor that are reflective of the discussions undertaken with the student during their supervision/reflection sessions; the student’s comments; and the supervisor’s overall impression of the student’s engagement with the research process.

• An incomplete form resulting from supervisors not holding reflection sessions, or students not attending them, could lead to criterion E (engagement) being compromised.

• In assessing criterion E (engagement), examiners will take into account any information given on the form by the student about unusual intellectual inventiveness. This is especially the case if the student is able to demonstrate what has been learned as a result of this process or the skills developed.

• Examiners want to know that students understand any material (which must be properly referenced) that they have included in their essays. If the way the material is used in context in the essay does not clearly establish this, the supervisor can check the student’s understanding in the viva voce and comment on this on the Reflections on planning and progress form.

• If there appear to be major shortcomings in citations or referencing, the supervisor should investigate thoroughly. No essay should be authenticated if the supervisor believes the student may be guilty of plagiarism or some other form of academic misconduct.

• The comment made by the supervisor should not attempt to do the examiner’s job. It should refer to things, largely process-related, that may not be obvious in the essay itself.

• Unless there are particular problems, the viva voce should begin and end positively. Completion of a major piece of work such as the extended essay is a great achievement for students.