IB MYP- Individuals & Societies
The MYP individuals and societies subject group incorporates disciplines traditionally studied under humanities and social sciences. This subject group encourages learners to respect and understand the world around them, and equips them with the necessary skills to inquire into historical, geographical, political, social, economic, and cultural factors that affect individuals, societies and environments.
The study of individuals and societies helps students to appreciate critically the diversity of human culture, attitudes and beliefs. Courses in this subject group are important for helping students to recognize that both content and methodology can be debatable and controversial, and for practising the tolerance of uncertainty.
In this subject group, students collect, describe and analyse data used in studies of societies, test hypotheses, and learn how to interpret complex information, including original source material. This focus on real-world examples, research and analysis is an essential aspect of the subject group.
Aims of the Course
According to the official subject brief, the aims of the course are-
• Appreciate human and environmental commonalities and diversity
• Understand the interactions and interdependence of individuals, societies and the environment
• Understand how both environmental and human systems operate and evolve
• Identify and develop concern for the well-being of human communities and the natural environment
• Act as responsible citizens of local and global communities
• Develop inquiry skills that lead towards conceptual understandings of the relationships between individuals, societies and the environments in which they live.
Curriculum Overview
For MYP individuals and societies, schools develop courses in integrated humanities, history, economics, geography, philosophy, sociology/anthropology, business management, psychology, and world religions. The MYP promotes inquiry in these subjects by developing conceptual understanding within global contexts. Key concepts such as change, global interactions, time, place and space, and systems broadly frame the MYP curriculum.
Related concepts promote deeper learning grounded in specific disciplines. Examples of related concepts in MYP individual and societies include causality, globalization, culture and sustainability. Students explore key and related concepts through MYP global contexts.
• Identities and relationships
• Orientation in space and time
• Personal and cultural expression
• Scientific and technical innovation
• Globalization and sustainability
• Fairness and development
The MYP curriculum framework offers schools flexibility to determine engaging, relevant, challenging and significant content that meets local and national curriculum requirements. This inquiry-based curriculum explores factual, conceptual and debatable questions in the study of individuals and societies.
The MYP requires at least 50 hours of teaching time for each subject area in each year of the programme. For students participating in MYP eAssessment, the IB recommends 70 hours of guided learning each year in MYP years 4 and 5.
Assessment Criteria
According to the IB website, each individuals and societies objective corresponds to one of four equally weighted assessment criteria. Each criterion has eight possible achievement levels (1–8), divided into four bands with unique descriptors that teachers use to make judgments about students’ work.
Criterion A: Knowing and understanding
Students develop factual and conceptual knowledge about individuals and societies.
Criterion B: Investigating
Students develop systematic research skills and processes associated with disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. Students develop successful strategies for investigating independently and in collaboration with others.
Criterion C: Communicating
Students develop skills to organize, document and communicate their learning using a variety of media and presentation formats.
Criterion D: Thinking critically
Students use critical-thinking skills to develop and apply their understanding of individuals and societies and the process of investigation.
eAssessment
Students seeking IB MYP course results or the IB MYP certificate must demonstrate their achievement of the subject group’s objectives by completing an end-of-course on-screen examination. On-screen examinations are formal external examinations, and are available in history, geography and integrated humanities.
Topics explored in MYP individuals and societies on-screen examinations include:
• Demographics and human movements
• Settlement and urban morphology
• Superpowers, empires, and supra-national alliances and organizations
• Significant individuals
• Warfare and peacekeeping
• Rights and social protest
• Trade, aid and exchange
• Economic agents and their interests and role in the economy: consumers, producers, governments, banks
• Measurements and trends
• Ecological relationships
• Industrialization and technological developments.
Examination blueprints define the structure of tasks that simulate, replicate and sample formative internal assessments. In MYP individuals and societies courses, on-screen examinations comprise three tasks.
These tasks are-
1. Engagement with sources
Assesses students’ ability to use sources to- identify key ideas/points; find contradictory evidence; find a counterclaim; and identify the origin, purpose, value and limitations to compare and contrast or evaluate values and limitations of sources.
(Criteria A and D)
Marks- 30
2. Investigation
Assesses students’ ability to use a variety of sources to respond to structured questions.
(Criteria B and C)
Marks- 30
3. Extended response
Assesses students’ ability to engage in the activity of producing a piece of extended writing or communicating creatively.
(Criteria A, B, C and D)
Marks- 60
MYP individuals and societies on-screen examinations are aligned with understanding and skills that prepare students for high levels of achievement in IB Diploma Programme courses in individuals and societies.
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