recent posts
- From instructors and Powerpoint and whiteboards to mentors: The human future of teaching in an AI-rich world
- The crisis nobody’s talking about (but every IBDP teacher should be)
- The social media ban: A Trojan Horse for digital IDs
- Walking your way through CAS
- Europe’s crisis: Demographics and an imminent banking catastrophe
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Why is statistical scaling still used? All IB assessments—whether exams, internal assessments, Theory of Knowledge essays, Extended Essays, or CAS—are assessed using clearly defined criteria. These describe what a student must demonstrate to achieve a particular level of performance. For example, a criterion might state: “The student evaluates the implications of cultural dimensions on behaviour.”…
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Many of us in IB classrooms are noticing an increase in students using AI to ‘assist’ wirh their IAs, Extended Essays, and TOK essays. But the question isn’t how do we stop students using AI? The better question is: why are they turning to it in the first place? In most cases, AI use is…
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It’s time we moved beyond the blanket blame game that often paints boys and men as inherently problematic. The phrase “toxic masculinity” has become a catch-all for behaviors and attitudes that are, in many cases, symptoms of deeper social failures — not innate traits of maleness. Rather than pathologizing boys for being boys, we need…
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While much attention has been given to the mental health struggles of teenage girls in the UK — often rightly so — there is growing concern that boys’ mental health needs are being neglected in schools due to a focus on targeted support for girls. Pseudo-reality television programmes like Adolescence do nothing for the mental…
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As a teacher, I’ve seen my share of tense parent-school exchanges. But the recent case in Hertfordshire, England, where two parents were arrested after expressing concerns about their daughter’s school in a private WhatsApp group, is beyond belief. Let’s pause for a moment: this didn’t happen in Myanmar or Russia. This happened in 2025 Britain.…
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Reposting from the British Psychological Society… When we are interested in cause and effect relationships (which is much of the time!) we have two options: We can simply observe the world to identify associations between X and Y, or we can randomise people to different levels of X and then measure Y. The former –…
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As technology advances, schools and universities are increasingly challenged to keep pace, but they are struggling. Technology affects learning, teaching, assessment, and… academic honesty. While digital tools, artificial intelligence, and online platforms may offer some benefits, they also raise questions about how schools (and colleges/universities) manage human behavior—especially when it comes to dishonesty. ChatGPT can…
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Thinking Thursday is our weekly slot for Theory of knowledge thinking. UN-truth? Was Orwell some kind of fortune teller? UN chief António Guterres (secretary-general of the United Nations) has said this week: “Digital platforms are being misused to subvert science and spread disinformation and hate to billions of people. This clear and present global threat…
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Research into how multilingual people manage multiple languages in their minds is fascinating and sometimes surprising. When a multilingual person speaks, all the languages they know can actually be active at once, even if only one language is being used. These languages can sometimes “intrude” unexpectedly, showing up not just in occasional vocabulary mix-ups, but…
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New Zealand has a school attendance problem. No, it’s not a problem, it’s a… Some have muttered ‘Covid-19 lockdowns’, but no, the crisis was apparent well before the grubby little virus appeared and way ahead of the lockdowns. Some think it has a lot more to do with New Zealand’s dumbed down curriculum, its decades-old…
I think, therefore IB 