Brad Cartwright

Getting the Extended Essay Reflection Process Right

May 3, 2024

This week I'm going share with you a detailed breakdown of the importance of the Reflection Process for the Extended Essay 

The Reflections are a critical piece of the overall score a student receives on his or her Extended Essay and they are actually one of the places where Supervisors can have the biggest impact.

Unfortunately, often students miss earning these easy marks because Supervisors aren’t aware of how they can help.

Here’s why this is often the case:

• Lack of training for Supervisors
• Focus on the content of the paper over the process
• Underestimation of the reflections’ impact on the overall marks earned
• Time constraints of the Supervisors and the students
• The perception of the reflection as a formality rather than a critical requirement
• Not realizing that the Supervisor Comments are also part of the Reflection process

But with a little bit of thought, experience, and discernment, you realize that the IB actually gives you all of the information you need to thrive in this context. 

Let’s first take a look at the mark scheme.  Here’s a complete downloadable version too.

 

 

As you can see, there are a total of 34 marks on the Extended Essay.  

Now look at Criterion E: Engagement.  

• Those six marks are awarded based on the quality of the student’s reflections at three distinct moments of the Extended Essay process, the beginning, middle, and end.  
• The reflections therefore are called The Initial, The Interim, and The Final reflection. 
• That is 18% of the total marks available for the Extended Essay.  

 

Hence, we must know this as Supervisors because it is here that can have an enormous impact on the student’s overall score on the Extended Essay.     

And frankly, it’s not that difficult to be good at this.  We just have to lead them well.

Here’s how we are going to do this…

Breaking down the phases of the Reflection Process

Step #1:  Understanding the Mark Scheme 

Here is what the marks scheme says for Criterion E: Engagement, “This criterion assesses the student’s engagement with their research focus and the research process.” 

Engagement.  

Engagement. 

Engagement.  

It’s all about the student writing about his or her own engagement in the EE process.  

Where? In their three reflections: The Initial, The Interim, and The Final.  

Let’s take a look at the actual mark scheme and how these marks are awarded:

 

 

First, what’s the difference between earning marks in the different mark bands?  It’s the difference between being descriptive, analytical, or evaluative.  

Get this super clear in your head, these reflections are evaluative.  

Not descriptive.  Not analytical. 

They are evaluative, which means they evaluate how the student has managed the two specific processes—the research focus and the research process.

The mark scheme distinctly identifies these two processes for the kid to evaluate:  

• Process 1: The Research Focus Process which I define as the windy road process to arrive at the research question.
• Process 2: The overall Research Process which is the linear process of going from the beginning to the end of the EE process.  

Knowing this about the mark scheme is critical to understand as a Supervisor because they need you to be super clear at every step of the way.

Step #2.  The Interview Process 

The interviews are meant to stimulate evaluative thought for students to be written into the reflections that correspond to each interview.  These interviews are not about the paper, they are about the process.

Did you read that? 

They are about the process not about the paper.  

That is huge.

There are three formal Interviews throughout the Extended Essay process

1. The Initial Interview a few weeks into the process
2. The Interim Interview is roughly in the middle of the process
3. The Final Interview or Viva Voce after the student has submitted their Essay.

 

Our task as Supervisors is to structure interviews so that students discuss with you their personal engagement, intellectual initiative, intellectual creativity, and response to challenges faced resulting in positive outcomes.  

I stole that wording from the mark scheme. Essentially these interviews are for students to capture moments ideal for inclusion in their written reflection.

Here are the four questions/prompts I use for every formal Interview:

1. What challenges have you met in this phase of the process?  Write them down.
2. How did you overcome those challenges specifically?  Write those down.
3. Think of three positively leaning adjectives to describe how you overcame those challenges.  Write them down.  Those are your judgments.
4. Write a sentence that captures how you are “proud” of how you overcame each of those challenges using those adjectives.

 

Here are a few follow up questions I have found effective: 

• How did that lead to personal growth?
• How did that lead to personal development?
• How did that improve your engagement in the process?  
• What would you do differently if I had a chance”?
• What did you learn?”
• What did you do well?”

Boom!

Done.  Necessary information for an effective evaluative reflection is complete and written down by the student.

 

Step #3.  The Writing Process 

This portion of the process is done differently at schools around the world.  We always utilized our Theory of Knowledge teachers to teach these writing strategies.  

Let’s go back to the purpose of these reflections according to the mark scheme:

• To write an evaluative reflection on decision-making and planning that shows student’s capacity to respond to challenges in the research process.
• To write an evaluative reflection that communicates a high degree of intellectual and personal engagement with the research focus and process of research, that demonstrates intellectual initiative and a creative approach to solutions.

 

Here's a big piece of advice for you…

The IB loves their words, so use them!

Students should literally only use the IB’s words from the mark scheme in their reflections.  

What does the mark scheme say?

 

 

Here’s the takeaway from this.

Students when sitting down to write their reflections should begin with two distinct parts:  

Student Engagement with the overall Extended Essay Process

• Show how the student reflects and refines the process
• Show how the student reacts to insights from the research question
• Evaluate decisions made in the research process and make improvements 
  

Student Engagement with the process of finding Research Focus and Research Question

• Show insights into student’s thinking, initiative, and creative approach to the research process
• Show that it was a student-driven process – the student “voice” is the loudest
• Show an excitement or the thrill of the twists and turns of the research process 

 

Last Big Thought and Takeaway on the Writing Process.  

Teach the writing of the reflections overtly.  Do not assume the kid is going to know how to be evaluative rather than analytical or descriptive.

Lastly, the key word here is engagement.  I have students use that word as many times as they can in their reflections.  

The IB loves their words.  Use them. 

Here’s my writing structure if you want to use it:

 

 

Step #4.  The Supervisor Comments 

Don’t underestimate the importance of these words about the kid!  They are incredibly important and are available to for the examiner to read.  

Here are some guidelines for writing effective Supervisor Comments.

• The purpose of the Supervisor’s comments is to create context for the Examiner to understand the student’s research process and engagement in the entirety of the Extended Essay process.
• Therefore, they are critically important to support your Advisee.
• They should be written only after the Final Interview and Reflection have been submitted.
• They are meant to be summative in nature.
• They should reflect the whole process and the student’s own reflections. 
• So, be sure to read all three of the student’s reflections first.
• The comments are about the student’s process, not the essay itself, and are meant to provide supporting evidence and context for the Examiner.

 

Where does that leave us?  

I hope you are feeling better prepared and more informed to on the importance of the Reflection Process on the overall outcome of an Extended Essay.  

This process is really important, as you can tell.

As I have said many times, I love supervising the Extended Essay.  

I love the journey.  

I love watching my students mature and evolve over the year-long process. 

And most of all, I love what I learn from these kid’s papers!  It’s why I have loved being the Extended Essay Coordinator all of these years.

Wishing you the best and I hope you found this week’s newsletter helpful to the great work you do out there!

See you next week!

Brad