The Five Essential Skills of IB Economics

The Five Essential Skills of IB Economics

May 24, 2024

This week I’m going to share with you the Five Essential Skills for student success in IB Economics—not just on the IB Exam, but in life too.

Once I realized that my primary responsibility as an IB Economics teacher was to teach skills and not just content, my whole classroom approach shifted.

These five skills aren’t random either. They are built directly from the skills students need to be successful on Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3, and the Internal Assessment

Unfortunately, no one told me this in my first couple of years teaching IB Economics.

Teaching IB Economics is hard in the beginning.

Here are five reasons why it was so hard for me:

I was learning much of the content for the first time.
I was teaching alongside two very experienced teachers and I felt intimidated.
I lacked the practical training I needed to feel fully confident in the classroom.
I had no idea if what I was teaching in my daily lessons was actually preparing these kids for the IB Exam.
I was tired from getting up at 4:00 AM to practice drawing diagrams.

I could go on and on. Those are just the first five that came to mind.

So much of what I do in my trainings and writings is to help IB Economics teachers avoid so much of the stress that I experienced when I was new to this gig.

So, years later here’s my take on the Five Essential Skills students need for success on the IB Exam.

Essential Skill #1: The Language

Teach the language often. Meaning every single day. If IB Economics students can't talk the talk of being an economist, they are lost from the get-go.

So, how are you going to do this?

Simple.

Literally, simply. Create a separate list of Key Terms and Concepts for every chapter of the IB Economics curriculum. Use the IB Glossary of Economic Terms as your guide.

Don't get fancy.

As I used to say to my students, "Look, we're going 6th grade memorization mode here." There is a time for rote memorization. Quiz them often.

My model is this:

Create a list of Key Terms and Concepts.
Hand it out on day one of every unit.
Quiz twice a unit on known days (don't do pop quizzes, they're stupid).
The quiz is just five terms. No word bank. No matching.
Answers must be in complete sentences.

I told you. 6th grade stuff.

But it's about language acquisition. Learning IB Economics is like learning a new language. This is how you learn a second or third language.

You start with memorizing words and you build from there. So, go 6th grade mode, and know that you are preparing them for excellence on the IB Exam.

Sounds manageable, right? It is.

Essential Skill #2: The Calculations

Teach the calculations in context this is key. Why? Because the goal is to analyze, not do math.

IB Economics is a relational economic theory course.

So, let's say it like it is...

IB Economics is light on math. And I love this. It makes the course material more accessible and more relevant to students' lives.

That said, you still gotta teach the calculations.

But do it in context.

Always.

Why? Because ultimately the students must understand the meaning of what they are calculating and be able to express it in written form.

So, having students memorize the calculations outside of the context of the economic policy being discussed won't prepare them for the IB Exam.

Teach them as you move through the course material.

Stop when they come up.

And aim for mastery.

These are easy marks on Paper 2 and Paper 3.

Be strategic in the way that you teach—especially with The Calculations

Essential Skill #3: The Diagrams

Teach IB Economics through the diagrams. Did you hear that?

It’s about the diagrams. They are literally the cheat sheets that lead to all the other skills.

They are your students’ best friends when it comes to preparation for the IB Exam.

This is why I didn’t sleep much during my first year teaching IB Economics. These you have to know cold.

If you are a converted history teacher, this will be new to you, because there actually are answers you gotta know—that was a steep learning curve for me.

Being able to effectively draw the diagrams is the most important of the Five Essential Skills we teach in IB Economics.

Why?

Because they tell the story of the economic situation that we are trying to analyze and evaluate.

So, here’s my biggest piece of advice!

Teach the base diagrams.

Until mastery.

Here's why: Nearly all of the 90+ Diagrams taught in IB Economics are born of these 7 Base Diagrams:

Microeconomics – Base Diagrams
- Demand & Supply Diagram – “Rule of 11”
- Market Failure Base Diagram – it’s just a renamed “Rule of 11”
Market Power – Base Diagrams
- Price Taker’s Profit Diagram
- Price Maker’s Profit Diagram
Macroeconomics – Base Diagrams
- Neoclassical Aggregate Demand & Aggregate Supply Diagram - “Rule of 10”
- Keynesian Aggregate Demand & Aggregate Supply Diagram - “Rule of 9”
The Global Economy International Economics – Base Diagram
- The Free Trade Diagram

From each of these base diagrams add “an event” (a shift of one of the curves) and you will have the indirect tax diagram, the per-unit subsidy diagram, the demand-pull inflation diagram, the protective tariff diagram, etc.

This technique moves kids away from memorization and towards truly understanding how these diagrams behave.

And if they can see that, well then, there’s their analysis paragraph written right there.

Which ties into the next Essential Skill.

Essential Skill #4: The Analysis

Make no mistake about it. Writing in IB Economics is technical writing.

Trained writing. Practiced writing.

As I’ve said to my students for years, “Writing in IB Economics is more similar to a lab report in biology class than it is to writing an essay in history class."

It’s true.

This is also where the Essential Skills for knowing the language and the diagrams come together.

What the analysis should do is explain two things clearly:

The base diagram.
The “event” or change.

The “event” is what happened to the diagram after the tax or monetary policy or tariff, etc., was put into place.

That’s the shift of one of those curves.

That’s what they write about using the economic language for the course.

This is their Analysis.

Here’s the structure that I teach for Paper 1 Part (a).

Here is the structure on Paper 2 Parts c, d, e, and f:

This structure was a game changer in my teaching. It gave me a structure to teach to.

The kids love it.

If you like it, snag it. Use it. Adopt it.

That’s why I’m sharing.

Here’s a downloadable version of each document: Paper 1 and Paper 2.

Essential Skill #5: The Evaluation

This is the most difficult skill to teach. By far. In fact, I was terrible at it in the beginning. But what I lacked was a sound structure for kids to follow.

I teach something I call the “Two-Hands” evaluation method.

It’s pretty simple and based on the premise that for any given economic problem there are two options the government has to address it—fiscal policy vs. monetary policy, for example.

Here’s a list of possible “two-hands” that I provide my students:

Short-Run vs. Long-Run
Advantages vs. Disadvantages
Interventionist vs. Market Based
Fiscal Policy vs. Monetary Policy
Demand-Side Policies vs. Supply-Side Policies
Free Trade vs. Protectionism
To What extent…

All of these push kids to think about the multitude of options there are to address an economic situation in the marketplace.

And, each of the “hands” creates a paragraph for the student to evaluate the effectiveness (or not) of the economic policy.

Here’s the structure that I teach for Paper 1 Part (b) and Paper 2 Part (g):

This evaluation structure was a game-changer in my teaching. It gave me a structure to teach to for the most difficult marks to earn on the mark scheme.

If you like it, snag it. Use it. Adopt it. That’s why I’m sharing.

Here’s a downloadable version.

Conclusion

Do this. Focus on these Five Essential Skills in your teaching. Every day.

In your daily lessons, if you are overtly teaching at least ONE of these Five Essential Skills, you are doing the right thing.

Remember that. It's empowering.

If you are new to teaching this wonderful course, smile because you are years ahead of where I was when I set out on this journey.

And if you are experienced, I hope these tips helped you hone and clarify your craft.

After all, aren’t we all in this together?

I think so.

Have a good week my friends.