The Gap That Defines IB Teaching

The Gap That Defines

IB Teaching

March 14, 2025

In 2019, when I first started thinking about expanding my professional work beyond the classroom—leading IB Economics and IB Core workshops for teachers around the world—I spent a lot of time reflecting on what it is that we actually do as IB educators.

I started thinking about the process that every IB teacher goes through each year, especially in the early stages of their career.

The IB provides us with a subject guide—a comprehensive document that lays out everything students must learn in our courses. And within that subject guide, we get mark schemes that show how student work will be assessed—how IB examiners will grade Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3, the Internal Assessment, or in the case of Theory of Knowledge, Essay and Exhibition.

At first glance, this might seem like everything we need to do our jobs well.

But then I had a realization.

The Gap Between What the IB Tells Us and How We Actually Teach

The IB does an exceptional job of giving us two things:

What we must teach—the required content and concepts in our subject.
What criteria will be used to assess—the mark schemes IB examiners use.

But the IB tells us very little about how to actually teach it.

I remember thinking about this like I was holding two solid bookends, one in each hand—on one side, the content requirements; on the other side, the assessment criteria. But in between my hands was this huge, open space.

That space?

That’s the gap.

It’s the space between what students need to know and how we as teachers actually get them there.

And in that moment, I realized something: this gap is where our professional expertise lives.

Why This Realization Changed How I See IB Teaching

As soon as I saw this gap in my IB Economics classroom, I started seeing it everywhere.

In Theory of Knowledge, the IB tells me what students need to explore and how they’ll be assessed on the exhibition and essay—but it doesn’t tell me how to teach the course effectively.
As an Extended Essay Coordinator, the IB provides clear guidelines on how the essay is structured and assessed—but it doesn’t tell me how to run an effective EE program or support supervisors.
And the same applies to IB Coordinators, CAS Coordinators, and every IB teacher out there.

In every role, we are left to figure out the “how” on our own.

And honestly?

I think that’s one of the most professionally enriching aspects of working in the IB.

Because this gap—the space where content meets pedagogy—is where we get to bring in our creativity, our expertise, and our professional judgment to shape the student experience in meaningful ways.

Why This Gap Became the Foundation of My Workshops

When I realized this, it became the foundation for every IB Economics and IB Core workshop I’ve ever designed.

Instead of just focusing on what the IB says we have to teach, my workshops focus on how to actually do it in the classroom.

How to effectively teach IB Economics so that students not only understand the content but develop the skills they need for success.
How to structure and manage an Extended Essay program that truly supports students and supervisors.
How to build IB Core systems that actually work in a school setting.

Because that’s the missing piece. That’s what so many IB educators struggle with—not what to teach, but how to teach it well.

What This Means for You

I invite you to think about your own role in the IB.

Where do you see the gap between IB expectations and classroom reality?
How do you bridge that gap for your students?
What strategies have you developed to make IB teaching more effective and manageable?

Because whether you realize it or not, we are all gap-fillers.

Our job as IB educators is to take what the IB provides and turn it into something that actually works in the classroom—something that helps students not just learn, but truly understand, apply, and succeed.

And that work?

That’s where the real power of IB teaching happens.

Be good out there.

I’ll see you next week.