Suggestions for how to undertake internal standardization

In one way this is slightly easier than under the old programme as there is only one piece of work to be standardized, in another way it is harder. This is because the marking is ‘best fit’ and each piece of work will be very different whereas previously many students were doing similar or identical practicals and more of a ‘tick list’ approach could be applied.

There are several different ways in which internal standardization can be achieved. Each have their advantages and disadvantages and the way you choose may depend upon several factors. These include the total number of students submitting an Individual Scientific Investigation, the number of teachers who have been involved in teaching the SL and HL chemistry classes and the experience of the chemistry teachers involved.

1. All involved teachers mark all the investigations

Once all the completed investigations have been handed in each teacher marks them and the average mark is taken. The advantages include the fact that all the work has been seen and assessed by all the teachers. The main disadvantage is that with large cohorts a lot of marking for each teacher is involved. There is also the problem about which teacher will make written comments regarding how the marks have been arrived at on each student’s investigation. It is not mandatory that comments are made but it does help the external moderators if they can see some evidence of how the teachers have arrived at their marks. It might be confusing though if several teachers, rather than just one, make the comments.

2. One teacher marks all the investigations

This places a lot of work on one particular teacher but has the advantage that the same one person is marking all the work. You might consider this way if one of the teachers is much more experienced than the others in the department. For example, he or she may be retained by the IB as an IA moderator and have undergone examiner training or at least have experience of attending an IA workshop where their standard of marking was in line with the ‘official’ IB standard. Provided he or she is consistent then it is fair to the students although possibly some unintentional bias may creep in, as they will be more familiar with their own students’ work and idiosyncrasies than the work of students they do not teach. It does mean a lot of work for one person, as they will also have to write the comments on all the students’ investigation too.

3. The ‘ideal’ way?

This may be the best way in terms of both genuine standardization and training to ensure that all the Diploma chemistry teachers in the school are marking to the same standard. Once all the investigations have been written and handed in, all the teachers mark two or three of the investigations. The teachers then compare their marking and discuss fully how they have awarded their marks. They then repeat the exercise with two or three more students’ investigations. Hopefully they will be in much closer agreement as they are now applying a similar standard. Once everyone is happy that they are all marking to approximately the same standard each teacher then marks their own students’ investigations and writes comments on their own students’ work. This has the advantage that after going through the process the teachers are all marking to approximately the same agreed standard and so the exercise does not necessarily have to be repeated every year. It does assume though that every teacher can consistently apply the same standard even though the investigations may be very different, particularly when some may be ‘hands on’ and others may rely solely on secondary data.