Teaching Order

So, you, are a new teacher and need to teach IB for the first time.

What do you teach first? For many teachers (probably all teachers) you will beginning with one of three topics….

… either Topic 1 (Quantitative Chemistry), Topic 2 (atomic Structure) or Topic 11 (Measurement and Data Processing).

All of these topics have some merit going first and there is no hard and fast answer to what you should do first. The needs of your students will probably also dictate this.

In my experience, I have taught both topic 1 and topic 2 first. On reflection, I think it is better to go with topic 1 first as I found some of the Atomic Structure detail was just a case of ‘too much too soon’ for many students.

However, during my teaching of topic 1 I would, at the appropriate time, intersperse topic 11 as I began to introduce IA to the students as well.

This was also another reason for starting with topic 1 first, it gives the earliest opportunity to start IA work with the students and again, form experience, the sooner you start IA the better.

Your tohughts on this posting would be most welcome….:mrgreen: