It has taken me far too long to return to this topic – and much has evolved in my EPQ and HPQ teaching over that time. Not least, I have switched my teaching of citing and referencing from using the tools in Word to using the online tool Zotero (Zo-TER-o). Since the implications of that go far beyond Projects Qualifications, I have made a new Topic for it here.

However, in the original spirit of this Topic I wanted to continue with lessons I have learnt over the years from teaching the HPQ and EPQ. I am now teaching my third HPQ cohort (and sixth EPQ), following a number of years supporting the IB EE, and every year that support evolves based on lessons I have learnt from the previous cohort.

Lesson 2: Even independent learning qualifications (and coursework) need regular homework to be set and checked

It’s easy to think that because the EPQ and HPQ are independent qualifications, students need to be entirely free to organise the pace of their own work so we shouldn’t set ‘homework’ as such because that will interfere with their ability to organise their own time. In the early days of supporting the Projects Qualifications I was wary of setting work because I worried that it would leave students no time to follow their plans. I have come to realise both that there are certain tasks that everyone needs to get done, so setting clear deadlines throughout the process makes sure these are not rushed at the end, and that if I don’t set weekly homework on Teams it is harder for students to remember and prioitise their EPQ/HPQ work among all the other subjects that are setting regular homework deadlines.

I now set a Teams assignment every week for both EPQ and HPQ. Sometime this does just say ‘Follow your plan for this week’, but some weeks it will also include points like:

• ‘Make sure your source evaluation chart is up-to-date’
• or ‘Make a list of the main points in your argument and note how many ‘for’ and ‘against’ sources you have for each’.
• or ‘Check your plan is up to date and that you have been monitoring your progress’

I find it is not effective if I always include the same tasks. Students take (for example) updating their source evaluation charts more seriously if I ask them to do this specifically every now and then, rather than leaving it on a ‘to do every week’ list. It also helps if I follow up by checking that it has been done! Of course at certain points the homework will also include Production Log deadlines. Some weeks we will end a lesson with a quick (written) reality check, where I ask students to check their own plans, see if they are up-to-date and list their main priorities for that week.

All this seems obvious from a teaching perspective – students do their homework when it is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timed (and when there is accountability). From a Projects/ Coursework perspective we often leave those same students to their own devices for long periods and are then surprised when we get to the end and they haven’t been keeping up with their work – and sometimes end up with huge amounts to do at the last minute.

How many adults have the discipline to always make regular time every week for a long-term project that we know is only due in a year’s time, alongside a bunch of urgent tasks that are due tomorrow or next week (and that we know others will be clamouring for if we don’t do them)?

We all function better with smaller tasks and relatively short deadlines – and part of the Projects Qualifications is teaching students how to break a larger project down to achieve this. We shouldn’t expect them to immediately have the maturity to ‘just get on with it’ by themselves without regular accountability – and accountability isn’t just a quick ‘how are you getting on?’ check-in every now and then which is easy to blag. We should be expecting to see tangible evidence of progress, while recognising that long-term inquiry can appear to happen in fits and starts as it requires thinking time, during which tangible evidence can sometimes seem sparse.

I would also note that it seems to me to be common for subject teachers in subjects with a coursework component that runs alongside a taught (examined) component to set students going and then leave them to it without regular accountability checks. This is really challenging for students to manage alongside other, more pressing, homework demands and it is unsurprising that under these circumstances some students leave the coursework to the last minute and struggle with issues such as plagiarism and AI use. In that respect even something as basic as the Projects Qualifications Production Log would offer more structure.

I would be interested to hear from others: How do you introduce regular accoutability into your EPQ / HPQ / coursework without compromising students’ independence?