Humanities

Paul Murphy Head of Dept

MYP Humanities Philosophy Statement

At IST we are part of a diverse multicultural community of learners. Living and studying in Tanzania gives our students a valuable opportunity to experience first hand the many challenges facing the developing world today. As Humanities teachers, we believe that we play a unique role in the development of respect for different values, beliefs, cultures and ideas. Our aim is to promote self-awareness, knowledge, empathy for and understanding of the world’s people. We also seek to encourage students to adopt a proactive role in addressing environmental issues.

In consideration of students’ diverse learning styles, we employ various teaching and assessment strategies to ensure that all of our students have an opportunity to learn and demonstrate understanding. Our teaching methods develop students’ ability to express ideas clearly, think critically and acquire the skills needed to become rational, tolerant and responsible citizens of the world.

Humanities Aims and Goals

The students will:

• Develop an awareness of the world as a set of interdependent systems that undergo constant change.
• Appreciate how systems are shaped by the values of interacting groups, the individual, family and community.
• Be encouraged to gain an understanding of different societies and cultures and place them in a geographical, historical and socio-economic framework.
• Understand the rights and responsibilities of individuals as part of a community.
• Investigate the local environment to develop curiosity for, understanding of and a positive attitude towards Tanzania.
• Demonstrate self-awareness and critically reflect on their own learning and that of others to assess progress and identify future goals.
• Develop skills of research, organization, interpretation, critical evaluation and the ability communicate ideas effectively.
• Demonstrate an awareness of and respect for the differences that exist in a multicultural community and show sensitivity towards beliefs and values of others.

The Humanities MYP Curriculum

In grades 6 – 8 students are taught the key skills of geography, history and sociology through classes of Integrated Humanities. The main units of study are as follows:

Grade 6: Weather, Map Skills, Plate Tectonics, Historical Trade in East Africa, The Tools of the Historian.

Grade 7: Map Skills, Ancient Greece, Rivers and Erosion, Ancient Rome and the Rise of Christianity and Islam, the Middle Ages.

Grade 8: Mapping Skills, Culture, the Renaissance, Tourism, World Food Project.

Grade 9: Mapping and Cartography, Human Aggression, The Last Century, Development Challenge, Revolutions.

Grade 10: Oceans, African History, Dar es Salaam, The Lithosphere, South African History, Globalisation.

Grades 6, 7, 8 and 10 receive 5 periods (40 minutes) of instructions per week. Grade 9 receives 6 periods per week.

A range of teaching strategies are used including the research using the WWW, project work, individual and group work, presentations, essay writing, fieldwork, tests and quizzes. There are a variety of textbooks, videos and other resources available throughout the grades. Curriculum review and revision is done on a yearly basis.

Each unit is assessed using a wide range of formative and summative assessment tasks including tests, homework, research papers, presentations, poster work, extended writing assignments and project work. Each term a report is completed for each student.

Humanities in the IB Diploma Curriculum

In Group 3 of the IB Diploma students at IST can select between the following subjects at either Higher or Standard level:

• Economics
• Geography
• History
• Psychology

Details of each of these courses can be found in the IB Diploma Courses Handbook or on this website.