Personal Project: Identifying Suitable Goals

Supporting Rigorous Inquiry

Both product and learning goals should support significant growth and development for students while also being personally meaningful to them. Often students need support and guidance in working towards suitably challenging goals that offer meaningful opportunities for personal growth and achievement.

First Steps

Below are ideas to help students define their projects at initial stages:

• What have you always wanted to do?
• What do you do in your free time?
• What would you like to do in your free time?
• What IB learner profile attribute best describes you?
• What IB learner profile attribute would you like to develop?
• Which global context exploration interests you the most?
• Which interdisciplinary or design project interested you the most?
• Which experience of service as action did you find the most satisfying?
• What problem within your community most affects you?
• Which is your favorite academic discipline?
• Which research project would you like to develop?

Developing Meaningful Goals

Once students have identified an area that is personally meaningful to them, they will likely need support, working with supervisors, to ensure the goals are meaningful. The goal of WAB’s approach to supporting projects is to enhance their value at the individual (student) and community level. Students are encouraged to consider how their project and community might be connected to bigger stories about the world and our place in it. In this sense, WAB students are encouraged to consider the idea of taking their projects from the level of personal impact to a more meaningful level that involves the broader community and world. In this sense, we describe a shift from “me” to “we” in developing project goals.

Talents, passions, hobbies, skills, and interests can be focused on meaningful action and community assets by aligning them with an area that addresses something the world needs. In this way, projects can be focused on the community collaborations and meaningful action by finding the intersection of student passion and areas that are globally important.