Course Details

Psychology

The IB course seeks to teach students to approach human behaviour from a variety of perspectives: socio-cultural, physiological, psychodynamic etc. It exposes students both to various theoretical perspectives and to a variety of research methodologies. Skills of experimental design and data collection/analysis will also be taught. Questions of what constitutes ethical and unethical research will be posed.

Among the optional IB themes, the following two will be done at Mahindra UWC:

• Social Psychology
• Psychology of Dysfunctional Behaviour

History (HL or SL)

History SL students do Papers I and II; History HL students do a third paper in addition to these two, in the history of their region (in our case South Asia 1757- 1990). Paper I tests skills of source interpretation and analysis, including nonwritten sources. Papers II and III consist of long (45/50 minute) essays, often comparative and always interpretive, in nature. Given the highly writing-intensive nature of history, especially HL, students who are unable to express themselves fluently in their writing in English are discouraged from choosing History. On the other hand students who take History will learn a lot about structured analytical writing, blending fact and quotation with argument, linear progression and other principles of effective writing.

History SL is an exploration of topics in 20th century world history. Over the years the themes chosen have included two or three of the following: The Cold War; Causes, Practices and Effects of War; Single-party states; De-colonization and Nationalist movements; the State and its treatment of Minorities. The IB favours a comparative approach to these themes and examples from two or more regions of the world are chosen for in-depth study of each of themes.

The History HL extension will focus on three periods of Indian political history: the colonial period (1757-1885), its policies and its impact; the nationalist period and partition (ending with independence and the partition of 1947); and postindependence India & Pakistan (and Sri Lanka, more sketchily) through 1990. While the syllabus emphasizes political history frequent excursions into social, cultural and economic history will be made. The vast majority of history students at MUWCI do Higher Level history.

Economics (HL and SL)

The events of the last quarter century have made the study of Economics both more important and more interesting. Any educated person today has to have a minimal working knowledge of the subject in order to make some sense of contemporary events or to merely decipher the language in which much of the world speaks. What is a market economy? How do business and individuals take economic decisions in society? Why do the stock prices, interest rates, or exchange rate fluctuations matter? What are inflation and unemployment such burning political issues in the industrialised world? Why do countries trade? What accounts for the inequality of income and wealth within and across countries? What strategies are available to poor countries for economic development? Does economic growth come at the cost of environmental degradation? The discipline of Economics addresses such questions of contemporary significance. Among other things, it is indispensable to an understanding of an increasingly interdependent world.

Objectives: At the Standard Level you will have a general introduction to the subject acquainting you with the basic tools and concepts – the language of the discipline. We will consolidate our theoretical undertaking by using illustrations from relevant contemporary problems and situations. The ideas of influential economists of the past will be considered to locate prevailing intellectual fashion in a historical perspective. Students who suspect that they might be interested in Economics or who intend to study any of the Social Sciences at the university level will find this course particularly appropriate. It will also be useful for students in Business Management as a career.

At the Higher Level you will have a more in-depth introduction to the subject. While covering all the material above, we will break new ground by considering important controversies in contemporary Economics and some other topic. This is pertinent since Economics is not a value-free science. Values and judgments influence both the assumptions and the policy recommendations of economists. An undertaking of how economic options are formed is therefore essential. The HL course is designed for students who wish to specialise in one of the Social Sciences, especially Economics, at the university level.

By the end of the two-year Economics course you should not only be in a position to tackle the IB exam but also to find yourself comfortable with the language in which economists speak to each other. You should also be able to present economic arguments with clarity, logical, rigour and appropriate evidence, apply concepts to actual situations, interpret economic data and information, assess competing economic theories and systems and have a keen awareness of current affairs and global economic issues.

Philosophy (HL only)

Philosophy is taught only at Higher Level (4 hours a week for a total of 240 hours over the 60 weeks in two years). We will explore three major areas of inquiry, namely, The Philosophy of the Human Person, Theories and Problems of Ethics, and The Philosophy of Nature, Work and Technology.

Other than studying a whole range of material books and articles in philosophy, works of art and literature, poetry, movies, pieces of music, paintings, cartoons etc. related to the chosen themes of inquiry, we will do a close reading of three texts by major philosophers. Nietzsche’s The Genealogy of Morals, Freud’s Outline of Psycho-analysis and Civilisation and its Discontent, selected from a long list provided by the IB. There will, of course, be considerable overlap between the chosen themes and texts. Thus the course will be taught as an integrated one.

Prerequisites: No prior background in Philosophy is necessary. However, students will have to do a considerable amount of reading, perhaps as much as, if not more than in one of the Languages. This may often be as much as 100 pages a week. Given that the reading will be predominantly in English, a minimum level of comfort with the language is essential. Students for whom English is not even the second language should consider this when choosing to do Philosophy. Equally, there will be a lot of conversation and writing in English involved in this class. There will be discussions in and outside the classroom and frequent essay-writing assignments.

Human Rights (SL only)

Developed at UWC Norway, this course examines the theory, history and practice of human rights in both Western and non western frameworks. The course will be team taught and meet outside the morning schedule.