Show Notes
What if economics education wasn’t just about markets—but also about meaning, sustainability, and student agency? Jennifer Brandsberg-Engelmann shares how shifting to systems thinking can transform engagement, deepen understanding, and empower students to tackle real-world challenges. Packed with practical strategies and big ideas, this conversation is a must-listen for IB educators across Economics, Business Management, Global Politics, and beyond.
More from IB Unplugged
Michele Lackovic, an EE workshop leader and examiner with over 25 years of supervising experience, joins us to explore what the 2027 syllabus asks of students and supervisors.Michele challenges the instinct to rely on AI detection software, arguing that academic integrity is protected when teachers authenticate how a student thinks, not when they police what a student produces. That shift treats AI as something to build into the EE from the start rather than bolt on later, and it raises a harder question about what “independent” work means when the tools keep changing.
What happens when the world a curriculum was designed for changes faster than the curriculum itself has?
Tim Lovatt, Head of Digital Learning at UWC South East Asia, joins us to explore one of the quieter challenges of the AI era: keeping curiosity alive when it's no longer necessary for finding information. Tim argues that as AI tools take on more of the cognitive heavy lifting, the quality of the questions students ask matters more than ever, not less. The conversation moves between two possible futures: one where AI narrows curiosity into a search for quick answers, and one where schools deliberately design for wonder, treating creativity, collaboration and critical thinking as the skills that make students distinctly human rather than as soft extras.
The IB has spent decades defining what it means to educate for international mindedness and ethical thinking. Now, for the first time, it has published principles to guide how AI should be used across its entire ecosystem — from classrooms and assessments to the platforms schools use every day. But principles on a page are only as powerful as what happens in a classroom.
Schools talk about student voice. They have councils, surveys, and learner profile statements on the wall. But how often are students invited to build — not just to speak? Arissa Roy, UWC graduate, UNESCO youth representative, and founder of a global education equity organisation she started at 14, joins us to name the gap between consultation and genuine co-design — and to challenge educators to close it.