Assessment Objectives
The Assessment Objectives (AOs) in the IB DP Visual Arts course guide both teaching and learning.
They’re woven into the creative process, shaping how students explore, reflect, and present their work. The AOs support authentic, iterative learning, helping students engage deeply with the core areas: Create, Connect, and Communicate.
Understanding the 7 Assessment Objectives
What are we really assessing in this course? These seven objectives underpin the entire visual arts journey, not just in the final outcomes, but in how students think, reflect, explore, and grow. By foregrounding these objectives in your teaching, you empower students to develop meaningful, connected, and intentional work.
Curate
Students make thoughtful decisions about how work is presented and experienced.
This includes the selection, arrangement, sequencing, and overall presentation of artworks and texts. Curation is about clarity of intent, guiding the viewer’s experience through visual and contextual choices.
Think about: layout of final submissions, exhibition sequencing, titling, and written rationale.
Support by: encouraging students to reflect on how presentation influences interpretation.
Investigate
Students research relevant sources to inform their thinking and making.
This goes beyond collecting artist names, it’s about purposeful inquiry. Students examine artistic, cultural, historical, and theoretical references that deepen their conceptual development.
Think about: how and why students select artists to research.
Support by: modelling deep artist analysis, and prompting students to ask questions, not just gather facts.
Generate
Students produce a body of creative work to explore ideas.
This is the “doing” phase where students explore, test, and iterate. It encompasses sketching, mark-making, modelling, trials, and any other form of artistic generation.
Think about: the breadth and diversity of a student’s creative exploration.
Support by: building in low-stakes making, encouraging divergent outcomes, and valuing process as much as product.
Refine
Students make informed decisions to improve and clarify their ideas and techniques.
Refinement is not about perfection, it’s about intentional development. Students respond to feedback, reflect on results, and make purposeful adjustments to technique, concept, or format.
Think about: whether refinement shows evidence of critical thinking and deeper intention.
Support by: asking students “what’s working?” and “what’s missing?” during critiques or journals.
Resolve
Students complete artworks that clearly express their intentions.
Resolved artworks are not just technically competent, they align with the student’s concept and communicate something coherent. This is the culmination of earlier exploration, not a final “product” created in isolation.
Think about: whether the work is visually and conceptually integrated.
Support by: helping students articulate what they’re trying to say, and assess if the outcome achieves that.
Situate
Students connect their own work to broader cultural, historical, and social contexts.
Situating means understanding how one’s work exists within a wider conversation. This involves reflecting on influence, meaning, audience, and relevance.
Think about: how students contextualize their own practice within and beyond art history.
Support by: encouraging comparative thinking, and exploring diverse global narratives and perspectives.
Synthesize
Students draw together ideas, research, experimentation, and reflection across their process.
Synthesis is where connections become visible. It’s not just about showing a journey, it’s about making meaning from it. Students demonstrate critical awareness of how their creative process has led to insight, intention, and growth.
Think about: coherence across screens, text, and artworks.
Support by: modelling reflective writing and prompting students to make connections between research, making, and outcome.
At their core, these objectives map the real journey of art-making: a cycle of curiosity, skill, reflection, and expression. They invite students to grow not just as artists, but as thoughtful, connected human beings who know how to shape and share meaning.
The Seven Assessment Objectives
These seven objectives chart the creative journey, from first sparks of inquiry to the thoughtful sharing of resolved ideas. Each one highlights a different facet of artistic growth, helping teachers guide students through a process that is curious, connected, and intentional. Below is a clear breakdown of each objective, paired with examples to show how they emerge in authentic student work.
| Assessment Objective | Definition | Practical Example |
|---|---|---|
|
Curate |
Select, organize, and present visual and written materials to communicate meaning. |
A student curates a portfolio exploring transformation, arranging artworks to create a cohesive narrative. |
|
Investigate |
Explore, research, and critically analyse sources of inspiration, including cultural and historical contexts. |
A student studies Indigenous art forms to understand symbolic language and incorporates similar techniques into their work. |
|
Generate |
Develop creative intentions and artworks through inquiry, experimentation, and exploration. |
A student experiments with layering translucent materials to explore the theme of memory and transparency. |
|
Refine |
Enhance technical and conceptual aspects of art-making through critical reflection and dialogue. |
After peer feedback, a student adjusts the composition of a painting to strengthen its emotional impact. |
|
Resolve |
Fulfil artistic intentions by creating resolved artworks that convey meaning. |
A student completes a series of portraits that explore identity, ensuring each piece contributes to a cohesive narrative. |
|
Situate |
Position artworks and art-making in relation to context(s), audience(s), and communities of artistic practice. |
A student reflects on how feminist movements influenced their artwork and considers how an audience might interpret it differently across cultures. |
|
Synthesize |
Integrate concepts, research, and techniques to create cohesive artworks and communicate intentions. |
A student combines digital animation and traditional painting to explore the intersection of technology and nature. |
Why 'Situate' Matters
Situate asks students to step back, to see their work not just as a standalone expression, but as part of a wider conversation. It’s a deeply reflective objective, encouraging students to explore how their art relates to their identity, their influences, and the world they’re responding to.
It includes three interconnected lenses:
The Context of Creation
Students reflect on the cultural, personal, or historical forces that shaped the making of their work.
Example: A student revisits childhood memories of migration and dislocation, creating layered maps that speak of home, absence, and return.
Dialogue with Other Artists
Students explore how their work enters into conversation with other artists: echoing, resisting, or reinterpreting existing ideas.
Example: After researching Kiki Smith’s imagined forms, a student reimagines the female body through stitched fabric and fragments of clay.
Art in the World
Students consider how their work might resonate with audiences, contribute to broader conversations, or challenge dominant narratives.
Example: A student presents a video piece critiquing surveillance culture, installed in a dark room with a motion sensor that activates the screen.
Together, these three lenses invite students to see their work as part of something bigger: a living web of influence, connection, and meaning. It’s not just about making art, but understanding where it belongs, what it speaks to, and why it matters.
How to Embed AOs in Teaching and Learning
For Teachers
Use AOs to Shape Planning
Think of the AOs as a lens for designing inquiry-rich projects. For example, plan lessons that invite students to situate their work in context or explore new techniques through experimentation and feedback.
Build Critiques Around the AOs
Encourage students to reflect on how their work connects with each objective. Ask questions like, “How does this respond to the artists you’ve studied?” or “What decisions are you refining here?”
Support Ongoing Growth
Reinforce the idea that the AOs aren’t one-time targets. Invite students to return to them throughout their process, using them to deepen their thinking and clarify their intent.
For Students
Understand What’s Expected
Use the AOs as touchpoints to guide your progress. They can help you track how your thinking, making, and reflecting evolve over time.
Reflect Along the Way
Keep a record of how you’re working with each AO: from early ideas and investigations to finished pieces. Your journal is a space to make your learning visible.
Think About Meaning and Audience
As your work develops, consider how it connects to the world around you. Who is it for? What might it say? The AOs can help you shape and share your voice with intention.
Key Takeaways
The Assessment Objectives aren’t a checklist. They’re fluid, interconnected, and reflective of how artists really work: experimenting, connecting, and communicating with intent.
They help students grow as whole artists, blending skill, insight, and personal voice as they navigate and shape their creative journey.
Feel supported at every stage of the new IB Visual Arts course.
These cards are shaped by lived experience and offer calm, practical guidance on everything from structuring the AIP to writing with clarity and intention. They’re here to make the complex feel clear, and to help you focus on what really matters.
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