Academic Posters

Below are the academic posters that my students created. This is their first experience of the research process, so I am extremely proud of their ability with limited guidance.

Being Lucky - The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Today was the first day back for my Y13 Psychology students. I didn't want to overload them on their first day back, so we discussed the layout of the forthcoming year. One of the modules that they will study is criminology. We had a little discussion about it's definition and the work of criminal psychologists.

As part of the Edexcel syllabus, they must study about 'explanations of crime'. One of the explanations focuses on the self-fulfilling prophecy. This is a very interesting psychological phenomenon that occurs in everyday life. Instead of focusing on crime, we focused on the general idea of it and being lucky.
3/4 students believed in luck, whereas the remaining student believed in things happening due to their own independent efforts. I tried to suggest to the students that whilst it's OK to feel lucky, you are in control of your future (unless it is to do with winning the lottery - that we cannot control!!)

So... What is the self-fulfilling prophecy? 

"A self-fulfilling prophecy is a belief that comes true because we are acting as if it is already true".

Another definition is - "a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behaviour." (Good Therapy, 2015)

There are several examples of using this in everyday life. One example I always use with the students relates to exam grades. If you study hard at home rather than playing video games - it's no surprise that you will score high grades. The same can be said for poor grades - poor attainment and attendance.

Another example would be in relationships. If a lady starts dating a man and believes that he is not 'marriage material', then she will take the relationship less seriously and try to limit the amount she invests in the relationship. Because of this lack of investment, the man may feel that she is distant and he probably won't stick around long.

Now on this concept of being lucky. 

If you have a good relationship with your partner - are you lucky?

If you score all A*s in your GCSE's - are you luck?

If you get that new job - are you lucky?

One could argue yes. However, for me, I will keep telling my students that if you believe, then you will achieve. Hard work and determination are the key ingredients that we all need for this forthcoming academic year to reach our goals. It's time to ensure all of our students develop this 'growth mindset' which drives motivation and achievement. Here is a link to Carol Dweck's synthesis of growth v fixed mindset.

Over the coming weeks, I will start to relate this to criminology for my students. Stay tuned!

Welcome Back!

Well... Where has the summer gone?

Tomorrow (16th August) marks the first day back at school for our students. A new year, a new beginning and a fresh start.

Over the coming weeks, I will be posting links to my student's blog posts. The blogs will be from those studying Psychology in Y12 & Y13. I hope you will follow us on our A-Level journey.

You can find links to my Y13 student's blogs via this link.

Wishing staff and students a prosperous and enjoyable academic year.

What Makes a Teacher Really Happy?

The Most Valuable Professional Development Tool? Our Students!

The Importance of Professional Development

Professional Development is a critical aspect of any job. Whether it be as a teacher or even as a sports coach, one must continually assess their methods to see if they are effective in generating the very best results.

The development of teachers beyond their initial training can serve a number of objectives (OECD, 1998), including:
• to update individuals’ knowledge of a subject in light of recent advances in the area;
• to update individuals’ skills, attitudes and approaches in light of the development of new teaching techniques and objectives, new circumstances and new educational research;
• to enable individuals to apply changes made to curricula or other aspects of teaching practice;
• to enable schools to develop and apply new strategies concerning the curriculum and other aspects of teaching practice;
• to exchange information and expertise among teachers and others, e.g. academics, industrialists; and • to help weaker teachers become more effective.


As educators, we are always reviewing our practices and methodology. Did an activity work well? Were students engaged? Did it produce the results you were looking for? Did the students learn anything? Even if something did work well, there is something we may consider adapting for a further lesson. This on-going reflective process enables professionals to remain professional.

One Important Factor

For me, I believe that our students are one of the most significant factors in professional development. I have just started a 'suggestion box' with my students. It is anonymous, and I encourage them to tell me what they liked and if they had an idea for something else. Maybe they really enjoyed an activity or conversely, they didn't enjoy an activity. Creating this dialogue with your students will mean that you become more effective in the classroom and they become more engaged and feel respected because you value their opinions.

I would always think of this as an experiment. We would always want to have participants that are a representative sample. Here, my sample is my students, and my results from them indicate what I should keep doing and what I should change in future lessons.

Jigsaw Reading in Action

Jigsaw reading is an extremely effective activity to aid student cooperation, motivation and learning. It can be used primarily when the text may be quite challenging to understand as a whole. It is predominantly an ESL reading strategy but can be correctly implemented to other subjects. This is particularly relevant for me working in an international school where, for the majority of students, English is a second or even a third language. I discovered this strategy whilst studying for the CELTA qualification at Swansea University.

So, what is this strategy? It involves students reading a particular part of the text. This part of the text becomes their piece of the jigsaw. After reading and making notes, they will then share their findings with the other students in the class. The other student will listen, take notes and then share their findings from their part of the jigsaw. This is great for learners of all abilities and can be used as a group task or individual task depending on the number of students. Mengduo & Xiaoling (2010) report that the jigsaw technique is an effective way to promote student participation and enthusiasm as well as a useful method for language learners to accomplish learning tasks in the EFL classroom.


Implementing Jigsaw Reading Into Psychology

Today, students were looking at one of the many contemporary studies that they are required to learn for their Edexcel IAL Psychology examination. The study was conducted by Haun et al. (2014). It is quite a difficult text to understand, but jigsaw reading makes the students work as a team to understand the whole text. The main areas students should look at when understanding a study are:
Aims
Procedure
Results
Conclusion
Evaluation & Future Recommendations.

This worked great for me because I had precisely five students in my year 12 Psychology class. I gave the students 10 minutes to read over their part and make notes. Then they had to find another student to share each other's findings. This carried on until each student had visited every area that was required to be covered.
Eventually, students had a full set of notes on the study, and I asked them to read carefully over the notes, check if the information is correct, and whether they need to add or remove any other information. The full set of notes becomes the completed 'jigsaw puzzle'.
The students then report back to the teacher their findings. The teacher's role is to consolidate this information and see if there are any 'gaps' in their jigsaw.

Overall, I feel that this strategy is extremely effective for students of all abilities when reading a fairly long or complicated piece of text. It fosters peer collaboration and communication in the classroom and makes a challenging idea/topic seem less daunting.


* References provided through hyperlinks to the original document
** Links to my student's blogs are provided below

http://tashapsycheblog.blogspot.com/

http://yasminepsychologyial.blogspot.com/

https://natnichanickypsychologyial.blogspot.com/

https://isabellepsychologyial.blogspot.com/
https://veerphad.blogspot.com/

Thank you for reading.

A Real Life Example - Why Some People Decide Not to Help.

For this blog post, I thought I would focus on something that I witnessed recently and break it down with a psychological explanation. This will be useful for my Y12 students, who progress to Y13 next year when we study criminology.

So, during the Songkran break, I visited Phnom Penh in Cambodia for a few days. The country is still a little behind Thailand in developmental terms but, it is undoubtedly on the rise. New investments, new cars and high-rise buildings are now dominant, but the 'third-world' is still evident in some parts.

The topic of the blog reads 'Why Some People Decide Not to Help'. Here I will be discussing why some people decided not to help during the scenario.

The Situation
While walking down a busy street in Phnom Penh, I saw this incident which remained with me every day since I witnessed it. You may read through this and think, why didn't you help? It was around 7 PM, and the sunlight had faded. As I was walking down the street, I saw a man and a woman (who I presume were husband and wife) fighting in the street. Now, when I say fighting, I mean using their fists and kicking each other. They were in a brawl, and the man was punching the woman quite hard. The woman was also fighting back and 'gave as good as she got'. It was very distressing to see. But, what was even more worrying was the number of people watching and not doing anything! There was a crowd of around 10-15 people just standing, watching and not intervening.
Why did these people just watch? Also, Why did I not do anything? There are many reasons, including cultural and psychological.

The most straightforward explanation on a cultural level is purely due to being a foreigner. It is not my country and, if I did attempt to intervene, it would probably end badly for me. It is well-documented that if a foreigner intervenes, then numerous people would 'gang-up' on the foreigner. There were several tuk-tuk drivers and motorcycle taxi drivers watching and no doubt they would all get involved if I did.

Psychological Explanation

This is the 'bystander effect'. So, what is the bystander effect? "The bystander effect describes a phenomenon in which people are less likely to take action the larger the group is. In other words, if you were to witness someone being mugged down a dark alleyway, then you would be much more likely to intervene and help than if you were to see someone being mugged in a busy street in broad daylight."
This was developed from the Kitty Genovese murder in New York during the 1960's. She was stabbed to death outside her apartment. There were many witnesses, but nobody intervened. The psychologist's Latane and Darley reported that there is a 'diffusion of responsibility'. This means that when there are a number of people present, few of us feel the intense urge to act because we are not solely responsible for doing so. The idea here is that ‘someone else’ will say something, or ‘someone else’ will call the police. On the other hand, when we are on our own, we become the sole person capable of finding a solution, and so we feel the need to act.

So in this scenario of the man and the woman fighting on the street, while there might be a cultural explanation or 'family dispute', psychology would suggest the 'diffusion of responsibility'. That no one would get involved because of the number of people present, we would expect someone else to act first.

You can read more about the original study via this link.

There are also a number of videos on YouTube describing the bystander effect.

Geoff Petty - Remarkable results as students assess each other's work

I have referenced this post from the Society for Education and Training (SET) of which I am a member. It is written by Geoff Petty, who is one of the leading experts in the United Kingdom on teaching methodology. It is a fascinating read for new and old teachers, and I aim to incorporate this strategy as often as possible in my day-to-day life at IPS.

Geoff Petty: Remarkable results as students assess each other’s work

Geoff Petty discusses how teachers deliberately taking a back seat and letting students assess their peers' work, using ‘'model answers' or 'worked solutions', can be so rewarding for their learning and lead to a marked improvement in their performance.

Geoff Petty is author of Teaching Today and Evidenced Based Teaching and has trained staff in more than 300 colleges and schools. This article first appeared in InTuition - the quarterly journal for members of The Society for Education and Training (SET). 

Most teachers work too hard. Are you one of them? It’s good to know that many of the teaching
methods that do best in rigorous classroom trials require the teacher to do less, and the students
to do more.

Here, for example, is a strategy which Graham Gibbs found almost doubled attainment (quoted
in John Biggs, 2003). At least as interesting as the strategy itself is why it worked. Have a look at the
method described in the bullets below. Students are warned about the process before they start.

Why is the method so effective?

• Students answer questions and put their name on their work.
• They hand these in, and you give them out to other students to mark. (It’s best if students do not know who will mark their work.)
• Students mark their peers’ work, using ‘model answers’ or ‘worked solutions’ and a marking scheme provided by you. (If you worry that students might not mark responsibly, you could ask markers to initial their marking.)
• You collect all the marked work and hand students back their peer-assessed answers. Students each keep the model answers and marking scheme. (Most students will probably check the quality of the peer’s marking, but you needn’t.)
• You ask the students what issues came up? What judgements were hard to make?

Gibbs reports that the teacher did not take down the marks that the students obtained, though you
could if you wish. Remarkably, the average mark on the unit rose from around 45 per cent to around 75 per cent asa result of this strategy!

The advantages of repetition 

First, there is a good deal of repetition. The student does the questions, looks carefully at the model
answers while marking their peer’s work, and will then probably check the peer’s marking of their own
work by looking again at the model answers. It’s actually helpful that students don’t trust each other’s marking, as this encourages them to look even more carefully at the model answers and how they differ from their own answers.

In this whole process, students become very clear about:

• What they should have done: This comes from having to look carefully at the model answers while marking their peer’s work, and when checking the marking of their own work. What they got right: The peer marking will tell them what they got right, and they can check this marking against the model.
• What they didn’t get right and how to fix it: The peer who marked their work will show them what they got wrong and, again, they can check this against the model. Helpfully, they have studied the correct answers carefully while using the model to mark the peer’s work as well as when they are checking the marking of their own work. As a result, they can easily see the gap between what they did do, and what they should have done, and how to close this gap.

Another powerful aspect of peer assessment is that while students don’t seem to mind handing in poor work to you (you’re only a teacher, after all), they feel uneasy about handing over rubbish to a peer. So warning students that their work will be peer assessed will raise the standard of what they do.

The great strength of this teaching method is that it provides the students with all the information they require in order to improve. When students have completed a peer assessment, it’s useful to ask them whether they could produce better answers if they were given similar questions again. They nearly always answer ‘yes’ with great confidence. Peer assessment helps to prepare students for self-assessment, which is a vital prerequisite for self-improvement.

Self-assessment skills

When a student hands in a poor piece of work, it’s often due to poor self-assessment. This is because students need to check their work while they complete it, realise the weaknesses, and address them.

It’s their self-assessment skill that enables students to produce higher quality work. So, getting students
involved in the assessment process is not laziness on the part of the teacher (honestly!). It’s the teacher developing an absolutely vital capacity for self-improvement in their students.

And while it has become traditional to ask students to mark their peer working alone, group discussion will help develop their assessment skills while creating more peer pressure to do good work.

Here is how it works:

• Students form groups of, say, three.
• Students pass their work to the student on their right, so each student now has another student’s piece of work.
• The students in the group now take turns to mark or edit the piece of work in front of them, thinking out loud, while being watched by the other two students (one of whom did the work of course).
• There is then discussion about any differences opinion which you may have to adjudicate.

References 

John Biggs and Catherine Tang, Teaching for Quality Learning at University, 3rd Edition (2007), Open University Press.

My Favourite Teaching and Learning Strategy

This is one of my favourite teaching and learning strategies. It is commonly referred to in the teaching profession as 'marketplace'. Even when I was studying at GCSE and A-Level (yes, all them years ago!) our teacher would use these strategies for complex theories or key studies.

It can be done as an individual task or in pairs/groups. In my Psychology A-Level class, I use this as an individual task as I only have five students. The reason it becomes so effective is that it uses all of the concepts in Bloom's Taxonomy to promote higher levels of thinking among students. Geoff Petty (2012) also recommends this strategy, particularly in post-compulsory education (age 14+), because of this promotion of critical thinking.

Setting The Stall

This strategy can be used either as a consolidation of new information learned or as an introduction to a new theory/topic that students can research first.
It's important that for this strategy:
- it is relevant to the class
- students are given clear guidance (e.g you could tell them to explain only using pictures or have a word limit.)
- used as an assessment tool and not focus on the creative design (students are learning psychology, not art).

For my classes, I tend to use it as an assessment of understanding. Once students have learned about a topic, not only do I get them to produce a piece of work but I also get them to explain their ideas to other students. It works well for more difficult topics such as the structure of the neuron.

An Extension
So now that students have designed their beautiful posters, it now needs a purpose. This can be taken anywhere you like! I tend to give students a couple of exam-style questions using trigger words:
Identify
Describe
Explain
Evaluate

You can set the questions yourself or even get the students to create these types of questions (I would only recommend this for 'higher achievers' to incorporate differentiation into your lessons).

By the end of the process, another student should be able to look at that piece of work and be able to answer the questions that the student has set.

You can see some of my students work linked to this post. Some of the designs are incredible and explain detailed concepts and studies. There is also an example of an essay plan which a student has created which fits the criteria of the Edexcel IAL AO1 and AO2.

* Apologies - Some of the information is not very clear due to scanning the image *

Image 1 - Explaining infradian rhythms (as a part of biological rhythms).
Image 2 & 3 - Brendgen et al, (2015). An outline of the study and also a sample essay plan including A01 & A03 points.
Image 4 - Structure of a neuron.

Credit goes to my Y12 Psychology students who have displayed great enthusiasm and attention to detail.

Transference

Welcome to my second post. I thought I would blog very briefly about an interesting concept that I have been discussing with my students.

This is transference theory. It is a methodology used in psychoanalysis, or counselling.

"Transference describes a situation where the feelings, desires, and expectations of one person are redirected and applied to another person. Most commonly,transference refers to a therapeutic setting, where a person in therapy may apply certain feelings or emotions toward the therapist."

I also found this video on youtube which explains transference in everyday life.

The video shows us how we transfer a way of behaving from childhood to adulthood - in situations which don't really warrant it. So, If your parents tell you that you are acting like a child, then there is probably a reason for it!
It really made the students think about other people's behaviours and that transference provides a valid explanation for adult behaviour which derives from childhood.

The video finishes with the following quote - "We don't need people to be normal. We just need them to be able to explain their abnormalities in good time, with kindness and humility."

Psychology at IPS - An Introduction from Teacher Dom

Welcome to my first post. I will aim to write a post once a week, time permitting. I will also publish links to my Y12 Psychology blogs. My blog will feature mainly psychological concepts but I may occasionally post some personal experiences, so please follow our adventure.

This week my Y12 students had an introduction to Freud's Psychodynamic Theory. It is a theory that has caused considerable debate among academics. Freud almost 'sexualises' concepts from the early years, and I do apologise to my Y12s about this.

They have created a blog on the topic covered this week. In particular, the psychosexual stages and the case study of Little Hans. I also gave them a topic to debate about whether behaviourism or psychodynamic theory provides the best explanation of behaviour. It was interesting to read their responses, and the majority focused on behaviourism due to it's more scientific nature when compared with psychodynamic theory. However, I was also intrigued by one student who suggested that the psychodynamic theory provides a better explanation because it consists of nature AND nurture.


I have advised my students that their blogs should not be 'textbook' notes, but in fact, they are encouraged to include their own opinions/ideas where necessary to demonstrate understanding. It's mainly informal, and for their revision so I only check their blogs regarding content, structure and ideas. They may have exam questions to answer which I will give detailed verbal/written feedback so that they can fix it.
You can read their blogs below:

http://tashapsycheblog.blogspot.com/

http://yasminepsychologyial.blogspot.com/2018/03/yasmine-i.html

https://natnichanickypsychologyial.blogspot.com/

https://isabellepsychologyial.blogspot.com/

I encourage my students to become critical thinkers, and this is one way of achieving the goal. I like this quote from Steven C Reinhart - "A good teacher has changed from 'the one who explains things so well that students understand' to 'one who gets students to explain things so well that they can be understood'.
I use this concept throughout my teaching. An idea that I used with my Y7 English class is to 'explain to an alien'. I will take the role of an alien during class and ask them to explain concepts to this creature in a simple form. This encourages speaking skills and critical thinking, which is of great significance to our international students. This tip was shared with me by a tutor on my PGCE called Sara Davies. I loved this AoL strategy when it was introduced to me and will continue to use it throughout my teaching career.



I hope you follow my students blogs throughout the year as they prepare for their 'Edexcel International A-Level' in Psychology.