Before diving in to the study of Baddeley and Hitch’s working memory model, it’s important that you first comprehend what “working memory” is. I’ve found that playing some of these games is a fun way to comprehend the concept of working memory and it will make your it easier to understand your teacher’s explanations of things like the central executive, …
If you’re interested: Clive Wearing
There’s never enough time to cover everything in our IB Psychology course, so here are a few resources that might not fit in normal classes, but you might find interesting nonetheless. Clive Wearing is very similar to the famous case of HM (Henry Molaison). However, whereas HM’s hippocampus was damaged due to surgery, Wearing’s was damaged due to an illness. …
5 Types of Exam Questions in IB Psychology
There are 5 types of exam questions in IB Psychology, Papers One and Two. While the general structures that we recommend for exam answers can be applied to all of these types of questions, they do have their own sets of pitfalls that students should be aware of. And as with anything, there are some exceptions and special cases of …
Criminology Support Pack: Now Available
BUY YOURSELF SOME TIME WITH OUR TEACHER SUPPORT PACK. You can get your full teacher support pack HERE! This pack for Criminology contains: Complete unit plan with learning outcomes, key terms and lesson overviews 9 x topic plans with learning outcomes 25 x individual lesson plans following our C.H.A.C.E.R framework 10 x individual activity handouts Links to complete online resources …
The Top Ten Most Valuable Studies from the Criminology Unit
Personally, I think the most useful studies to know in-depth in order of appearance are: Bechara et al.’s study on the vmPFC, Iowa Gambling task and decision making (2.2)(link) Feinstein et al.’s case study on SM (2.3)(workbook) Radke et al.’s experiment on testosterone and the brain (2.4)(textbook) Cohen’s culture of honor experiments (2.5)(in workbook) Passamonti et al’s experiment on serotonin …
Teaching Tip: What if my lessons aren’t 60 minutes long?
The textbook for the new course (IB Psychology: A Student’s Guide) is laid out in a lesson-by-lesson structure. There’s a very good reason for this – to make teacher’s lives easier. The book also follows the themantic model of curriculum design, which is a very particular model of structuring how we deliver content for maximum results. Each “lesson” in the book …
Quizlet: Love and Marriage Review (Chapter 5)
Along with other fun review activities like Jeopardies and Kahoots, making Quizlet class sets is a quick and easy way to build a resource that students can use to study with, either in class or in their own time. Love and Marriage Quizlet: Chapter Five Review – Available HERE! If your students enjoy Kahoots, they might also like quizlet-live, which …
Quizlet: Intro to Psych’ Review (Chapter One)
I could have sworn I posted this already, but I can’t find it so here it is again. If I did, please let me know! Along with other fun review activities like Jeopardies and Kahoots, making Quizlet class sets is a quick and easy way to build a resource that students can use to study with, either in class or …
3 things all essays should have…
I’m a simple man. This is why I love the motto: “keep it simple, stupid!” I especially love keeping it simple when it comes to exam preparation. The more complex, intricate and nuanced we make our instructions on how to do well in exams, the less time there is to spend on developing the skills necessary for success in the …
Lesson Idea: “The Love Lab”
This lesson idea works well with the lesson “Positive Communication” in 5.3 of Love and Marriage (Chapter 5). I used to hate role plays as a student. I loathe them now when I’m on a Pro-D workshop. So naturally, as a big mean teacher, I love to get my students to do them! 🙂 The activity… In groups of three, …
The best teaching activity, ever!
It’s a bold post title, I know. But this basic teaching idea is by far my favourite and for so many reasons. The Traffic Lights In an earlier post I shared a key terms traffic lights lesson idea that is based on the three colours representing different levels of knowledge. That idea evolved from this original one of having students …
For love or honour? The case of arranged marriages.
The idea of arranged marriages is an inherently interesting topic and one that hits close to home in many cultures. Would (or will) you marry someone you weren’t in love with? This is the same question Levine et al. (1995) asked their participants when comparing across cultures the role of love in forming a relationship. Teaching Tip: I like to …
Lesson Idea: Murder Mystery – Who killed the marriage?
The Murder Mystery activity is another one credited to a workshop with the late Paul Ginnis some years back. The details can be found in his book. This idea goes along with the lesson “Negative Communication” in the Love and Marriage chapter. However, the murder mystery is an excellent problem-solving and collaboration activity that can be applied to any content. …
Lesson Idea: Reviewing Studies
I came up with this basic idea yesterday as I was putting together my student workbook for the Love and Marriage unit. In this entire unit (Chapter 5 of the student’s guide) there are four key studies applicable to the following topics: Hormones and behaviour (Bio) Evolution and behaviour (Bio) Methods and Ethics (Evolution – Bio) Methods and Ethics (Hormones …
The Evolution of Attraction: Extra Resources
The study of attraction is definitely one of my favourite topics. Because there’s so much interesting research in this field, I thought I’d create this post to “dump” some extra resources that you might find interesting. WARNING FOR STUDENTS: Many of the “studies” in the videos below have been replicated for the purposes of TV entertainment. They are to be used …
Experiment Results: Is an evaluation distinguishable from a discussion?
After writing and sharing a recent post, I got some questions regarding the validity of my claim that a good evaluation and discussion are indistinguishable. So I decided to put it to the test by writing an example essay following the essay structure I advise for students and seeing if it was obvious which command term was being used. I gathered …
What is “an evolutionary explanation of behaviour?”
Offering an evolutionary explanation of behaviour can be more difficult than it first appears, so I want to show two ways to do this. I don’t teach evolution and behaviour as an individual topic in my course, as there are multiple behaviours that are applicable including fear, aggression (both in Criminology), attraction (Love and Marriage) and fear conditioning (PTSD). This …
Introduction to Psychology: Powerpoint (Chapter 1)
This powerpoint is designed to accompany the introduction unit plan and the student workbook. Feel free to amend or adapt as you wish. You can download the powerpoint HERE!! I added some comments to the slides as well to hopefully make it easier to see how to use them. For those teachers using IB Psychology: A Student’s Guide, you will hopefully …
Top 5 Tips for IB Psych’ Success
As a short review activity to begin my first Grade 12 (Year Two) class for the year I asked my students to come up with “5 Tips for IB Psych’ Success” that I could then share with the Grade 11 (Year One) students. I thought their list was pretty spot-on, so I thought I’d share it here. #1. Ask Questions …
What makes an experiment “quasi?”
One key characteristic of a quasi-experiment is that one or more conditions of a true experiment cannot be met. This often includes the fact that there is no random allocation to the treatment or control conditions in the experiment. So if there is no random allocation, but there is still an IV hypothesized to have an effect on a DV, the …
Key Studies: The effects of mindfulness and meditation on the brain (Desbordes et al. 2012, and Lazar et al. 2005)
These two studies can be used to discuss: The use of technological techniques Neuroplasticity Experimental methods (quasi and true experiments) to study: The brain cognitive processes Lazar et al. (2005) There have been numerous studies that have compared the brains of Tibetan monks who have thousands of hours of practice in meditation with normal controls. These studies regularly show …
Lesson Idea: Reviewing Year One
Updated, Aug 2020 After two months of summer my students have had every chance to forget almost everything we did in year one. Even when I sit down to my desk to plan the second year I struggle to think what we’ve already covered. For this reason I like to spend the entire first lesson on reviewing what we did …
Unit Plan: Introduction to Psychology
This unit plan is for a ten lesson, “Introduction to Psychology” unit. Most of the lesson ideas in this plan have already been posted on this blog. As always, I welcome feedback so please feel free to leave a comment. You can download my Introduction to Psychology Unit Plan HERE!!!! This unit is also designed to work alongside the student …
Lesson Idea: Review Intro to Psych w/ KAHOOT
I love Kahoot, as most teachers do. It’s a great way to review “knowledge,” especially key terms. One of the features I like about Kahoot is that it actually lets you gather some good formative data. If you make sure students use real names (or some other identification so that you know who is who), you can save the results …
Lesson Idea: What do psychologists study?
I like to take my introduction to psychology quite slowly. On the very first lesson I get students to think about the definition of psychology and what they actually study by doing the following activity. There is space for students to write notes on this activity in their workbooks. Step One: Students begin working with a partner and write as …