Teaching Psychology - Adjusting to Linear Specifications

Lather, Rinse, Repeat part 2!

In the last month or so, I've been experimenting more with strategies I can use to help students to consolidate their knowledge over the two-year GCSE and A-Level courses. Below, I have selected a couple of strategies that enable me to assess how well students are retaining the content of the course, and that students appreciate in the long-run.

A few things to note before we get into the strategies:

1. My school uses a bronze, silver, gold medal system for differentiation. This can be used to give students choice (so they can complete either the bronze, silver or gold task) or they can work their way up the medals to earn gold and go from the 'easiest' task to the most 'difficult.' We then use challenge tasks to really extend the thinking of the top end.
2. Both of the strategies below are suitable to use at both GCSE and A-Level. My examples are designed for the 2017 Edexcel GCSE specification and the AQA A-Level specification.
3. I have already done some experimenting with year on this subject. If you're looking for more ideas, check out part 1 of this post (http://flmpsychologypedagogy.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/teaching-psychology-adjusting-to-linear.html).
4. The true or false quiz mentioned in strategy 2 is recycled from strategies that I use to assess flipped learning (http://flmpsychologypedagogy.blogspot.co.uk/2017/10/flipped-learning-part-2-assessing.html). I really like being able to use the same activities effectively in different ways!

Strategy 1 - Class recaps

This strategy involves students discussing or writing about the central topic, but also giving them opportunities to apply previous knowledge.


For example, when introducing obedience with a video, GCSE students can consider what the participant is doing, as well as why the behaviour is not an example of bystander intervention or conformity. Additionally, they can consider the research methods of the study, such as how they know the study is a field experiment. To make these links explicit, I add a recap box to my PPT slide (see above) and a 'recycling lightbulb' symbol so that students are aware that this is knowledge that they already have that they should be 'recycling.'

Strategy 2 - Visual summaries and quizzes

The GCSE and A-Level are full of key studies. The GCSE in particular is keen on students knowing the aim, procedure, results, conclusion, strengths and weaknesses of many studies across a variety of topics. This strategy helps students to separate the studies by linking them to a visual hook.

Students are given an A3 sheet of paper on which there is a single image that epitomises the study (see above for an example). Their homework is to summarise the study on this paper, using the differentiated success criteria (see below for an example). Some students choose to write all over the image, whilst others choose to write around the image. Many add colours for the different elements of the studies to aid their revision.


The starter of the next lesson involves testing what students have recalled from this homework. Students are given a true or false quiz to complete about the key study with success criteria (see right). This can be self-assessed in the lesson with improvements added to minimise marking.

As with part 1, these strategies take a fair amount of time to set up and embed, but personally I think it's time well invested. Students' results on assessments that incorporate multiple topics of the course are consistently improving over time. This gives me, and them, greater confidence that they are being support in their revision across the entire course. Give them a go and let me know how they work out.

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