Psychology in the Classroom

In this episode, and as we fast approach exams, we look at how to help student manage their nerves. There are lots of strategies that can be employed but learning to sit comfortably with the uncomfortable feeling of exam anxiety can be challenging. This episode looks at one way we can help our students to learn to bring their thoughts and feelings under control using a technique stolen from sports...

This week we look at why exam technique matters - the more working memory students can free up to write good answers, rather than figuring out what they need to do and how long they have got left, the better. This episode covers 5 things that students should practice to help make an exam go smoothly:  Knowing the rubric Overall plan of attack Managing timing (including extra time) Breaking down th...

Despite all our efforts to teach students to revise using effective methods they often revert back to less effective methods such as copying and reading and rereading notes. Why is this, when we have told them that these techniques are less effective in the long term? This week's episode looks at 4 common reasons why students revision fails: Planning Fallacy Illusion of Fluency Misinterpreted-effo...

This week the episode will be based around retrieval practice - a concept most of you will be familiar with, and if you aren't then do take a listen to this episode which delves into the research underpinning the concept. Many students when learning, make the error of being passive recipients of information, reading, listening, watching or copying. Whilst a few bits may stick, more information wil...

You know that thing, you're listening to the radio and minding your own business and a song comes on the radio and memories flood back (possibly embarrassing teenage ones!). That song is a cue to unlocking your memory - all sorts of things can be cues - smells, images, letters, words. In an exam the main cues are going to be words - specifically those in the question. If we understand that cues he...

This week we move from the practialities of starting and planning revision to the learning itself.  The focus is on how we can help students to build learning so that it is retained in long term memory. Whilst there are lots of ways to approach this today's episode focused on 3 key concepts: Levels of processing, spacing and interleaving. I mentioned that there are several podcasts that delve into...

I would argue that good planning is an art or at the very least a skill that needs to learned and perfected and yet we often cut our planning teeth on a revision timetable just before we do exams. How many student's plans turn out to be too vague, over ambitious or too rigid? This week's episode explores this skill and how we can best encourage students to become effective planners: understanding...

What is it that motivates students to study? A few lucky people may genuinely enjoy the process of memorising facts and preparing for exams, but this is probably rare. For most people studying requires effort and despite the high stakes, the reward of good exam results (or fear of bad ones) in the distant future is not enough of a motivation when there are far more exciting and immediately rewardi...

In this second episode we explore why study habits may help students with independent study and how we as teachers can support students to build effective study habits. Behavioural change is really hard, as anyone who had already forgotten their new year's resolution, can attest to! There are a few key things that we can help students with if they want to build in independent learning to their sch...

Inherent in our educational system is the expectation that students will study independently to achieve at the higher levels.  Some students are lucky and hit on strategies that work, others flounder whilst motivated to do well they don't know how to learn. As educators why leave the effectiveness of independent study largely up to chance when we have a whole host of excellent tools at our disposa...

Welcome back to the new term of podcasts. We are starting off with an episode about wellbeing with Dr Ros McLellan from Cambridge University. We take a deep dive into exactly what wellbeing means and its impact on educational attainment. Rather than taking wellbeing as a homogenous concept this discussion considers the difference between eudaimonic and hedonic wellbeing and how they have differing...

In this second 'takeover' Niamh and Summer, from Bootham School, ask you to think about autism and some common misconceptions - which peice of research is real and which is fake. Test your understanding in this fun podcast.

It's Christmas Takeover time and today's episode is hosted by Oliver Sherratt, a year 12 student at Abingdon school studying A level psychology. He delves into the intricate and fascinating world of psychology approaches. These six approaches will lay a base for your understanding of what we know psychology to be as well as igniting a flame within you which will spur you onwards to learn more abou...

There are many things that make this time of year special, one of which is music - whether that is carols or corny Christmas songs, they can prompt memories and get us together to sing as a community in ways that we simply don't at any other time of year. But there is strong evidence to suggest that singing has physiological, psychological and social benefits and we should not just relegate commun...

We know that many neurodivergent young people such as those with ADHD or autism traits develop depression during adolescence – but we currently don't know which individuals are at risk, what underlying processes increase that risk or, perhaps most importantly, the best way to intervene to increase resilience to reduce that risk.  RE-STAR aims to address this by exploring the interplay between auti...

As we come to the end of a very long term a few of you might well be considering which lessons you might be able to put on a film.  So to ensure that this is a justifiable educational tool Dr Sheila Thomas talks about her use of film in the classroom: how to make it a really valuable experience for the students and get them thinking more deeply and in a cross curricular way about films.   To get S...

'Smart' or 'Study' drugs are usually prescribed for people with ADHD to help them concentrate. However many people without ADHD take them, in theory, to focus on studying - e.g. writing an essay or revising for an exam.  The estimates of how many people have taken them vary between about 16-20%, and the use of these drugs is on the rise.  So the question is do these drugs actually help complex cog...

Here is the next installment of the 'Talking to psychology teachers series' with guest teacher Sophia Afsar. We are going to be talking about how to create the perfect multiple choice question (with and without the help of ChatGPT), the importance of student-teacher relationships and how using concrete examples that students can relate to helps them understand more abstract concepts.  The links to...

"Be the best you can be,  now ." This is the overriding message to self and others which aligns to my personal values and fuels my being! Joshi Jariwala During, the Covid era, there was a will to be kind to students who were overwhelmed with endless unpredictable lists to survive, completely unrelated to study. Though committed, they could not jump start their drive to learn. Joshi Jariwala shares...

This episode is the 4th in the 'Talking to Psychology Teachers' Series and Paramjeet Moon, psychology teacher with 24 years experience, talks about her love of psychology and the myriad of ways in which it has influenced her teaching practice, from cognitive psycholog y, working memory , interleaving , relationships , the teenage brain , seating arrangements and much more this conversation is full...

In this episode Dr Brooke Macnamara shares details of her research about mindset.  Her research is a fascinating insight into the interventions around mindsets including growth mindset - a concept which I am sure you are familiar.  If you, like me, have read Carol Dweck's work it is compelling, but can we really change mindset?  The concept itself is quite vague and is a belief or set of beliefs t...

This week Evie Bentley talks about how her knowledge of psychology helped her understand and manage what could have been a very frightening experience.  As teachers we are often asked 'what is the point of learning this' whatever this might be.  But you never know when knowledge may come in handy and sometimes it is at the moments you least expect, something Evie discovered in the early hours of t...

Alessia Evans developed a love of makeup from a young age and started working in the cosmetics industry at 19 where she climbed the ranks as a makeup artist, trainer and manager for L'Oreal. Fast forward 10+ years, and Alessia has bowed out of the beauty industry to study Psychology, undertaking a dissertation investigating whether applying makeup makes us smarter... what she discovered was remark...

This week is the third in the 'talking to psychology teachers' series and Ed King shares some insights into expectancy-value theory and how it drives motivation as well as some practical tips on how to work on both expectancy and value to increase student (and our own) motivation in the classroom. Student's Achievement can be determined by two factors: Expectancy & value - These two interact to pr...

This week Felicitas Biwer talks about how students can study smarter with better self-regulation, effort regulation, planning and reflection.  Packed with top tips on independent learning this is the episode I want all my students to listen too, but can also help teachers understand how and why we need to teach these skills to our students.  If you would like to listen to the original podcast abou...