A Mini WOW! Psychology with the PGCE Crew at UCL!

We visited the Psychology PGCE students at University College London today and gave them a whistle-stop tutor2u tour. It was a great chance for us to see if we could WOW them with some of the resources we will be showcasing at the WOW Psychology CPD event on June 28th.

Students got to trial Key Terms Fortunes, an interactive group game requiring students to identify the most popular key terms related to different areas of the specification. 

We also tried Who am I? A game designed with an element of risk to see if students can identify key terms from a restricted amount of information.

Next up was one of our newest A03 teaching resources ‘Dial a Discussion’ which provides teachers with the resources needed to help students develop their evaluations beyond the 3-part burger structure. Students were set the challenge of coming up with an innovative way to engage students with either A02 and A03, a challenge that they totally nailed! Here are their ideas.

String Me Along

(This needs a ball of string for it!). Students debate/discuss a topic/area, each lined up facing each other in the classroom, the first student to speak is given the end of the string, and then the ball is rolled out to the next person who makes a point (until the string becomes some what of a web between students). This activity then allows the teacher to assess if students are not contributing (they won’t have any string!) and also see which students contributed the most.

Diamond 9 Me

Students are assigned a particular theory/piece of research and then 9 cards with different focuses for evaluations on that area. Students are then asked to discuss through each evaluation and then sort the 9 into a diamond shape, their strongest evaluation at the top and so forth. Students then select the 3/4 evaluations that they would like to develop.

Take Me Out

Students are given either the P (Top Burger) or E (Middle Burger) of an evaluation, they are then given 5 minutes to find their match from the class. Once the match is found students need to sit down and are given 5 minutes develop the final part of the A03 (bottom bun). As an extension activity they can add in the extra slice – issues/debates, counterargument or link to psychology as a science. Students then feed back their evaluations to the class.

The Dr Is In

Students are given either a condition (OCD, Depression, Phobia) or Role of Dr (Dr Behavioural, Dr Cognition, Dr emotional). Students develop characters with their condition and then role play visiting the Dr, the Dr then picks out the parts of their description of symptoms that matches their role.

Evaluation Bingo

Students select 6 key terms from a selection related to a piece of research or theory (for example ‘interrater reliability’ for Ainsworth.). The teacher reads out the description of the key term and students cross it out if they think it matches their key term. When someone has a full house the students are then instructed to pick 2 out the key terms from their 6 areas for evaluations and develop evaluations based on them.

A Story of Application

Students are given the A01 for a particular topic/area for example Ducks Phase Model of Relationship breakdown. Using a story board format then apply their knowledge to develop a story based on it, for example a story about the phases involved in the breakdown of a couple’s relationships.

A great set of ideas from students and a welcome addition to our ever growing community of innovative teachers.