On the surface, Tajfel and Turner’s social identity theory can seem complex as there are multiple parts and some of the ideas are really abstract. In our themantic approach we try to break it down, lesson-by-lesson so each of the major concepts of social identity theory are introduced gradually. Remember that one of the first questions you should ask when trying to understand …
Critical Thinking in the New Course
The following is adapted from an extract in the introduction to IB Psychology: A Student’s Guide Critical Thinking The IB Psychology course is aimed at developing an understanding of relationships: relationships between variables, behaviour, ethics and research methods. But students also need to be able to develop the skills to go further than understanding and to be able to reflect critically upon …
Internal Validity: And why I don’t teach it…
I’d love to hear how you feel about my rationale for not teaching students how to evaluate studies based on internal validity. There is one exception, however: their IA. I only introduce the concept of internal validity during the analysis of their IA results and procedures, as this is the only study I expect them to be able to make …
Rememberol
I like to use a basic, fictional study when introducing students to the concepts behind research in psychology. For this purpose, I pretend that I’ve designed a drug called “Rememberol” and that it helps students increase what they remember after they study. It’s a basic concept and the fact that it’s a pill enables me to use it to demonstrate …
Maintaining Perspective: My 5% Rule
This post is adapted from an earlier post. At the start of the school year I like to remind myself about My 5% Rule: I should expect IB Psychology to make up less than 5% of my students’ lives. About 98% of the time that I see my kids is when they’re in my classroom. I’d love to reduce that % …
Lesson Idea: Inferential Statistics
With 20 hours allocated for the IA and a lot to get done, I only have time in my course to plan one lesson for inferential statistics. In this time I want students to get a basic understanding of: how inferential stats differ to descriptive ones how to choose which inferential statistical test to use and most importantly, why inferential statistical tests …
How to cope with the options in 20 hours..Tip #1
With the new syllabus I do like the concept of having extensions to the core approaches: this is a well thought-out practical solution to deal with the many different SL/HL scheduling issues that IB teachers face. It gives us more flexibility in planning how we differentiate between SL and HL courses in the many ways we all approach the course …
C.H.A.C.E.R: The Themantic Lesson Plan
Our goal at TE is to make teachers lives better by making them simpler. Do less and do it better, getting back to basics, yadda, yadda. If we can help you reduce stress, it will have positive impacts on your kids (see this article about the correlation between teacher burnout and cortisol in students). Get all your lesson plans and …
Relationship Chains: The Framework of the Themantic Model
In an earlier post I outlined one of the core concepts of the themantic model of curriculum design: the building block. If a building block is an individual unit of information, a relationship chain is what is created when it’s significantly connected to another building block. Psychology is the study of relationships. Primarily, it’s the study of relationships between variables and behaviour. …
Building Blocks: The Foundation of the Themantic Model
Now that we’re beginning to launch the themantic model of teaching and learning, it’s probably a good idea to begin elucidating what the model is all about. But before you think that this will just be another bunch of edujargon or abstract pedagogical theory, it’s important to note that at Themantic Education we realise that any theory is only as …