Lesson Idea: Neuroplasticity

Travis DixonBiological Psychology, Criminology

This activity is designed to accompany the Criminology lesson 2.7b: Childhood and Brain Development. A good way to learn about neuroplasticity is to compare your performance on something you’re a master at, with something with which you’re a novice. Find someone in your class with whom you can share talents – they’ll try to teach you something you’ve never tried …

How does testosterone influence aggression?

Travis DixonBiological Psychology, Criminology, Revision and Exam Preparation

Understanding how testosterone can influence aggression can be a little tricky, so this post is designed to provide extra help. This post is designed to support the materials in Topic 2.4 of our textbook, IB Psychology: A Student’s Guide. Common Errors Here is what an over-simplified (and incorrect) explanation for testosterone and aggression might look like: So in writing, this …

Working Memory Games

Travis DixonCognitive Psychology, Teaching Ideas

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

Travis DixonCognitive Psychology

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

Travis DixonAssessment (IB), Curriculum, Revision and Exam Preparation, Teaching Ideas

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

Travis DixonCriminology, Curriculum, Teaching Ideas, Themantics

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

Travis DixonCurriculum, Revision and Exam Preparation, Teaching Ideas

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?

Travis DixonCurriculum, Teaching Ideas

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)

Travis DixonLove and Marriage, Revision and Exam Preparation

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 …