What is “enculturation?”

Travis DixonSocial and Cultural Psychology

One of the changes in the new IB Psychology course is the addition of two new concepts in the socio-cultural approach to understanding human behaviour: Enculturation And… Acculturation In this short post I’ll briefly outline the concept of enculturation and provide some general guidance as to how it can be taught in the course. What is enculturation? To quote the …

Teaching Tip: How to cut content and increase understanding

Travis DixonCriminology, Curriculum, Themantics

When it’s time to teach the new course, if you’re a bit savvy in your curriculum design you can exploit overlaps, cut content, and best of all – enhance student understanding of psychology. How do we do all this? In this post I’ll walk you through some helpful hints and show you the value of constructing relationship chains. Keeping it Simple …

Key Study: Decision Making, Iowa Gambling and the vmPFC (Bechara et al., 2000).

Travis DixonBiological Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Criminology

Context Before reading about this study it’s important to recap the dual processing model of judgement and decision making. According to Kahneman (and others) we have two systems of processing information. System one is fast and unconscious, while system two is slower and considers more factors. The system of processing we use will affect our judgement, which in turn will …

“Is this a good EE question?”

Travis DixonAssessment (IB), Extended Essay

There’s only way way we should be answering this question, in my opinion. And the answer should always be… “Well, it depends.” Let’s first assume that the question in question addresses some kind of relationship between one or more variables and individual human behaviour (or mental processes). If it does this, it’s suitable for psychology. If not, it needs amending. …

IB Psychology (HL) in less than 180 hours!

Travis DixonCurriculum, Themantics

By teaching the course holistically and integrating the core and options, it’s possible to teach the IB Psychology course content in more depth and in less time. Below you can see how I intend on teaching  my HL Psychology class in less than 180 hours with the help of my textbook, IB Psychology: A Student’s Guide.  What I should point out …

IB Psychology (SL) in less than 125 Hours!

Travis DixonCurriculum

  By teaching the course holistically and integrating the core and options it’s possible to teach the IB Psychology course in more depth and in less time. Here are two possible ways you could teach SL Psychology in less than 125 hours with the help of our textbook, IB Psychology: A Student’s Guide. Course Option #1 with Human Relationships     …

Sample SAQs: Memory Reliability

Travis DixonAssessment (IB), Cognitive Psychology, Revision and Exam Preparation

Here are two versions of the same sample answer from this year’s (May, 2017) IB Psychology exam. The question was: Describe one study investigating memory reliability. The annotated short answer response (SAQ) shows you the answer, plus my comments as to why I think this is a mediocre response. Then we have this second excellent annotated example SAQ, which does a better …

When the IB asks the wrong question…

Travis DixonAssessment (IB), Curriculum, Themantics

In the most recent IB Psychology exam the wrong question has been asked. And I’m not talking about the “etic” question, either. I’m referring to the SAQ from the cognitive level of analysis: Describe one study investigating the reliability of one cognitive process. This is obviously the wrong question to ask and may result in poor student performance, unless you’ve trained your …

Why teach themantically?

Travis DixonAssessment (IB), Criminology, Curriculum, General Interest, Themantics

Why teach thematically? If you think about it, teaching by the core approaches (or levels of analysis) in a linear way IS a thematic approach – the themes are biology, cognition and socio-culture, and then the themes are abnormal psych, health, etc. These themes tie together topics so by the end of the unit students have a broad conceptual understanding. …