{"id":1813,"date":"2017-02-16T06:11:32","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T06:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ibpsych.themantic-education.com\/?p=1813"},"modified":"2017-02-16T06:11:32","modified_gmt":"2017-02-16T06:11:32","slug":"work-smarter-not-harder-improve-exam-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2017\/02\/16\/work-smarter-not-harder-improve-exam-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Work Smarter, Not Harder: Improve Exam Results"},"content":{"rendered":"

Work smarter, not harder:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h1>\n

Improving exam results with a themantic approach<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Wouldn\u2019t it be nice if we didn\u2019t have to worry about exam results, and instead we could just focus on getting our students interested and engaged with what they\u2019re learning about?<\/p>\n

Thankfully I think adopting a themantic approach to teaching the IB Psych\u2019 course can do both. There are a number of ways in which this approach can improve students\u2019 exam performance, but in this post I\u2019ll focus on three:<\/p>\n

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  1. Reducing content<\/li>\n
  2. Increasing conceptual understanding<\/li>\n
  3. Developing critical thinking skills, especially application<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Reducing Content <\/strong><\/p>\n

    When topics are treated as individual entities there is the very real possibility that chances for overlap are being overlooked. But we all lament at the extent of content we need to cover in this course. However, a carefully planned themantic approach can reduce the sheer amount of research that students need to remember, thus increasing the time to focus on developing other and more important skills.<\/p>\n

    If content can be reduced, revision time can be used more productively.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Increasing Conceptual Understanding <\/strong><\/p>\n

    After learning about schema theory, I\u2019d hope that students would be able to see the benefits of the themantic approach in that it aims to develop conceptual understandings through the development of schematic frameworks.<\/p>\n

    Take this example of two possible topics:<\/p>\n