{"id":6277,"date":"2017-08-06T07:52:37","date_gmt":"2017-08-06T07:52:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ibpsych.themantic-education.com\/?p=6277"},"modified":"2017-08-06T07:52:37","modified_gmt":"2017-08-06T07:52:37","slug":"5-reasons-why-the-linear-approach-is-a-bad-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themantic-education.com\/ibpsych\/2017\/08\/06\/5-reasons-why-the-linear-approach-is-a-bad-idea\/","title":{"rendered":"5 reasons why the linear approach is a bad idea!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Planning an IB Psychology course can be stressful, even for the most experienced teachers. It’s not surprise then that it can also be incredibly daunting for new teachers. One of your sources of stress may be thinking about which approach to take: do I teach linear or thematic? In this post I’ll outline five reasons why I think the linear approach is a bad idea.<\/p>\n

In a later post I’ll write about why adopting a thematic (or themantic) approach may be far easier than you think.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

READ MORE: WHAT DOES THEMATIC TEACHING MEAN?<\/a><\/p>\n

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#1: Encourages reductionism<\/h2>\n

This is the biggest reason why I think the linear approach to teaching IB Psychology is a bad idea. A reductionist approach is one that tries to explain a behaviour by focusing on one particular variable. But if we think about it, this is exactly what the core approaches are doing. For example, when teaching hormones and behaviour in the biological approach in a linear course structure, teachers will only focus on how the hormone influences a particular behaviour. They might, for instance, look at how testosterone influences aggression. But if students don’t look at how social, cultural and internal cognitive factors are also related, they’ll have an overly simplified (i.e. reductionist) understanding of aggression.<\/p>\n

In order for students to fully appreciate the complexities of human behaviour, we need to be looking at the interaction of variables, not variables in isolation.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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#2: Lack of continuity for students<\/h2>\n

In a linear approach you’ll find yourself focusing on the variables in the core approaches of biological and sociocultural approaches to understanding human behaviour. For instance, some of those variables are hormones, brain function, genetics, social influences, acculturation and cultural dimensions. With these approaches the IB has prescribed the variables<\/strong> <\/em>and the teacher is free to choose the behaviours<\/strong><\/em>. What therefore tends to happen is that these linear units have different behaviours for each topic.<\/p>\n

For example, my old linear course I used to have:<\/p>\n