Maths in Psychology
The 2015 A-level Psychology Specifications place a new emphasis on students’ ability to both understand and, more-importantly, apply a range of statistical tests to psychological problems. This new set of short films, written and presented by Deb Gajic (UK Psychology teacher and examiner) covers the main statistical tests students encounter in psychology: Chi Square, Sign […]
The Amstradification of Education
“Amstradification” refers to the idea that when offering someone a choice between two things that can be considered to be broadly similar, you make your favoured option sound better by making the unfavoured option sound worse… Older readers will probably be familiar with Amstrad, the consumer electronics company founded by Alan Sugar, but for the […]
Introducing Sociology: Setting Sociological Ground Rules
One way to introduce Sociology to students who have never studied the subject is to focus on the concept of roles because this is a simple way to introduce a range of basic sociological concepts, from values, through norms to socialisation. If you want to give these ideas a “real world” context and meaning an easy […]
Applying news values to contemporary events
Chibnall (1977) defines news values as “The criteria of relevance which guide reporters’ choice and construction of newsworthy stories, learnt through a process of informal professional socialisation”. They are values determined by organisational needs that translate into the professional codes used by editors and journalists to guide their assessment of media content – and particular […]
Applying news values to contemporary events (Part 2)
Chibnall (1977) defines news values as “The criteria of relevance which guide reporters’ choice and construction of newsworthy stories, learnt through a process of informal professional socialisation”. They are values determined by organisational needs that translate into the professional codes used by editors and journalists to guide their assessment of media content – and particular […]