Social capital: Internships

The concept of social capital refers to the “networks of influence” people are able to create and key into through the course of their lives and an interesting example linked to family, education and work is the contemporary practice of internship. This frequently involves the ability to work for a potential employer for free in […]

Psychology: A whole new set of films

We’re starting to release the first batch of films in our new Revising Psychology series – short, informative, videos aimed at students and teachers and designed to both consolidate learning and suggest ways to gain the best possible exam grade. The films can be rented (48-hours) or bought (individually or in selected bundles) and can […]

Social Inequality: applying cultural and economic capital

You may be familiar with Robert Putnam’s ideas about social capital (“Bowling Alone”), where he argues that a key feature of late modern societies is the breakdown of large-scale, organised, social networks (such as political parties, trade unions and the like). His latest work – Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, 2015 – features […]

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Although this article on the “misunderstandings many educators have about Bloom’s Taxonomy” isn’t a particularly easy read, it’s definitely worth perusing if you use this particular taxonomy in your work in relation to concepts like “lower” and “higher” order thinking.

Institutional Racism?

It’s always useful to have a range of examples – especially contemporary examples – to hand when / if you need to illustrate a particular idea, theory or concept. And in the context of Institutional Racism, this Report by the Institute of Race Relations that has uncovered the fact that in terms of the 500+ […]

Crime, Deviance and Education

Experiments with “Zero tolerance policing” have taken place in both Britain and America, but the latter has taken this approach (usually underpinned in social policy terms by Wilson and Kelling’s “Broken Windows” hypothesis) further by applying it to schools – a trend that has been taken-up by some UK schools particularly, but not exclusively Academies […]

Applying Cultural Effects theories to race and crime

Some background reading (and an example article): From this (neo-Marxist) perspective we’re looking at the media as an agency of social control and, in this particular respect, how the control of ideas – the way people think about the world – can be used to influence behaviour. However, as Newbold suggests, we are not thinking […]

To Learn or Not to Learn Online?

The jury is still most definitely out on on-line learning, but this review of some of the literature isn’t particularly good reading for those individuals and institutions still determined to pursue the MOOC…  

Gender and Inequality

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is always a go-to source for all types of statistical data on a variety of topics and this one is no exception. With links to both gender and social inequality “Welcome to unequal England” uses ONS data to show how inequalities impact on some of the most important life […]

Blooper

Out-and-about filming for our new psychology revision film on Ethnocentrism. Never work with animals, children or, in Steve’s case, inanimate objects…