PowerPoint: The ABC of Investigating

This spin-off from the burgeoning Sociological Detectives Universe™ is a vehicle by which you can simply and not-a-little-secretly introduce a soupcon of Study Skills into what we’re contractually obliged to call “The Student eXperience” (sic). In other words this PowerPoint Presentation is a slightly different way to encourage your students to take information you provide […]

The Psychology Teacher’s Resource Guide

The Resource Guide is a compendium of 50 “Standards-Based Lesson Plans” created by  Amanda Vanderbur and aligned with the US National Standards for High School Psychology. These, as you might expect, have evolved somewhat between the year this Guide was published (2014) and the year in which this post was published (2024). If you’re an […]

Anchoring the Abstract: Curiosity

One of the things I’ve found students find difficult about subjects like Sociology is the frequently abstract nature of the ideas they’re being asked to understand and apply. Ideas that range from the relatively simple (socialisation, identity, culture…) to the not-quite-so-simple (positivism, postmodernism, methodology…) and the downright difficult (risk society, hegemony, autopoiesis …) And since […]

Research Methods: Consuming Passions?

Some time ago I was asked by a publisher (who shall remain nameless because I’ve mercifully forgotten their actual name) to run an introductory computing course for sociology teachers. I initially agreed because it was a topic that interested me and the money they were paying was okay. Always the most important consideration. Or so […]

Dual Coding: The Film

Dual coding – the 5th film in our Dynamic Learning series – is based on the idea that we process visual and verbal information in different ways and in separate parts of the brain. These then become connected in long term memory. We can use this knowledge to improve our learning and retention. Education scientists […]

Retrieval Practice: The Film

In this series of films we take a new and dynamic approach to selling the advantages of study skills to students. This film, the 4th in the series, provides an insight into retrieval practice and how to use it effectively. Research has shown that we spend most of our free study time re-reading, underlining and […]

Review: Equity in Education

In their new book Equity in Education Professor Lee Elliot Major and Emily Briant offer a practical guide for teachers looking to play their part in levelling the playing field of learning. When I used to teach about equality of opportunity in education I’d start things off by choosing the smallest student in the class […]

The Sociological Detectives: Creating Curiosity

As you may have noticed if you’ve looked at our latest Psychology releases, we’ve recently turned our collective attention towards the topic of metacognition which, in basic terms, involves understanding how and why students learn. Or, equally-importantly, why they fail to learn. Either way, the first batch of films in what promises to be a […]

Creative Commentaries: What Were You Thinking?

A simple but effective tool to help you understand your students’ thought processes when writing extended pieces of work.

Colour-Coded Assessment

Colour-coding technique to help students understand exam Assessment Objectives and how to demonstrate them.