While the concept of “Independent Study” may mean many things to many people, for this set of booklets it broadly means three things: review, relate and retrieve (although, to be brutal, the “relate” bit isn’t anywhere near as well-developed as the other two and that’s something of a weakness).
These ideas are currently very on point as far as contemporary learning theories are concerned and while I’m always (sociologically) sceptical about the actual efficacy of uncritical applications, these concepts are, at the very least, grounded in something more than magical thinking and confirmation biases.
And that’s something of a blessing because reviewing, relating and retrieving are theoretically sound ways to transfer information from working to long-term memory – and while this is by no means the end of the story (learning is about a lot more than memory) it is at least a very good starting point.
And for that you should be thankful.
You might also want to be thankful for the Booklets themselves because they contain an interesting mix of notes, key ideas, quick questions, consolidation tasks and planned “exam style” questions (AQA only I’m afraid). There’s even a simple type of PLC (Personal Learning Checklist) included.
Students can also access selected web sites and videos using, of all things, QR codes. Aside from some odd style-related reason I’m not sure why you’d do this. Or why you’d do this without adding a hyperlink option, but there you go.
These quibbles aside there’s no doubt you and your students will find these Study Booklets a useful addition to teaching and learning, particularly because of how they encourage students and teachers to interact on an individual level.
They are also one of the few resources I’ve seen that try to integrate knowledge acquisition with the development of specific study skills designed to help students retain and recall the information they’ve been taught.
Families and Households
Family 1: Introduction | Functionalism | Marxism | Feminism | Postmodernism | Personal Life
Family 2: Diversity | Cohabitation, Marriage and Divorce | Child-bearing | Domestic Labour | Inequality | Social Policy
Family 3: Childhood as a social construction | Changing status of Childhood | future of childhood | Demographics
Education
Education 1: Introduction | Functionalism | Marxism | Social Policies | Globalisation
Education 2: Roles and Processes | Pupil Identities and Subcultures | Measuring Achievement | Social Class and Achievement
Education 3: Ethnicity Achievement | Gender and Achievement | Subject Choice
Theory and Methods
Theory and Methods 1: Introduction | Functionalism | Marxism | Feminism | Interactionism | Postmodernism | Sociology as a Science | Social Policy
Theory and Methods 2: Research Design | Factors Affecting Research | Interpretivism v Positivism | Methods | Sampling | Value Freedom
Theory and Methods Knowledge Organiser
Beliefs in Society
Beliefs in Society 1: Key Concepts | Ideology, Science and Religion | Functionalism | Marxism and Neo-Marxism
Beliefs in Society 2: Feminism | Postmodernism | Social Change | Religious Organisations
Beliefs in Society 3: Gender | Ethnicity | Age | Social Class | Secularisation | Fundamentalism | Globalisation
Beliefs in Society Knowledge Organiser
Crime and Deviance
Crime and Deviance 1: Introduction | Functionalism | Marxism | Labelling | Realism
Crime and Deviance 2: Measuring Crime | Gender | Ethnicity | Social Class
Crime and Deviance 3: Control and Prevention | Surveillance | CJS and Punishment | Victimology
Crime and Deviance 4: Media | Globalisation | State Crime | Green Crime