Why Did No-One Help James Bulger?

“We’ll probably never really know what made two 10 year olds, Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, abduct, torture and then kill two year old James Bulger on a terrible February day a quarter of a century ago. But there’s another question arising from the James Bulger murder that has implications for all of us. Why […]

The Memory Clock

Although revision, in all its different forms and guises, is an integral part of any a-level sociology (or psychology) course it’s sometimes difficult to know how to help students revise in the most efficient, effective and productive way – and this is where the Memory Clock comes into play. The Memory Clock is a revision […]

Knowledge Organisers: Media and Methods and Education

Back by popular demand and with a brand-spanking new set of Tables covering media, methods and education. Each Unit is by a different author and the quality is, at times, variable. Media These are pdf files so unless you’ve got a programme that will edit them you’re stuck with the information they have to offer. […]

Then and Now

A few months ago I ran a couple of blog posts that featured the work of Dr Julia Russell under the headings “Hard to Find Classics”  and “More Hard to Find Classics”. These files came from an online column she wrote, for a video-distribution company called Uniview, that I saved with a degree of prescience […]

8 | The Research Process: Part 1

While Research Methods at a-level aren’t everyone’s cup of tea they can be interesting if students are given the time and space to bring together the theory with the practice. Unfortunately I can’t help you here with the practice (although I can give you a few pointers about how to carry-out a range of cheap […]

Rethinking Obesity: Nature via Nurture?

This new film, featuring contributions from Dr Giles Yeo and Dr Clare Llewellyn, examines the evidence for and against the influence of environment and genetics in explaining obesity. The 16 minute film is split into three sections: The first focuses on “Nurture” – the influence of environmental factors, from advertising to food processing, as an […]

Categorising Situational Crime Prevention Strategies

Situational crime prevention is an area that has grown in significance over the past 30 years, both in terms of social policies towards crime and sociological / criminological solutions to “the problem of crime”; it involves, according to Clarke (1997), a range of measures designed to reduce or eliminate “opportunities for crime” in three main […]

Psychology: Hard-to-Find Classics

For a number of years Dr Julia Russell wrote a Psychology Column for a film distribution company called Uniview and when this company decided to call it a day all the resources she’d created disappeared from the web with nary a sound to indicate they’d ever been there. However, with a display of foresight that, […]

Sociology ShortCuts F’sheet

I’ve posted a couple of times about the Sociology Factsheets produced by Curriculum Press –  particularly about how it might be an idea for teachers to get their students to make their own versions as both a revision aid and teaching resource for future sociology students – and I thought it might be interesting to […]

Free Chapter: The Psychology of Addictive Behaviour

The third – and probably final – free chapter from Holt and Lewis’ “A2 Psychology: The Student’s Textbook”, this one covers addictive behaviour in terms of main areas: 1. Models Biological, cognitive and learning models of addiction, including explanations for initiation, maintenance and relapse Explanations for specific addictions, including smoking and gambling 2. Factors affecting […]