Psychology
Lead Teacher: Ms hawkins
Intent
We aim to create the best Psychology students. The aim of the Psychology curriculum is to equip students with the appropriate knowledge and skills needed to be able to understand and explain the causes of human behaviour and the impact of this behaviour on wider society. We do this using quality first teaching, which ensures students understand underlying psychological principles and can apply them in a variety of familiar and unfamiliar contexts. We want students to be able to think analytically and reach logical conclusions based on scientific evidence.
St Bernard’s follows the AQA specification for Psychology. It is the specification followed by most schools nationally and develops a range of valuable skills, including critical analysis, independent thinking and research. These skills are particularly relevant and transferable to further study and the workplace.
St Bernard’s follows the linear course for A-level Psychology, with students taking terminal exams in Year 13. The department has chosen to teach along the AS to full A-level route, with minor alterations. The rationale for this is to give students the ability to take the AS examination, if the school decides that this would be appropriate.
The Psychology curriculum supports the ethos statement of the school. Students are constantly challenged to work collaboratively and think independently when engaging in all lessons and class debates. Through teacher modelling, we encourage our students to demonstrate manners, respect and critical thinking in lessons. This allows students to express themselves in a confident manner. Lesson materials are engaging to promote topical discussion and encourage students to develop an enquiring mind.
Implementation
As Psychology A Level is a knowledge-based curriculum we believe that knowledge underpins and enables the application of skills; both are entwined. Content is delivered to students and then built upon through a variety of practice questions, with regular quality feedback being given to support student progress. The knowledge acquired then allows students to develop their analytical and critical thinking skills.
Cultural Capital is embedded throughout. Students are introduced to a wide variety of viewpoints from some of the most influential Psychologists throughout history. We study the impact that their work has had on the world we live in and students are encouraged to make links between their studies and real-life examples. Students are expected to analyse the relative contributions of competing theories to discuss their impact on our understanding of human behaviour and society. In addition to our aims, our curriculum design includes revisiting and building on existing knowledge. We ensure the level of challenge is high enough for the most able, with scaffold and support available for students who need it.
The curriculum at St Bernard’s goes far beyond what is taught in lessons, for whilst we want students to achieve the best examination results possible, we believe our curriculum goes beyond what is examinable. Students are given the opportunity to develop their wider appreciation of psychology through the news articles shared on the VLE. The department is also introducing half termly lunchtime lectures on a range of topics that extend their knowledge beyond the curriculum. These lectures will be open to all KS4 and KS5 students, as way of promoting the subject within the wider school community.
Detailed and thorough curriculum planning lies at the heart of what we do in the department. We use resources and teaching strategies to ensure that students have a comprehensive knowledge of the specifications and can go beyond what is taught in lessons.
Techniques to help develop long-term memory and help students master subject content are embedded in the curriculum (e.g. Spaced Learning, Cornell Method of notetaking). These are focussed on embedding challenge, metacognition, memory techniques, numeracy and literacy into our departmental curriculum.
To complement the schemes of work, students also engage in Psychology using ‘Daily Dose’ booklets. These booklets allow students to gain valuable insight into the demands of the examination, through regular practice of examination questions and through developing an understanding of the marking process.
In Psychology we also implement our curriculum through using a variety of teaching strategies and kinaesthetic tasks and the use of technology, as well as more traditional skills practice. The department is developing the use of the school’s new VLE site to enable all students use this to access the departmental resources both in lessons and remotely.
The head of department has been an examiner for AQA for many years and is an active member of a network of AQA Psychology teachers, to ensure that knowledge and teaching ideas are fresh, dynamic and up-to-date and linked to the requirements of the examinations.
See below the rationale for the order of the teaching of the AQA units and topics.
Impact
We know our curriculum is working in the Psychology department as examination results are consistently above the national average and among the best in the school at A-level.
The quality of teaching and learning in Psychology has been praised during learning walks by both external and internal observers.
The engagement of students in the department can be observed in lessons and recorded in student voice. The number of students choosing to study Psychology at A Level is high and several of our students go on to study the subject further at university.
More importantly, students frequently express their enjoyment of Psychology, the quality of teaching they have received and their appreciation of the knowledge and study skills they have gained from the department as evidenced by feedback forms.