There is considerable evidence that 'active learning' strategies are more efficacious than traditional 'passive learning' methods (e.g. lecture). Presented here is a small group active learning project developed for undergraduate social psychology students. The activity involves carrying out and reporting the results of a structured demonstration…

Academic achievement can be thought of as the extent to which learning has been accomplished. Previous work suggests that students' self-esteem is impacted by academic achievement, though it is not entirely clear why this is. The current study therefore explored this through interviewing eight psychology students from a Scottish university, before…

Research methods and statistics are cornerstones of undergraduate psychology degrees. However, many students find the subject uninteresting and anxiety provoking, while educators find it challenging to teach. This multi-method action research project explored how e-learning activities within a blended learning context affected students' experience…

We explored whether the academic grade a student sees influences how positively or negatively they interpret written assessment feedback. Specifically, an experimental design was used where N = 94 psychology students each read an identical passage of neutrally worded feedback. Depending upon which of three experimental conditions they had been…

Practice-Based Learning Days (PBLDs) account for approximately one-third of the total university-lead days on Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP) training courses. In this article, I consider a number of challenges facing teachers of PWPs and describe a recent attempt to respond to these challenges by restructuring the content of our PBLDs…

Encouraging students to 'believe that they can achieve' is a central element to teaching. The belief that it is one's efforts and techniques, rather than one's innate abilities which lead to success has a positive impact on learning behaviours. As such, Yvonne Skipper strives to promote this malleable view of intelligence (or growth mindset) in…

This paper examines an experiment conducted at a 2-year college with non-majors. The Immediate Feedback Assessment Technique (IFAT) is a cross between a lottery scratch ticket and a scantron form which was designed to replace scantrons (EpsteinEducation.com). Using the IFAT in an unconventional way (reviewing class material), we expected to find…

This paper describes the development and delivery of an innovative approach to teaching qualitative research methods in psychology. The teaching incorporated a range of "active" pedagogical practices that it shares with other teaching in this area, but was designed in such a way as to follow the arc of a qualitative research project in…

Over the last 15 years, the subject of feedback on assessment has come under considerable scrutiny in the literature, with a particular focus on the utility of feedback for subsequent assessment (i.e. feed-forward). Organisations such as the Higher Education Academy (HEA) have synthesised research on this topic into guidance for tutors through the…

Student response systems (SRS) are hand-held devices or mobile phone polling systems which collate real-time, individual responses to on-screen questions. Previous research examining their role in higher education has highlighted both advantages and disadvantages of their use. This paper explores how different SRS influence the learning experience…

The ability to reason scientifically and communicate research appropriately is central to psychological literacy. Scientific research has little value unless scientists are able to convey results and their consequences clearly to others. In this study, we outline a method of assessing the development of psychological literacy in undergraduate…

Statistics and Research Methods modules are often unpopular with psychology students; however, at Oxford Brookes University the seminar component of the second-year research methods module tends to get very positive feedback. Over half of the seminars work towards the submission of a research-based experimental lab report. This article introduces…

The first cohort of a new MSc programme is due to complete the course in August 2014. During the three-year online course students conduct several pieces of action research in their classrooms. There is little research specifically related to classroom practice in the pre-tertiary psychology classroom. The following describes the rationale and…

Although conventional psychology is often characterised as the science of the individual mind, it is also important to introduce students to the potential interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional nature of psychology. In this paper we outline the design, development, and delivery of an innovative course that employed an ecological framework to…

Patchwork text assessment offers an alternative to traditional forms of assessment that are often focused on single assessment outcomes. Embedded within patchwork text assessment is formative assessment whereby short pieces of work, or patches, are shared with staff or peers for feedback which students can reflect upon and use to amend their work…