Using games in a classroom setting to help engagement and learning is becoming popular, but controlled investigations into the benefits of games are few. Games are potentially a way to incorporate retrieval practice into a class and garner subsequent benefits to memory. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether a board game assisted…

It is known that first-year retention rates are a cause for concern within higher education. One way in which to tackle this is to consider how institutions can best prepare new students for the transition to university. The current paper details a project from the University of the West of Scotland where first year psychology students enrolled on…

The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a national lockdown, and the implementation of Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) in higher education (HE), but there is a gap in the literature in terms of how Psychology students, studying a single-honours degree in the UK, responded to ERT for practical lab classes. The aim of this study was to assess the…

Statistics is a core subject in the psychology undergraduate curriculum and is often associated with increased anxiety among learners. The aim of this study was to identify factors relating to statistics anxiety, and specifically, how prior experiences in mathematics and A-Level science qualifications may influence students' perceptions as they…

From a series of listening exercises as part of the Race Equality Review (2021) at the University of Reading, it become clear that decolonising the curriculum is important to both students and staff. The aim of the decolonising the curriculum project was to create an effective resource to support colleagues to decolonise their curricula across a…

A feminist perspective is not only compatible with the history, objectives, and emphases of social psychology, but necessary for its continued vitality' (Lott, 1991, p.505). Social psychology is a core component of the British Psychological Society accreditation of psychology programmes. Typically, the teaching of social psychology relies upon…

Whilst the widening participation programme aims to increase the accessibility of undergraduate study for students with a lower socio-economic status, much less support is available for students wishing to progress to postgraduate study. Postgraduate study risks becoming a discipline exclusive to those from upper-middle class and upper-class…

In the wake of the Open Science movement, a large number of training events have emerged. Addressing different topics and target audiences ranging from students to senior researchers, they all are contributing to the goal of making the psychology more open, transparent, and reproducible. In the present paper, the authors, based on their active…

The pandemic resulted in many courses being shifted to online delivery, but some courses are designed as online courses from their conception. Courses intentionally designed for online delivery should be well-received by students, but it is not clear which aspects of courses students find particularly appealing and unappealing. We examined…

A major aim of psychology education is to train students in psychological literacy -- the ability to apply psychological knowledge to everyday activities. In this paper we explore how well this has been achieved in recent years. As a result of COVID-19 the focus of teaching in recent months has inevitably been on developing online methods of…

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…

Drug and alcohol neonate simulators were used to highlight the effects of substance misuse on prenatal development within lifespan development modules to 61 Psychology undergraduates and 12 sixth-form Health and Social Care students. A mixed method approach was used considering both knowledge development and perceptions of experiential hands-on…

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…

Restrictions on in-person teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic severely challenged higher education practices worldwide. While didactic delivery of course content is easily achievable with virtual teaching technologies, promoting critical engagement with this material can be more difficult, particularly with classes of larger size and lower…

Higher education (HE) is fairly accommodating of sexual diversity in many countries. However, lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other sexual minority (LGBT+) students and staff still face many challenges regarding acceptance and integration which may impact learning and teaching experiences. This article discusses the relevance of LGBT+…