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Themantic Education’sIB PSYCHOLOGYA Student’s GuideA novel approach for the new IB Psychology syllabusI could keep writing more as this is how I’ve felt over the past several years grappling with the IB Psychology course. The themantic approach I’ve very carefully designed can alleviate all those fears I’ve just mentioned. I know this sounds like an infomercial and a “too good to be true”, but the approach is really quite simple once you understand its practical application. Moreover, I’m a classroom teacher first and foremost and so I’ve developed a textbook and accompanying resources that are designed to be used in the classroom on a daily basis. The text and workbooks have also been trialed on my own students, with improvements and adaptions being made based on their feedback. What is a themantic approach?Themantic Education offers a complete curriculum paradigm, but that’s not essential to know right now. Basically, instead of teaching the core and options separately, they’re combined. All the same learning outcomes are achievable and all the overlaps are removed. For instance, when teaching students about how hormones can influence behaviour we can focus on testosterone and aggression. If you are teaching the course in a linear way (e.g. outcome by outcome, topic by topic) you would teach this at the BLA and then again perhaps during biological origins of violence (or “conflict” as it’s called in the new course) if you taught the Human Relationships option. This doubles the amount of time spent teaching very similar outcomes. The themantic approach simply looks at how testosterone can affect aggression under the theme of criminology so the same learning can be applied in either an exam question about hormones (BLA) or an exam question about origins of violence/conflict. (Human Relationships).So by using the Abnormal Psychology and Human Relationships option as the base of the units (because these are the most popular) and making sure the BLA, CLA, and SCLA can be applied as much as possible to these two options, the content has been drastically reduced. The course has the following base units that cover the core and the options:CriminologyLinks with Bio, Cog, Soc/Cult, Developmental, Health, and Human RelationshipsSocial InfluenceLinks with Soc/Cult, Bio, Cog, and Human RelationshipsPost-Traumatic Stress DisorderLinks with Bio, Cog, Soc/cult, Developmental, Health and Abnormal PsychLove and MarriageLinks with Bio, Soc/cult, and Human RelationshipsThere are multiple possible options for differentiating between SL and HL that have all been planned and accounted for but I won’t go into them in this introduction. But to give the simplest example, SL students can drop the “Love and Marriage” as the first three contain everything they need for Paper 1 and Paper 2. There are other ways to differentiate, and these will be made clear later. There will be a Teacher’s Edition of the textbook and plenty of other support resources that will explain various approaches and rationales behind the inclusion/exclusion of particular material. Again, this book has not been produced as a reference, but as a working accompaniment to the teaching of the course. Summary of the ChaptersChapter One: IntroductionChapter Two: Criminology Chapter Three: Social Influence Chapter Four: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)Chapter Five: Love and MarriageChapter Six: Quantitative Research MethodsChapter Seven: The Internal Assessment Chapter Eight: Extension Topics (HL Only)Chapter Nine: Qualitative Research Methods (HL Only)Chapter Ten: Exam PreparationChapter Eleven: The Extended EssayChapter Twelve: ConclusionIntroductionThis unit is designed to take the first few lessons of the course to introduce students to the study of psychology, including providing a general understanding of the definition: “the scientific study of individual behaviour and mental processes.” An introduction on how to analyse research and draw conclusions is included, as well as an explanation of what is required for achieving excellence in IB Psychology. CriminologyThis unit primarily focuses on biological correlates of violence, aggression and criminal behaviour. Within the theme of criminology, there are numerous sub-themes, including the role of the prefrontal cortex in decision making and the amygdala in emotional responses. These sub-themes have been included to reduce content further to allow more time to develop deep understanding of behaviour. These themes also serve as a good base for studying PTSD. Theories of cognition (decision making), social influences and origins of conflict are also introduced. Preview available. Social Influence This unit introduces students to popular concepts like conformity, obedience and compliance. Important theories such as Social Identity Theory, Social Cognitive Theory and Hoefstede’s Cultural Dimension Theory are also explored. Students get a chance to learn about famous experiments like Zimbardo, Milgram and Asch. There’s also overlap with the “group dynamics” and “social responsibility” section of Human Relationships.Post-Traumatic Stress DisorderThis unit begins by developing in students an understanding of memory and memory processes, as it is the cognitive symptoms of PTSD (and their biological correlates) that will primarily be addressed in this unit. This ensures that all topics from the cognitive approach are covered. The remainder of the unit focuses on symptoms, etiologies, treatments and diagnosis of PTSD. Love and Marriage This unit addresses the personal relationships section of human relationships. Biological and socio-cultural origins of attraction are explored, as well as the role of culture in the formation and maintenance of marriages. How communication can affect marriages, positively and negatively, is also explored. Quantitative Research MethodsThis unit reinforces understanding of research methods and ethical considerations, which may be the basis of exam questions in Paper 1 and/or 2. It’s advisable that SL students focus primarily on quantitative methods, as a majority of the research used for the approaches and the options uses these methods.The Internal AssessmentThis unit provides students with all the guidance on researching, planning, conducting and writing their experimental report.Extension Topics (HL Only) (New for this syllabus)This is a new addition to the core approaches that can’t be explained too much until the new syllabus is published, but the HL students have additional topics to the core (BLA, CLA, SCLA). In some ways these are similar to the “principles of the levels of analysis” in the current course. The content for these extension topics has already been covered in the first four units, this chapter just allows teachers and students to make the requirements explicit. The IB allocates 30 hours for this unit, but the entire time won’t be needed as double-ups with other parts of the course are utilized. Research Methods (HL Only)This is for Paper 3, and will contain qualitative research methodology and other material required for HL students’ Paper 3. Exam PreparationThis chapter shows students how three sentences can turn a 4 SAQ into a 7! It provides step-by-step guidance on how to use everything they’ve learned in the themantic course and turn it into excellent exam answers. It also provides in-depth revision assistance and the accompanying workbook will also provide frameworks for revision and effective note taking. The only drawback with the themantic approach, if you can call it a drawback, is that students will have too many ways they can answer each exam question. For instance, when discussing localization of brain function there are multiple studies they could choose from. This section allows students to make informed decisions of what is best for them to choose. It will allow you as a teacher to see that they will approach every possible question correctly and provide guidance where necessary. Extended EssayAs supervising students with the EE and providing support and guidance is a source of stress for many teachers, this chapter is included and will serve as another resource to help EE supervisors guide their students through choosing a suitable topic, conducting effective research and writing an effective report with a honed and focused research question. Not sure?If you’re not sure whether or not you want to adopt the themantic approach, you’ve got nothing to lose by giving it a go in the first year. The Criminology and Social Influence chapters are basically covering the Biological and Sociocultural Approaches, with the added bonus of hitting topics in the options. If you decided after the first year it wasn’t working, you wouldn’t have lost any teaching time by swapping to a more traditional model for the second year. For example, the criminology section covers nearly everything you need for the Biological Approach in (roughly) the same amount of time, but it has the added advantage of also including:Cultural influences on behaviour (Testosterone and the “Culture of Honour”)Thinking and Decision Making (The Dual Process Model of Judgement and Decision Making)Biological Influences on cognition (the role of the prefrontal cortex in judgement and decision making)Origins of Conflict (aggression and/or violent crime can be readily applied to this topic)Cognitive and Brain Development (Environmental influences on brain development)Childhood trauma (Deprived and/or abusive environments and brain function)Poverty/socio-economic status (Deprived environments and brain development)Bandura’s Social Cognitive TheoryAn understanding of the amygdala in stress and emotion, which is key in studying PTSD later on.Final ThoughtMy biggest goal for this text is that is enables the development of understanding of complex psychological phenomena by focusing on multiple possible factors that influence individual behaviour and mental processes. This is also the goal of the IB Psychology syllabus, but the problem is that its current format does not readily facilitate the development of a course that will ensure deep understanding. The options have been reduced to 20 hours each in the new course. In my mind, there is absolutely no way we can prepare students to write essays on all the possible options topics without combining the core and options (i.e. adopting a themantic approach). I’ve seen the effects in my own students, and I hope you’ll be willing to at least trial the approach for the first year. Thank you!Travis Dixon. ................
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