Heroes are celebrated as special people. They’re different from you and me.  We see the fearless and selfless acts of famous heroes throughout history and say, ‘I couldn’t have done that. What an extraordinary person!’

It’s an interesting self-deception. The reality is that the act of heroism is extraordinary. The person performing it is more often than not perfectly ordinary. History is littered with ordinary people doing extraordinary things who become labelled as heroes. To gain this label, the ordinary person’s extraordinary act must satisfy three conditions. It must include an element of risk or sacrifice. It needs to be for the good of others without expectation of any personal gain. It has to be done willingly and deliberately.  This definition of an heroic act allows for heroes everywhere.  They’re living in your town, eating at the same restaurants as you, and sitting in your classroom. However, they’re still rare. How do we increase the incidence of heroic acts? The answer comes from Dr Phil Zimbardo – the promotion of the Heroic Imagination. By regularly thinking about heroism, discussing heroic acts, and considering situations that call for heroism, these ordinary people are more likely to perform heroic acts when called upon.

The classroom is an ideal place for nurturing the Heroic Imagination as children are more likely to accept the possibilities of everyday heroism. Adults already know everything. So here are four steps to growing heroes in your classroom.

Who is a hero?

The first business at hand is to separate the fake heroes from the real deal. The best way I’ve found to do this is simply present a series of famous people for the students to classify as hero or celebrity. You can do this visually with a T-Chart. Don’t set any definitions for either category, simply allow the students to discuss their decisions. If a consensus can’t be made, leave that person out.

The goal of this step is to get each student thinking about their own ‘hero’ definition. With their brains engaged, move onto the second step.

What makes a hero?

What differentiated the heroes from the celebrities? By reviewing the selection process your class should be able to come up with a set of attributes that seem to be required for hero status. You could have the class do it as a whole or split them up into small groups. The groups could then present their set of attributes to the rest of the class. There is ample opportunity to discuss the meanings of the words presented – many will be similar in meaning.

How can I be a hero?

Now comes the ‘ah ha!’ moment. By creating a list of attributes, students will have developed a road map to heroism. This is where you can introduce the concept of the heroic act. It is the practice of these attributes that prompt ordinary people to do the extraordinary. With their list handy, your students will be able to choose the attributes that appeal most to them and put them into practice. This deliberate behaviour is the kind of thing that develops Heroic Imagination. However, they’re going to need your help and that’s where step four comes in.

How can I keep this up?

The vital piece in the Heroic Imagination puzzle is consistent revisiting. Heroic Imagination is developed through regular exposure to heroism and consideration of heroic behaviour and situations. There are myriad ways to accomplish this in your classroom and ultimately you’re going to be the best judge of how to do it.

There are two keys to keeping it current. The first is to use the language the class developed in part two. If you embrace their words and use them to describe their own behaviour as well as acts seen in the public eye, they’re more likely to continue practising them.

The second is to develop routines. You could allocate a window of time each week for the sharing of heroic acts noticed in the media.

The class could create a hero award that is given out at the end of every week. The award could be restricted to people in the class, or perhaps to people in the community or beyond.

The important thing is to create anticipation and expectation of regular forays into heroism and its people. It is with this that you will notice Heroic Imagination come to the fore in your classroom. I’d love to hear your stories.

Matt Langdon

http://theheroconstructioncompany.com.

Zim writes about heroism;

www.lucifereffect.org/heroism.htm

Zim talks about it;

www.ted.com/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html

A survey at;

http://heroworkshop.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/new-zimbardoresearch-a-survey/

Media texts can be some of the more influential tools we have at our disposal as teachers. In this article, I am going to suggest ways in which you may choose to harness media texts for your teaching purposes, without getting side-tracked by students losing interest or them missing the bigger picture.

So let’s try this together.
Think of a film. What about a romantic comedy? You would all know what I was talking about, correct? Something with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, Hugh Grant, Matthew McConaughey, Kate Hudson.  Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back. Easy right? You know the drill.

So if I was to say to you that I wanted to talk to you about a point in my life when I lived through that exact scenario, you could understand what I was talking about because you would associate it with that experience of your own, the time you watched when Harry met Sally for example. It’s the same process for your students.  Through the use of the right media clip, we can directly reinforce and create a link for students to think back on and remember.  It is because of this that I find it odd that so many subject areas struggle with the use of media within their teaching practice. Now I’m not arguing that you have to relate each topic to a student’s very own favourite film, you could however make certain generalisations.

One of the biggest problems with the use of film or media in lessons is its perceived irresponsibility. Too often in the past, tutors have been guilty of just sticking on any old film for students to watch in order to keep them quiet. I myself had this treatment every Monday morning when rather than deliver tutorial, our school tutor would stick a film on, which I can only assume would allow him time to recover from the weekend. I still remember more about those films than I do about the actual lessons he delivered.

There are key things to remember when utilising media examples in session:

• Relevance
• Length
• Obscurity
• Effectiveness
• Genre

Some of these are fairly self-explanatory, relevance obviously refers to the actual usefulness of the piece. Showing your students Freud : The Secret Passion (1962 dir. John Huston) is unlikely to truly teach your students much useful about the practices of the man. Showing One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975 dir. Milo, Forman) however, as an indication of how mental health was dealt with in the past could well be of use. Effectiveness is next, and I hate to say it, but quite often shocking your students will be most effective. Again  using One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest as an example, the fact of the matter is One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest works both as a film and as a teaching tool due to its shocking end, especially now when students are used to the ‘Hollywood’ happy ending. Taking students out of their comfort zone can sometimes be a good thing. Obscurity is a fairly similar idea to effectiveness in this context. If you screen a piece of work to students that they have already seen or is a huge blockbuster, they are less likely to actually take in the educational value of it and just watch it for the sake of  entertainment, which is of course not the point of this. An example of this might be to utilise Scum or Romper Stomper as examples of anti-social behaviour as opposed to say the more commercially known Green Street or Football Factory. Having said that, don’t necessarily discount something just because it’s huge, just ask yourself first, “Will my students benefit from this?”.

Tying in with this is genre, comedy can be tremendously effective; allowing students the opportunity to learn and simultaneously enjoy themselves should not be discouraged. Unfortunately though, most comedy films will lead to students merely listening to the jokes and forgoing the point. This can be said for horror also as when in larger groups, students can have a tendency to giggle or laugh when nervously watching a horror film. This can also lead to them missing the point.

The last point here is possibly the most important, Length. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT feel that you always have to show an entire film.  The fact of the matter is, if you are trying to get a point across using film, you may be able to do it with a simple scene or two. It is not necessarily important that students follow the plot or get to see the ending. The fact is, if they are that bothered about seeing the ending, they will seek the film out themselves.

Just utilise what is most important. Sometimes it is important you stop yourself from showing the whole film (who amongst us has never been tempted to watch a film and forgo teaching for an hour or two?).

Also remember that film can be a tremendously powerful tool and can help to break up some of the drier portions of a session. I am yet to find a subject matter that I cannot illuminate in some way for students by using a piece of film footage.

Chris Hallam – Media teacher at Confetti Institute of Creative
Technologies, Nottingham

DEBRIEFING MEANS never having to say you’re sorry?

Debriefing – Following the research, especially where any deception or withholding of information had taken place, the committee wishes to emphasise the importance of appropriate debriefing. In some circumstances, the verbal description of the nature of the investigation would not be sufficient to eliminate all possibility of harmful after-effects. For example, an experiment in which negative mood was induced requires the induction of a happy mood state before the participant leaves the experimental setting.

BPS Guidelines, 23-7-2009.

Love means never having to say you’re sorry.
Ali McGraw to Ryan O’Neal in the movie Love Story 1970.

As a newbie in the teaching world of psychology (three years) but not a newbie in life (just coming up to 50) I have been interested in the nature some issues are dealt with by some much more experienced teachers and lecturers than I. Recently, at an excellent OCR conference, I heard a Professor discussing memory and mentioning her use of implanting false memories in her psychological research, its usefulness to her and its wider acceptance in the field. She said it was all ethical and fine in her research as everyone had been debriefed so that was OK, but is it OK? As background she mentioned `the mousetrap experiment` as an example of how introduced memory in children can surface later in life and be confused with actual memory. I had never heard of this experiment so did a bit of digging around in the arena of false memory.

My issue, in the area of memory and debrief, is that I say to students that debrief is used to respect the participants ‘wish to’ understand what has happened, but I often forget to add that this does not mean the participants should accept our explanation especially if they, for the good of science, have been deceived. If I can deceive them in small things, how do they know that I am not deceiving them in larger things, does offering a debrief circumvent our saying sorry when we have deliberately changed a person’s view of events, who are we to say what is harmless and what is not?

Understanding of the BPS ethical guidelines is drummed into our A level students from day one and we try to get them to see the importance of being open and honest and professional with each other and with themselves about the nature of their work, research interests, and how what they know can affect who they know. Brandishing newly acquired social skills through a study of psychology still makes those with only a cursory knowledge of the subject a little nervous, and I always advise care when students start to discuss what they have learnt with family and peers. No we can’t read minds, but we can have a jolly good go at it when no-one is looking!

Knowing something gives us an advantage, from how to change a tyre to how to read reactions, with knowledge comes understanding and hopefully responsibility. I have now expanded the teaching of ethics in the new spec (OCR 2009/10) to include all nine ethical aspects rather that the five I used to use in the first two years of my career. (Informed consent – Deception – Debriefing – Right to withdraw – Protection of participants, now adding Confidentiality – Observational research- Giving advice – Colleagues.) I had always inferred the extra four (adding Confidentiality – Observational research – Giving advice – Colleagues) but from this year enshrined them from week one in AS methodology classes with the eager Year 12s.

But back to my original idea – the BPS argument quoted above reinforces the idea that a participant should leave an experiment in the same emotional state that they enter it, but specifically emphasise the negative. In August I had the good fortune to visit Boston Massachusetts, taking a day trip to Harvard University. The square outside the walls of the grand college was crowded with tourists, hawkers and students offering free tours whilst standing next to a large placard which informed the curious that ‘students live on tips so please be generous’. I hurried through the crowd but heard two students shout ‘be part of a psychology experiment’. It had a ‘roll up…, roll up!’ kind of carnival feel about it so I volunteered. I had to imagine a happy incident in my life then turn the page over and answer questions. I did so using a rating scale, which they insisted was a Likert scale but was not (not so clever there then) and then I gave back the form. They thanked me and carried on touting for business. I asked for a de-brief and they were very apologetic about not having offered it, scolding themselves that in future they would. I felt very smug that I had caught them out in a little methodological gaff, apparently 27,000 people apply to Harvard every year and only 7% get accepted, my kids are cleverer than I thought because they know to debrief at 17. So the experiment used my subjective memory of a happy incident then tried to find out if my positive frame of mind would alter the ratings I gave. I wasn’t harmed obviously, but if the experiment was designed to change my mood then according to BPS the debrief should be applicable regardless of the positive nature of the outcome. I know guidelines are as diverse as the countries which try to enforce them and that memory is subjective so I made a mental note to think about both on my return to the UK.

The nature of memory, like my happy memory in Harvard Yard, is debated endlessly in psychology textbooks and papers. Elizabeth Loftus is a big name in OCR study and in her book ‘The Myth of Repressed Memory’ she continues her quest to help the world understand how vulnerable and open to change our precious memories are and her belief that repressed memory is an illusion, thus saying goodbye forever to daddy Freud, and throwing doubt on acres of court testimony in sexual abuse cases, a subject in which Loftus often appears as an expert witness. The consequences of her belief make her as unpopular with some groups as she is popular with others, leaving not much room for fence sitting. If you believe in repressed memory and the ability for therapy to uncover secrets then she is a demon, if you feel that memory archaeology is a playground for those who wish to influence and implant memories then she is an angel with an unpalatable message. I believe she sees the therapeutic process in recovering memories as a form of informative debrief where memories are induced in an effort to give the patient some kind of understanding as to the process they have been involved in but previously were deceived by, but in this process the memories can be manipulated and moulded. Loftus may see this as well meaning but dangerous and of no benefit to the patient regardless of how important the therapist says the recovering of repressed abuse is to the patient’s recovery and health.

Nigel Hunt in his article ‘Debriefing children and Young People’ (lost the reference but its page 59 when I find it) writes about the use of PD (psychological debriefing) when it comes to helping children and young people deal with traumatic events in their life to prevent the onset of PTSD. Offering help and talking things through is examined from a clinical perspective and concludes that much of the evidence of success is anecdotal but surrounding evidence about children and trauma generally more abundant. This surrounding evidence is often more peer assessed giving greater credibility to the psychological interventionist approach when it comes to helping children deal with trauma.

He discusses the fine line between revealing too much to a child during an intervention which could harm their own internal acceptance and healing process and withholding to protect which could lead to later trust issues when the child realizes they were further deceived, even for all the right reasons. Revealing truth has its own ethical dilemmas, but then if all that is left is memory of the events with no corroborating forensic evidence then whose truth is the most truthful?

I expect that debriefing is seen as a powerful tool in somehow healing up the mistrust between any participant and experimenter, saying that something was in fact a little white lie or a ruse is a way of saying sorry and being up front, hopefully this is supposed to heal the rift of mistrust however minor the deception was.

Elizabeth Loftus too used false memories in her own research ‘Loftus and colleagues’ (Loftus 1993, Loftus and Ketcham 1994, Loftus and Pickrell 1995) demonstrated that people can be led to integrate into their personal histories an entirely fabricated event.  Over the course of several interviews that involved using a subject’s family member as a confederate, subjects were led to believe that they had been lost in a shopping mall when they were young children.’ (Lynn p138)

Is this acceptable psychological experimental method to test the reliability of memory as practised by such luminaries as Elizabeth Loftus when she in turn rails against the claims of repressed memory therapists who in their memory recovery work claim validity to abuse memories, long buried, from clients whose perpetrators profess innocence? Both seem to have similar aims, to prove that memory is vitally important in the human experience but for different ends, one that it is fallible, the other that it is a storehouse of the too terrible to live with. Both sides claim they are right, perhaps someone could debrief me and tell me which side to believe more.

Research into adults who had had false memories implanted as children was carried out by Huffman, Crossman and Cessi in 1996, corroborated some years later, stated that out of 22 children who had been part of an experiment about an angry child called Sam Stone (Leichtman & Ceci 1995) that anything from 13-33% of the participants remembered the fabrications as truth. So when implanting memories in children, or adults for that matter, even if we give an in-depth debrief, we still leave a shadow on the memory in the participant. The Mousetrap study which I mentioned earlier (Ceci, Huffman, Smith and Loftus 1994) introduced a story of a child getting his/her fingers caught in a mousetrap, which never happened. I could not find much data about this so some of you may have more. Some children remembered it as real when questioned and the same children were later interviewed in a follow-up study several weeks later (20/20 interview with John Stossel 1994). A child still ascertained the mousetrap and, by inference, the pain was real. These studies are often quoted when the credibility of child witnesses is challenged, can children be relied upon, and for that matter can an adult of be relied upon? Lauren Slater in her excellent book ‘Inside Skinners Box’ challenges Loftus’s idea of all memory being completely fallible saying that it seems to turn us all into subjective witnesses to events which have no common heritage, each of us sees everything as a personal experience and none of it could be true. She thinks that is depressing, which I suppose it is. Slater also writes with feeling about the participants in the original Milgram experiment kids all know and love and traced some of them. Even though they were all debriefed, the events had a traumatic effect on many of their lives changing forever their view of themselves and their capacity to be compliant in the face of authority; debrief was given but no-one said sorry. Loftus comes through continuing to state the claim that courts which decide life or death for murderers still rely on eye-witness testimony and faulty memory to make their decisions, so her quest continues.

Finally an article in the ‘The Guardian’ of 2003 called ‘We can implant entirely false memories’ begins with a story where Elizabeth Loftus convinces Alan Alda (actor Hawkeye of MASH fame) that he dislikes hard boiled eggs because he made himself vomit on them as a child. The article talks of suggestibility and how plausibility improves the chances of accepting a story is true, such as kids and bullying, being lost in a shopping centre, both socially regular occurrences in western society. If it happened to someone you know then it could have happened to you too. The Welcome Institute proved that emotionally charged words such as ‘murder’ and ‘scream’ were more easily remembered than more neutral words in their testing of a memory assisting beta blocker drug called Propranolol. So I return to my original issue, debriefing.  Telling a child they were hurt by a mouse trap seems innocuous, it is not a life-threatening event but if you are three years old it’s quite a biggie. If this is acceptable then great care is needed. The professor I met at the OCR conference changed the process to include a false memory of a pleasant event, which was also successful, so perhaps time has mellowed the American research programme, but still, for me, it feels a little uncomfortable to do this with children. These memory altered children grow up and then you could let your conspiracy theory Hollywood movie mind go wild and wonder if our deliberate interference might have a butterfly effect creating super hero type monsters…and then…and then…but perhaps I am being too dramatic.

Mark Judge Head of Psychology Dept, the Leventhorpe School, Sawbridgeworth

m.judge@leventhorpe.herts.sch.uk

References

Truth in Memory 2004 Lynn.s McConckey.
K Blackwell London 2004

The Myth of Repressed Memory
Dr Elizabeth Loftus & Katherine Ketcham 1994
St Martins Press New York USA

Expert witness directory
Publisher – Erlbaum associates

The Guardian Online
Guardian.co.uk
We can implant entirely false memories 4th Dec 2003 downloaded 23/7/9

Skinners Box
by Lauren Slater

Watch any of the current crop of TV ‘forensics’ shows such as CSI and Waking the Dead and you would be forgiven for thinking that the solving of crime is just a matter of making startling conclusions based on convenient scraps of evidence and interviews with made-to-order suspects.

HOWEVER, THE REAL-LIFE WORLD OF FORENSICS is a great deal more complex than its sexy TV counterparts would have us believe. It is a world which calls upon the expertise of a myriad of disciplines – psychology, pathology, serology, psychiatry, toxicology and ballistics – and one in which interest is growing rapidly within the educational world.

Delving into this world, an appearance at the 2009 Association for Teachers of Psychology (ATP) Annual Conference at Exeter University, saw OCR working with two leading forensic practitioners- Brian Hook and Clive Donner – as they launched their new GCSE Psychology specification.

Considered to be the highlight of the conference, Brian and Clive’s Psychology based workshops provided a fascinating insight into the techniques employed in forensic investigation – what constitutes a crime scene, how a crime scene is examined, how prints are identified and preserved, the interpretation of witness statements and the importance of fibre comparison.

Although forensic science is a versatile and powerful tool in the investigation of a crime, science alone is not enough. To be successful, forensic techniques must be utilised along with the knowledge and experience of detectives, uniformed police, and civilian experts. Following the event, OCR News met with Brian and Clive – known professionally as CSI4U and regular consultants to the emergency response agencies in Europe and many other parts of the world – to discuss the world of forensics.

CSI on TV – help or hindrance
So working with a name such as CSI4U, do Brian and Clive consider the existence of TV shows such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and the like to be a help or hindrance as they strive to introduce forensics to a new audience? Brian: “We often ask our fellow professionals and the teachers and students that we train if they watch CSI and the answer is that almost everyone does. People have always been intrigued by crime-solving fiction, their detection, criminals and their motives. CSI-type programmes have gone to a higher level, it’s not a ‘who dunnit’ but a ‘how we can prove they dunnit’.” The vast majority of people realise it’s an entertainment show; it’s the subject matter that is fascinating and enigmatic. The show makes people think. It’s raised the profile of Crime Scene Examination and Management greatly and for that we are grateful and in general people realise that the content, examination results and circumstances are shortened to fit into the time parameters. Hopefully one day we may be able to actually get results in the same time scale.”

Background and experience
Whilst pondering the future of forensics, Brian turns back the clock to the years of learning his trade. “I was a police officer in the Metropolitan Police for 30 years,” says Brian as he references an impressive CV. “Over half of that I spent on specialist units: homicide teams, murder as it was called in the old days; the Racial and Violent Crime Taskforce and the Anti-Terrorist Branch. In all those specialist roles I was involved in forensic examination of crime scenes, forensic management of crime scenes, lecturing and training to other agencies outside the police service and also within the police services, nationally and abroad. Most uniformed officers have a multitude of jobs to do. So it’s about knowledge, it’s about training and so early on I embarked, on behalf of senior officers, to spread the message – if people haven’t got that knowledge, go out and give it to them. As Clive can attest, nobody can possess all the knowledge, you can’t have it all, all you can do is pass on as much as you possibly can.”

Consultancy to education
So having established an impressive track record with the Metropolitan Police and as a forensics consultant, how did the move into the educational world come about? Brian: “I was approached by Thames Valley University to look at their Forensic Degree course, and at this time, Clive and I were also involved in training other agencies around the world. It was pointed out to us that what we were doing training-wise would actually be a very good platform for team-building and so we took part in an open day and as a result we got a phone call from a high school in Sussex asking us to go along and speak to them. It kind of ballooned from there really.”

Approach
With the move into the world of education underway, how much distinction was made in the approach to the teaching of forensics to fellow professionals as opposed to teachers and students? Brian: “Having lectured extensively in the UK and overseas to both groups I think the difference is not as big as some may imagine. One of our maxims is ‘Training as Real as It Gets’. We endeavour to make it just that. Both groups tend to have some general idea of forensic issues but the professionals, law enforcement. The main difference is the professionals are put under far more pressure and levels of scrutiny than teachers or students ever would be. If teachers or students then progress and themselves and enter the professional arena, that’s when they will come up against that level. We keep lectures to the minimal time as possible. The best way to learn is to bring together all the strands of knowledge in a practical hands-on way and involve students or delegates. Benjamin Franklin said: ‘Tell me and I will forget. Teach me and I will learn. Involve me and I will remember.’ So we involve them.”

Working with OCR
The ATP Conference saw Brian and Clive’s first association with OCR as they helped launch its new GCSE Psychology specification using a series of practical and theoretical activities entitled The Wonder of Forensic Psychology. “We were tasked with bringing out the psychological profiling and the psychological aspects of forensics so the first thing we did was to look at the definition of psychology,” remembers Clive. “We quickly realised that whilst they might have a good broad knowledge of psychology, they actually probably, other than CSI on TV, didn’t know a lot about forensics. So, the first thing we did was raise their level of forensics knowledge: what is it, how is it done, and why is it done? What are our capabilities and also what are our limitations?” After establishing a theoretical base, practical activities for delegates included the chance to make a photo-fit using actual Police software and the opportunity to guess ‘Who Dunnit’ following a robbery. Explains Brian: “We created a crime scene scenario – the theft of a valuable cup from Walkham Hall country house – which was broken down into different disciplines – physical exhibits, witness statements, E-fits and finger-print evidence. We injected clues so delegates would have to work out the significance to certain things. The answers were there for the teachers and students, but the whole purpose was for them to look at all the different aspects and to use their critical thinking to solve the crime.” “I think the crucial thing is that we recognise that all this has to be a positive experience. It’s no good it being otherwise. We want these activities to be informative and fun,” added Clive.

Moving forward
Flushed with their success at the ATP Conference, Brian and Clive are in [no] doubt as to the wisdom of teaching forensics and the benefits it brings to students and teachers as well as to themselves.  “To be a successful forensic psychologist you must have a firm understanding and knowledge of what drives an investigation and how the examination of a crime scene is done. Passing on the knowledge, experience and comprehension of scene examination and management forensics still excites us,“ affirms Brian. Equally enthused, Clive says: “To be able to pass that on to others with the same passion or to see that passion being woken is a magnificent feeling. I always had a thirst for knowledge and the one thing about what we do is you never stop learning.”

As to the way ahead, the course appears clear. “Clive and I have become more and more involved in the educational world and it’s obvious there is a need for our skills, knowledge and ability. We can impact on a variety of subjects where forensic knowledge is required either directly or because it forms a part of a broader knowledge base. I think that we and OCR complement each other and I believe hat working together in the future would be mutually beneficial.”

Catching the Ripper
Given the modern forensic science techniques available today, would such expertise have caught the perpetrator of the most famous of unsolved crimes – those of the Whitechapel Murderer himself, Jack the Ripper? “Most likely” is Brian’s answer. If the current methods and procedures had been in place we would like to think that they, or those responsible, would have been caught and convicted. The application of the disciplines of crime scene preservation and control and the continuity and integrity of the recovered forensic evidence would mean the evidence would provide much more information and intelligence about the suspect(s).” Although five murders are generally attributed to ‘Jack’, there were a total of 11 murders investigated between 1888 and 1891. “I know that the witness statements are no longer in existence, but the coroner’s inquest was widely reported and a lot of the testimony from private and police was reported verbatim so partial records do exist. So it would have been interesting to not only look at them forensically, but to also apply the current psychological profiling methods to the scenes, witnesses and potential suspects to enhance and focus the investigation.”

DURING MY PGCE YEAR AT MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN the importance of active learning in the classroom has been heavily stressed both whilst on placement and during my time in lectures at University. Even at the stage of an NQT (as I am now), the sinking sensation that comes with having to teach a particularly arduous topic, for which active learning strategies are scarce, has struck me
on many occasions. Hopefully the following activities can provide effective methods in the teaching of various topics which can be adapted to cross all specifications.

ACTIVITY ONE – Philosophy for Children
This activity is great for encouraging the development of personal learning and thinking skills as well as improving skills in debating. It also encourages all students, including those who may be generally less vocal, to express personal views in a respectful and civilised environment.

Step One: Find an article of a controversial nature. Examples of which could be: ‘Does childcare have negative implications for a child’s development?’

The students then read the article, after which the teacher instructs students that they must all individually generate a point of discussion raised through the article’s content. For example, from the above topic, a question that may be generated may be: ‘Why are children put into childcare in the first place?’

Step Two: Once the article has been read, the students are given time to consider points for discussion and must then express them to the class teacher. The contributions of all students are written on the whiteboard. Students must then all vote for the point of discussion that most interests them, or that they think would generate the richest debate. After the vote has been completed, they must then each give their personal view on the elected point. At this stage it is vital to discuss the importance of ground rules.

Important to note: The article has been selected on its merits of being controversial, as it is more likely to evoke reaction from students who may well not be used to expressing their personal opinions in front of their peers. The other edge of the sword is that it may generate controversial views that certain students may object to. Students should be made aware that when a student is vocally contributing to the debate, no other member of the class can interject whilst they are speaking. It may be useful to use a board pen that is passed round the class and only the student with the board pen can speak at any one time.

It may well be that the debate shifts focus as each member contributes, but this should be seen as enriching the discussion as opposed to losing focus. This activity also promotes a stretch and challenge theme of learning.

ACTIVITY TWO – Revision Activity
This activity is particularly effective due to its fast-paced nature. The teacher I picked this up from said she used it to good effect towards the end of term, leading up to exams. Depending upon the number of students in the class, it can be done as an individual activity or in groups of any size.

Step One: Give each student (or group) a piece of sugar paper with a heading related to a previously learnt topic and a marker pen. Each group is then given 1-2 minutes to brainstorm all that they know on that particular topic.

Once this time is up, the pieces of sugar paper are rotated around the class.

Step Two: Students or groups should then be given a short period of time to read the contribution of the previous group(s) before they themselves must contribute to the sheet of paper. This continues until all students or groups have contributed to all pieces of sugar paper, with their respective topic headings. Once all headings have been covered by all groups, the resulting pieces of sugar paper should then contain a great deal of information relating to their topic. These revision notes can then be reduced to an A4 booklet for the students to use as a revision aid.

An alternative to passing the pieces of sugar paper from group to group is to keep each piece of sugar paper on one table and each student or group can then move from table to table contributing to the respective heading. This serves as a means of getting students moving and can be particularly effective if concentration levels are low.

George Bannister, Manchester Metropolitan University and Ashton-Under-Lyne Sixth Form College

Help with OFSTED

Jamie very kindly let us include this for the newsletter. OFSTED is still seen and felt as a cause of great stress, and Jamie’s experience shows that we could manage inspections of lessons well by knowing what OFSTED wants to see. But her last sentence is critical; keep paperwork up-to-date as that, apparently, is what education is about.*

Just a note re OFSTED – we got done last year and were rated highly- the school also got in an OFSTED professional to coach us on what OFSTED were looking for – they said to be careful not to be too teacher-led because OFSTED really wants to see the students interacting, self-learning and asking and answering questions – it’s all about engagement (and AFL) – so the more the students are doing and the less the teacher is doing the better! With that in mind, here are a couple of tried and tested suggestions:

Suggestion 1

Start off by showing the brain song (Pinky and the brain) found on U-tube, search brain song.

Sperry study: use the psychologystuff.com building a brain out of toilet paper (very good for the kinaesthetic learners). If you can’t find it e-mail me direct and I’ll send you a break-down, then clips found on U-tube – (there’s a particularly good Alan Alda clip), this helps the visual learners.

Dement – do this study by making posters in small groups – no more than 10 words allowed – it has to be primarily pictorial (works really well as they can cut and stick on the bed and the electrocculogram and the EEG, put in a bell etc) – this is also good for kinaesthetic learners and demonstrates transformation of information. Then each group presents their poster back to the class with Q and A from students about their poster.

Suggestion 2

If you want something OFSTED-friendly for the A2 why not try market place – it’s a great activity and the students love it!

Divide the students into three groups – each group has one of the areas/sections you want covered – one group would have the study, another would have the background theory, another would have the implications. Provide notes and text books – then each group has about 20 mins to put together a crib sheet (they may only use 10 words but as many pictures as they like), then one person stays behind as the ‘seller’, the other two go off to a different group each as a ‘buyer’. The seller tells their two buyers all about their area for about 15 mins. The buyers then go back to their groups and tell them the information they have got – so each group ends up with all three areas of information, teacher going round scaffolding and extending where appropriate. Then do class Q and A for review (with students posing the questions and answering), before final summary note-taking. Obviously you have to adapt depending on how many students are in your group.

Hope this helps and remember – they’ll spend more time looking at your paperwork than your lessons!

Jamie Hack
jamiehack@hotmail.com

*The quotes in this article are those of Evie Bentley and do not necessarily represent those of the ATP

Facebook

The new VLE?

Ask students if they regularly use your VLE (Virtual Learning Environment) and you might be lucky if you get 50%. Ask them how many are using social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, the figure probably hits more like 90%. This was worrying. Our department, like any, is always looking for new ways to reach students on their level and provide as much support as possible.

What started as a joke between myself and a colleague suddenly became a very plausible idea.

Why couldn’t we use Facebook as our own supplementary VLE?

So like all good Psychologists, we hypothesized and created our own pilot test under the name of Franklin Psych (or Frank Psycho as the students prefer). We set ourselves a few basic ground rules and then created our account. The results were positive. Within weeks our students had found and added us onto their friends’ lists.
We had set boundaries beforehand so anyone adding us onto their list was aware of what it would entail to have their teachers on their private account. Obviously, with all new programmes, there are issues that need to be resolved but with careful management, this can be a useful tool.

I am not suggesting by any means that networking sites such as Facebook are substitutes for VLEs or should replace them completely. I am simply suggesting that these systems can be harnessed and used as supplementary programmes that can improve communication with students. Below I have written a quick ‘How to’ guide for setting up your own account for your department.

Facebook – A ‘How to’ guide

Think of a good name for your Facebook account. You also need an e-mail address for this to work. We decided that we didn’t want it to be our personal e-mail account so we created an e-mail account on Hotmail that the whole department has access too.
The whole department also has access to the Facebook account so that anyone can check it at any one time.

Rules for yourself

Set yourself some simple rules that you want to follow. For example, you may wish to only have Psychology students on your friends’ list. You might also want to agree on times when you are going to access it, for example for an hour three times a week, etc. We also ensured that as we have personal accounts with Facebook, our students could not access these with links to our department account.

Chat facilities

The rule we use on this is that we never start conversations with students unless they start them with us. We also do not comment on their status updates.

Rules for students

Strictly a ‘no abuse’ policy. If anyone is offensive, they are deleted from our lists immediately. Depending on the level of abuse, we have also informed students that they may face an inquiry within college, depending on the severity of the case. All students are informed of these rules before adding us on Facebook. You may also wish to remind your students that you will see their status updates so it is not the best idea to post that you are missing college when your teachers can see.

Quizzes

There are some excellent quiz facilities on Facebook. You can create simply multiple choice questions or add more detailed questions using the ‘notes’ section on your homepage. We have noticed that students get competitive on the scoreboard which leads to them trying the quizzes more often. We also often put practice exam questions up and students e-mail them in or bring them into lessons to discuss them.

Links

You can add some important links on this section such as links to the exam boards, journal articles, etc.

Status Updates

We have often used these to advertise extra classes, trips and even posted research questions and used this as a forum for debates.

Photos

If your students agree, you can put trip photos up so students can look at them.

Laura Rudd

Christine Sizemore was reassuringly normal for a lady who changed the history of Psychology. No glitz, no glamour, just a petite figure who spoke quietly and confidently through the slide show of her art. The paintings were of such a variety of styles and skills that it was difficult to reconcile this to the knowledge that a single person had painted them all. This was when I realised that this was not someone who had done painting-by-numbers – these were all really fashioned by different people at different times. When she commented on one painting that she said she hadn’t remembered doing, it seemed to make perfect sense (being middle-aged and forgetful) until you realised that she couldn’t remember who (of the people with whom she’d shared her life for forty years) had done it.

After the slide show, she spent over an hour answering questions on her life with the ‘alters’. Once again there was no unnecessary drama – just a factual recounting of her experiences with these people. The audience of students was attentive and respectful – one thousand bright young things – captivated by what they were listening to, and unusually quiet. There was no inappropriate and unnecessary chatter. Like me, they were overwhelmed by what they were hearing, the story of a very unusual life, recounted with sensitivity and humour. There was no Hollywood drama, unlike the film we are all so fond of – the artistic licence that made the film so fascinating was absent, and in its absence, the true story was just as appealing, told, as it was, from the perspective of the woman whose life it was. The trauma that triggered the ‘splitting’ (not mentioned in the film or in the article we use to teach it) convincingly supported the post-traumatic model.

The little girl who had witnessed a man’s body pulled from the ditch in which he had drowned, who then experienced her mother bleeding profusely from a cut accidentally inflicted whilst preparing dinner, and saw ‘the other girl’ go and get help. She calmly told us about the ‘purple lady’ who was mostly responsible for bringing up her daughter, and the ‘strawberrygirl’, a character she didn’t like because she was so selfish, and chuckling as she told us about how lucky she had been that Eve Black was frigid – a feature that kept her, Christine, safe and out of trouble! We were all charmed and intrigued, not just by her life-story, but with how spookily normal she made it all sound – convincing, because they supported the conviction that the therapy she had undergone had resulted in complete integration of all the ‘alters’ and that she is now leading a full and happy life.

Elizabeth Loftus presented an equally captivating contrast to the morning session with Christine Sizemore. Gone was the cosy sitting-room atmosphere of the morning – replaced with the lecture theatre run by the consummate expert. She took us through research into false memory syndrome, emphasising the importance of scientific examination and analysis of testimony, demonstrating the importance of internal validity and control in order to achieve essential accuracy leading to true justice in the courtroom. She highlighted the dangers of post-event information with what seemed like a very trivial scenario – not ‘Lost in the Mall’, but the egg-salad sandwich (egg mayonnaise, to those of us who speak the lingo prevalent on this side of the pond) – and demonstrated that we can so easily be misled into recalling things that simply did not happen that we should treat our memories with extreme caution. It made me realise that when someone says to me, ‘You never said that!’ or “You never did that!’ that because they have forgotten it, it is tantamount to the claim that it never really happened – quite a revelation.

The young people, some of whom did seem to struggle a bit with the complexities of her presentation, were brought straight back tob full concentration when they realised that she had been expert witness for the defence in the Michael Jackson trial. Her response to the student’s question on whether she felt he was guilty or innocent was well fielded and intelligently presented. Not tempted into giving us her own personal opinion, Elizabeth Loftus took the opportunity to emphasise the importance of scientific method in the field of criminal psychology, and led the discussion to raise awareness of the pitfalls of hypnotic evidence and the fragility of human memory when used by individuals who use guided imagination to elicit rich false memories that are impossible to falsify.

All in all, it was a very mentally challenging day, and by the end of it, all I could do was to eat an egg mayonnaise sandwich and go off to bed!

These are some of the pages from BBCi which could inform or entertain or stimulate discussion or be used as stimulus material for stretch exercises. Enjoy!

Altruistic behaviour on show… hot dancers get the chicks, helped by avian cooperation! This includes a short video clip.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7891243.stm

Face the fear – or just pop a pill… Dutch investigators believe beta-blocker drugs could help people suffering from the emotional after-effects of traumatic experiences. This could be a useful stimulus for discussion on ethics, as such drugs could be used after individuals have performed violent tasks under orders, e.g. in the armed forces
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7892272.stm

A Canadian study suggests abuse in early childhood permanently alters how the brain reacts to stress
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7901337.stm

Stop working long hours… you have been warned! A Finnish study of middle-aged Brits showed long working hours may raise the risk of mental decline and possibly dementia … what chance for teachers, then. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7909464.stm

… and start doodling instead because though doodling may look messy, but it could in fact be a sign of an alert mind – I knew it!!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7912671.stm

First it was good to cry, now Harvard says it’s OK to be angry and could help your career
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7918622.stm

Unhappy children are more likely to grow up to become adults who are permanently sick or disabled; a UK study has suggested
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7913552.stm

Sad soldiers self harm and lack access to psychological support
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7914913.stm

They can read your mind now! Well, first steps to this …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7937926.stm

Cheeky chimp plans its ambushes by collecting missiles – planned attacks!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7928996.stm

Older fathers’ children perform less well in infancy and early childhood
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7931982.stm

Teenagers’ circadian rhythms are 2 hours’ behind adults’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7932950.stm

… leading to headmaster urging lie-ins
and later school starts, (but Hugh Christie College, Tonbridge, already do this)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/7932108.stm

Women more likely to suffer when marriages fail becoming more prone to risk factors for heart disease, stroke and diabetes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7925360.stm

Monkeys floss too, and pass on this behaviour by teaching/social learning! (+ video clip)
http:// news.bbc.co.uk/2/h i/asia-pacific/7940052.stm

Brain declines from age 27 (and I thought it was all that wine!) after peaking at age 22….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7945569.stm

More chimps, more tools… the original honey-monsters? (+ video clip)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7946614.stm

It’s time to shop shop shop … 10 days before the onset of menstruation… no guilt then!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7971578.stm

Imprinting helps with maths? Birds do it, well chicks actually – fluffy chick video clip included
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7975260.stm

The need for sleep and a possible link from insomnia to suicide
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7972646.stm

Face colour changes our perception – think pink!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7974194.stm

An agoraphobic turns a corner: after 18 years (+ video clip)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/8003982.stm

Virtual brain – now a possibility
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8012496.stm

Ian Lester,
former Psychology student

Evie Bentley,
ATP Editor

AS Core Studies & Research Methods – Psychology OCR, Psychology Press – Banyard and Flanagan

For someone, like me, teaching the OCR specification for the first time, this book is a gift. The layout and design are logical and attractive. The use of colourful illustrations and pictures make this book very user friendly. I particularly liked the picture of Phil Banyard (Is he a muppet or a Nottingham Forest supporter?) on page 178.

The content of this book links very closely to the specification and I’ve used many of the suggested activities in my lessons. As this is a completely new specification, the exam-style questions have been great for homework tasks and the specimen answers give an insight into the mark scheme. As you would expect from two such established and experienced authors this book is written in a very accessible and humorous style.

I felt that this book would prepare students extremely well for the research methods paper (G541) and section A and B of the Core Studies paper (G542). The only weakness, in my opinion, is the coverage of section C questions. I feel that this could have been simplified by giving more examples of specimen answers and more clearly outlining assumptions, strengths and limitations of the approaches.

Overall, a great, well written book, that I would definitely recommend for both teachers as a resource and students as a text.

Deb Gajic
Chair of the ATP
Head of Psychology,
The Polesworth School

Haslam & Reicher – The BBC Prison Study

Changing A Level specification completely in September to OCR has been a steep learning curve. Many of the 15 core studies were familiar to me; however, I knew very little about Haslam & Reicher’s study, other than watching the TV series. I managed to get hold of the original series, but found it far too long to show in its entirety and I don’t have the technical skills or time to edit it down. I did show my students a couple of episodes, which they really enjoyed, but as a TV programme, rather than a scientific study. I found they still struggled with the details of the study, especially the information they would need in the examination.

Online Classroom’s DVD is approximately half the price of the BBC DVD and has a running time of 25 minutes, which I think is perfect for holding student attention. The DVD features carefully selected footage from the series and interviews with Haslam & Reicher. They go through the study step by step, emphasising the important facts that students need to know and thoroughly discuss the findings and conclusions. I found the DVD both interesting and informative. It could be used to introduce the study or as an aid to revision.

The DVD also has extra features: – Social Identity Theory, Ethics, Data and a Comparison of the Stanford Prison experiment and the BBC study. With the exception of the data section, which would be useful to show to students to consolidate their knowledge, I found that the other sections were over reliant on talking heads and therefore would not be very interesting for students. However, teachers will find them helpful for their own use.

On the whole this is an excellent resource that I thoroughly recommend; I only wish Online Classroom would do DVDs for the other OCR core studies!

Deb Gajic
Chair of the ATP
Head of Psychology, The Polesworth School.

Psychology – Teacher’s Support Guide by Julia Russell

Folens ISBN 978-85008-299-6

I’m always quite shocked by the price of Teacher Support Guides and this one is expensive at £79.99. However, as you would only buy one per department, and it comes with a CD ROM, with a one site licence, I suppose you could justify the expense.

As expected from an experienced teacher and author like Julia Russell, this guideis jam packed with activities, all of which are very closely linked to the specification and very well organised. It contains a huge variety of different activities; there really is something for everyone. The CD ROM has all the activities included in the book, plus some excellent PowerPoint presentations. These would make fantastic starters, they contain some very stimulating material and interesting and thought provoking, colourful pictures that students would love.

I would particularly recommend this book to any new teacher or someone new to teaching Edexcel Psychology. However, it does have appeal beyond the Edexcel specification as some of the ideas for activities could easily be adapted. This is a great book to dip into when in need of inspiration for a lesson. The media watch activities make use of very up to date stimulus material that students would enjoy. All of the activities have clear learning objectives. Of particular use are the stretch and challenge tasks, these could be used to ensure lessons offer extension for more able students, something the dreaded OFSTED are very hot on at the moment. Specimen examination papers with answers, from a senior examiner are of course a bonus. This book would be a useful addition to any teacher’s resources.
Deb Gajic
Chair of the ATP

Zimbardo Speaks – Uniview DVD

For those of you that missed the excellent South West Conference last year when Zimbardo spoke in the UK Uniview are offering a DVD of his lecture at the very reasonable price of £49 + VAT.

Zimbardo’s lecture was entitled ‘The Psychology of Evil: the Lucifer effect”, and is based on his recent book of the same title. It is clear that this study developed from his situational approach or, as he put it in a lecture over 20 years ago, “the power of the situation”.

Zimbardo is an entertaining and engaging speaker and his talk is well supported with relevant PowerPoint slides and short video clips. Zimbardo thoroughlydiscusses the Stanford Prison Experiment, his most famous work, updating it with insights from his experiences as an expert witness in the trials of US soldiers accused of atrocities towards Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison. Some of the footage he shows is shocking, but illustrates his points about the effects of situational influences on behaviour. Zimbardo’s message is best summed up by the famous quote from Edmund Burke: – “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

At just over two hours, we probably wouldn’t show it to students in its entirety, however, it is clearly divided into sections to make dipping in and out easy. The sections on the Stanford Prison Experiment are particularly relevant to A Level Students and some of the other sections could be used for stretch and challenge activities. It is an excellent teacher resource and has inspired us to read Zimbardo’s book The Lucifer Effect, another possible resource for stretch and challenge.
www.lucifereffect.com
Deb Gajic
Chair of the ATP; Head of Psychology, The
Polesworth School

Evie Bentley
ATP Editor; Psychology ASP, West Sussex
Adult Education

Brain Training: Train Your Brain

DVD (Cara Flanagan,Uniview)

I confess that I was sceptical about the concept of brain training, it seemed like such a marketing thing to buy a CD or DVD orsimilar and gain a better memory, revise more successfully, but then I realised that revision texts are helpful, and perhaps some of these programmes can help memory and thinking – but which ones? There are so many to choose from. This one comes from someone wellknown to most of us, as Cara Flanagan has a long and successful track record of writing for students, doing revision conferences, and running excellent training for psychology teachers.

Three main sections focus on study skills, revision methods and exam techniques. In the study skills section there are suggestions and examples of important things such as attention and concentration span, how to learn and active learning. She shows how self-control therapy which really means taking control of one’s own learning can be achieved, and looks at the benefits of creating a study team. The revision methods section shows memory research and its implications, and explains various revision/memory techniques. Exam techniques focus on how exams are marked.

This could be useful to recommend to students, or to use in class or make available to groups. This DVD would also generalise to most subjects. I liked the graphics and video clips, the head and shoulders talking with a transcript available, the references for cited research; all in all this could, be a very useful package, not least because someoneelse is saying these things, not you or me, and this someone else is well-known.

Evie Bentley