How to Best Prepare Your Students for the

VCE UNIT 4 Psychology Exam !

Brain, Behaviour and Experience

Sequence of the Seminar• The Structure of Assessment in Unit 4:

– School Assessed Coursework – End of year examination

• The Major Aspects of the New Material in the course • A planned and structured revision process to use with students • How command terms dictate accurate responses to short answer questions and

the new extended answer questions. • Examples of A+ level responses to help students maximise their scoring • Exploration of Revision strategies, activities and on-the-day performance ideas

Part 1

• FORMAT & STRUCTURE OF ASSESSMENT IN UNIT 4.

• http://peakpsychu4.wikispaces.com/Unit+4.+Study+Design

There is a greater range of School Assessed Coursework tasks in the new course.

• Some have been retained from the previous Study Design, some have been modified and there are some new assessment task possibilities.

• The Annotated Folio of Practical Activities – AFPA is compulsory however Teachers have a range of choices for the other Assessment Tasks.

Possible Assessment Tasks forUnits 4 Psychology

Research Investigation Essay Visual Presentation – concept map, graphic organizer, poster Oral presentation using 2 or more data of types (still or moving images, written text,

sound) Test Evaluation of Research Annotated Folio of Practical Activities Media Response Debate Data Analysis

Unit 4 SACs• There are FOUR Assessment Tasks across Unit 4: Equating to 17%• But What does this mean?• PAIR A (for either Outcome 1 or Outcome 2):• Compulsory Element (Unit 3: AFPA – Use for Learning)• AND one other (Eg. Essay, Test, Visual Presentation)• • PAIR B (Use with the other Outcome – Mental Health)• Any 2 from:• Evaluation of Research ERA• Data Analysis Oral Presentation using 2 or more data types• Essay Test• Media ResponseVisual Presentation

THE UNIT 4 PSYCHOLOGY EXAM IN 2011

• The exam is worth 33% of the final assessment• Duration of the papers: 90 Minutes + 15 minutes reading time• There are 2 compulsory sections:

– Section A – Multiple Choice Questions– Section B – Short Answer Questions

• Each Area of Study comprises approximately 50% of questions for each exam• In the new Study Design… Separate Areas of Study will not be flagged in exams• Research Methods questions are integrated throughout each exam• Each Exam will contain one extended response question worth approximately

10-15 marks as part of the Short-Answer Section.• Unit 4 – Mental Health option could be assessed by Multiple-Choice and/or

Short-Answer questions, but not an extended response question.

PART 2

THE MAJOR ASPECTS OF THE NEW UNIT 4 MATERIAL

Area of Study 1: Learning• Mechanisms of learning:

– Areas of the brain and neural pathways involved in learning, synapse formation, role of neurotransmitters

– Developmental plasticity and adaptive plasticity of the brain: changes to

the brain in response to learning and experience; timing of experiences

– Use of imaging technologies in identifying changes in the brain due to

learning

• Applications of classical conditioning: graduated exposure, aversion

therapy, flooding

Area of Study 1: Learning

• Three-phase model of operant conditioning: positive and negative reinforcement, response cost, punishment and schedules of reinforcement

• Applications of operant conditioning: shaping, token economies • Bandura’s 1961, 1963a & 1963b experiments with children• • Insight Learning (Kohler)• • Latent Learning (Tolman)

Area of Study 2: Mental HealthFocus is on mental health as opposed to mental illness

Content Includes: • Concepts of Normality & Classification of mental conditions and disorders – DSM-IV &

ICD-10 (graded and transitional approaches to classification of mental disorders). • The biopsychosocial framework when considering physical and mental health • Biological, psychological (thoughts, feelings, emotions) and social factors are all

involved in understanding mental health/mental illness • Consider the role of each of these factors in mental health/illness. • Eustress and distress

Area of Study 2: Mental Health• Lazarus’ Transactional Model of Stress and Coping • Social, cultural and environmental factors and Strategies that

exacerbate and alleviate the stress response • Allostasis- as a model that integrates biological and psychological and

social factors to explain stress. • IE Stability brought about by the brain’s regulation of the body’s

response to stress. • Strategies for coping with stress: biofeedback, meditation/relaxation,

exercise, social support.

Biopsychosocial Framework: Simple Phobia

• Biological factors: role of stress response; role of neurotransmitter gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA) in managing phobic anxiety

• Psychological factors: psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive models; use of psychotherapies- CBT, systematic desensitization and flooding

• Socio-cultural factors: specific environmental triggers; parental modeling, transmission of threat information

Biopsychosocial Framework Application:

The Study design requires that students apply the biopychosocial framework to one specified mental illness. Each option is interesting but… • Gambling: two biological factors (role of dopamine reward system &

as a target for treatment) • Depression: three biological factors (role of genes, neurotransmitters

& antidepressant medication) • Schizophrenia: four biological factors (genetic predisposition, drug-

induced onset, changes in brain activity & use of medication that blocks dopamine)

Research Methods Skills and Knowlege

• Experimental Research: identification and operationalization of independent and dependent variables; identification of extraneous and potential confounding variables including artificiality, demand characteristics, and non-standardised instructions and procedures; ways of minimising confounding and extraneous variables including type of sampling procedures, and standardised instructions and procedures

• Sampling Procedures: in selection and allocation of participants: Convenience

Sampling. • Data Collection Methods: Techniques of qualitative and quantitative data collection

and Reliability • Ethical Principles and Professional Conduct : including the Advantages and

limitations of generalizing and drawing conclusions from non-human animals in research in terms of generalization and conclusions.

Part 3

• REVISION PROCESSES TO USE WITH STUDENTS

The Goal Posts have been changed

• In years gone by most teachers completed the Unit 4 course during Term Three. This facilitated two or three weeks of revision in Term Four. Realistically that is going to be tough with the new course. Consequently it is recommended that you:

• START PREPARING THEM FOR THE EXAM

NOW!

Term 3 - Strategies that work…

• Weekly multiple choice quizzes – so they can check their understanding – Refer to pps 11 to 50 of your manual for samples.

Electronic copies are provided on the CD

• If time permits… (ha ha). Introduce an extended response question – at the start of each week.– Refer to pps 51 to 54 of your manual for samples.

Thanks to Kristy Kendal and the Nelson Text.

Term 3 Strategies continued

• Ask the students to prepare lots of hard copy posters to develop concept maps on the material covered in class – This can be linked to the extended response question as a planning document.

• Get them out of their chairs, bring the content to life! Run a token economy, do lots of short activities, role plays, use Youtube, etc to speed up audiovisual presentations of concepts. The Annotated Folio of Practical Activities provides scope for this.

Term 3 strategies continued

• Set Weekly review questions and make them accountable to do the set work (Token Economy works really well)– This depends on the text you are using but a

sample outline is on the CD• Teach your students what the command terms

mean to eliminate the mystery of interpreting exam questions.– Refer to pps 54 and 55 of the manual

Use of the September Exam Break• Set a mock exam to be conducted under test conditions in the second

week of the holidays. Eg Monday 3rd October 3.00pm to 4.45pm • Great for shock value – but also gives the students the opportunity to

practice under ‘real conditions’ and afterwards, there is still enough time to master the material they did not know at this time.

• The time above would allow your students to sit the paper in the same location and time as the formal paper on November 7th November 3.00pm to 4.45pm

It also gives you time to mark the paper.

Term 4

• Students do a weekly practice exam (so two or three) in Term 4.

• But they self-assess: provide them with the markscheme - their revision after completing each exam is to go over their paper and correctly ‘write out’ any answers they got wrong.

• Check them off next class to hold them accountable – Token Economy continued from Term 3 (if you used one).

Term 4 Specifics: Week 1.

• Finish and review AOS 2 (The Option)IE Gambling, Schizophrenia etc

• Possibly run your final SAC

• Run an ‘abstract’ session on AOS2

• Do a mock exam – students self assess

Term 4: Week 2

Review AOS 1 - Learning

Run an ‘Abstract’ Session on AOS 1 – Learning

Do a mock exam – students self assess

Term 4 – Week 3

• if you are lucky enough to still have them – trouble shoot the specific areas of weakness that have become evident in the previous two weeks.

• If your classes continue beyond this (because you have lots of Year 11’s) use games and individual attention to maximise these students chances of success.

I plan to provide 5 past papers for my students.

• 2 papers to be done at home in the first week of the September holidays (with markschemes) to help them prepare for their mock paper.

• The mock paper (which I will formally assess and return to the students first day back of Term 4).

• 2 papers in their final weeks of the course.

• If students want more papers, they can access the past exams from the VCAA website.

• Alternatively they can be referred back to their weekly quizzes, practice extended response questions, the Kendall (2010) Exam preparation resource and checkpoints.

Part 4

• Examples of A+ responses from Past Exams to help prepare your students.

AOS 1: Learning

• When revising for the ‘Learning SACs’ and AOS 1 in Term 4, I have and will use the examples in pps 56 to 72 of your manual.

AOS 2: Mental Health

In 2012 and beyond, we will have past VCAA questions to complete this phase, however this year:• We are going to use elements from Ross Down’s QAT resource

for SAC design and aspects of his markschemes for revision

• I intend to use the online resources associated with Onestop Science and the other teacher materials provided by the various publishers to:

1. Provide sample answers to selected SAQ’s2. Ensure that the students have access to the ‘correct’

information – and don’t just rely on one text

Part 5: Revision Strategies, activities etc to use with your students.

1. Workshopped Answers• Students use their Portfolios of Coursework.

Posters, Quizzes, Sample Extended Response entries etc to “bullet point” sets of short answer questions from an alternate textbook/s to the booklisted items used during Term 3.

• In small groups they then workshop the answers.

2. Timed Writing 1

• Extended Response Questions / Short Answer Questions. A good way to finish off the week’s review. Random SAQ’s and Extended Response Q’s drawn out of a box. – Use past paper questions, end of chapter review questions

or subtopic review questions.• The number of marks available dictates the time (1

Minute per Mark). • By the end of the session, they will have attempted an

array of questions – their homework is to use their text etc to assess/review their responses.

Timed Writing 2

• Modify past exam questions or sections of exams to help the students refine their timing.

• Project a countdown timer from the internet • Lots of students ran out of time mid-year, this

will improve their abilities to perform on November 7.

• http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

3. Word Association Games

Snake: • A word association game where the final letter

of one word must be the same as the first letter of the next word.

• Used to review key concepts, themes or terminology in a topic.

• Key: Choose your terms carefully, any word cannot be recorded twice in the snake.

Word Association Games

Psych Tennis• The server starts the came by nominating a concept, dot point,

dash point etce.g. Classical Conditioning

• Players take turns in ‘rallying’ key terms over an imaginary net. • The first person to pause, repeat a term or run out of options

loses the point.• The game is scored like real tennis.• If the game is a hit in your class, you can organises a

tournament. Even watching others play still enables revision.

Word Association GamesPenalty Shoot Out

There are a few variations to this but the way we play it is….Students are put into groups of 6.

1 One Person is the goal keeper2 The other 5 are ‘taking their shot’3 The ‘shooters’ state definitions of their choice from an AOS

selected by the ‘referee’ (You)4 If the goal keeper correctly says the appropriate key term they

have ‘saved the goal’. If they get it wrong, the shooter ‘scores a goal’.

5 After each ‘goal keeper’ tries to save their five goals the players rotate positions. That is, the goal keeper becomes a ‘shooter’ and one of the ‘shooters’ becomes the goal keeper.

6 Scoring, prizes etc are established and distributed by the ‘referee’

4. Psychology Speed Dating• Students are initially paired up. • One person sits on a chair on an inner circle and the other person sits on a

chair in an outer circle. • There is a set short answer question about one of the dot points in the

syllabus and they have 1 minute to answer the question - their ‘date’ can chip in if they don’t know the answer.

• After the first minute, members of the outer circle move on one place to attempt a new question.

• When all of the ‘dates’ have been completed, the roles are reversed with a new batch of questions.

• Four rotations will cover a 50 minute session with most class sizes. • Past exam questions are readily available on Learning. For this year maybe

use the various learning activity and end of chapter SAQ’s in the variety of texts for AOS2.

5. Psychionary

• An adaptation of Pictionary:• Students draw images that relate to key

concepts, key studies or points of theory.• A time limit of 20 seconds is allocated to

determine what the ‘Psychionary’ item is.• You may choose to prepare a list of items or

allow the students to come up with their own items provided they relate to the syllabus.

6. Psych Jeopardy, Millionaire etc

• Using the rules and protocols of one of these famous tv show games. Use terminology from the syllabus to play the game.

• It will be a little bit of work setting up, but once completed, you will have the resource for the remainder of the course (a few years at least).

7. Multiple Choice ‘Splat’

• Convert a series of multiple choice questions into a powerpoint for presenting to the class.

• Students in pairs play off against each other to who ‘knows’ their material the best.

• Again, there will be a little bit of setting up for this year, but once prepared, they will an invaluable resource in years to come.

8. Compare & Contrast Olympics• Have students complete tables that compare and contrast major

dash points in the syllabus.Examples:

– Classical vs Operant Conditioning– DSM IV TR vs ICD 10– CBT vs Psychonalytic therapies for Depression / Gambling

• Students are allocated countries (or alternatively psychologists)• The teams go head to head with the fastest performers winning

(but they have to have the table filled out correctly)• Award Gold, Silver and Bronze medals for the best performers and

put their findings on the walls in recognition of their achievements.

9. Connect 4 Psychology

• Students are provided with a 100 item grid• Each number on the grid relates to a question

you have prepared on a given topic• Students nominate a question they would like

to attempt.• If they get it correct they can nominate another

question.• If they can get four questions in a row correct

they win

10. Mental Health - Psych Pong• Based on the American ‘College’ game of Beer Pong.• Two sets of Psych Pong cups are set up at either end of a table. We blue

tac them down too. • A mental illness factor is placed in each cup.• The objective is to determine the meaning behind or completely explain

a concept correctly using only ‘pieces of the puzzle’.• As a ball is thrown into a cup, the receiver reads out the message

enclosed and the thrower ‘makes their diagnosis’.• As the previous point suggests, we are going to use this game when

introducing diagnosis of mental illnesses, but it could be adapted to any of a range of Psychological concepts.

• The idea is that to make a proper diagnosis, all of the information is needed, if you only have bits and pieces, a wrong diagnosis is very likely