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Developing our capacity in Matauranga Maori
We are looking for your help. Western Psychology and Matauranga Maori have, historically, been miles apart and Western Psychology has dominated the discourse at the expense of Mana Whenua. As part of our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and with the support of the Networks of Expertise, the NZAPT is developing our cultural competencies in Te Ao Maori. Our first steps have been to participate in NEX training and begin to curate resources in our shared member drive. We recognise that some of our members might not see ways that they can be involved in areas that they feel they have expertise in and we are determined to address this in 2022. In 2022, our key actions are
The goal of these actions are: To build curriculum resources that teach all Psychology students a Maori worldview To develop our knowledge so Maori can experience success as Māori within Secondary School Psychology To provide culturally specific content to enhance student capabilities when working with Māori and Indigenous peoples that use health services and the wider fields within Psychology. To recognise the māna of psychology teachers with good practice and/or resources by providing ways to discuss or share these within the Association. Gaye Bloomfield NZAPT committee
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A message from NZAPT Chair Sam Dudek
Congratulations to all of you who introduced Psychology into your school in 2021. There is no doubt that Psychology is an incredibly popular area of study with both students and, increasingly, parents as it becomes essential knowledge for an ever-growing range of professions. It has been an extremely popular subject for many years at tertiary level here in New Zealand and has been one of the most popular subjects at secondary school in comparable cultures such as the UK, US and Australia. For you ‘old hands’ - you are no doubt seeing the benefits of implementing Psychology within your school. It helps enhance the understanding of the scientific method by engaging students in critical analysis of historical as well as contemporary research from a range of cultures. It is also an effective tool in identifying the many issues that are at the forefront of current scientific research such as ethics, the replication crisis, cultural as well as gender bias and issues around socially sensitive research. Psychology is directly relevant to both the students as individuals, and their understanding of the social dynamics and stereotypes as they view the world around them. Over the past 12 months, the NZAPT have developed a bank of moderated examples and feedback has been provided across the range of standards. Additionally, there are teacher resources available for each of the 10 Level 2 and Level 3 standards within the member area of the website. A strength of psychology in New Zealand is there are many options available that enable you to develop a local curriculum that suits your learners. You may wish to enhance an existing course with specific standards. We have members that have introduced relevant standards within their senior Social Studies courses, Health, English P.E., Business and Science courses. Psychology has also been included within junior Social Science programmes for example when trying to understand the social conformity and obedience exhibited in Europe during the Holocaust. If we can offer you one bit of planning advice, it is to lay out the standards matrix for the levels that you plan to teach. Against these standards identify the contexts and key areas of study that you wish to share with your students. Researching current courses at tertiary level and also knowing your students can be especially helpful in this process. When considering which topics would fit best with which standards, consider looking at the achievement criteria of the standards. For example, if you are going to teach the Approaches standards at level 2 and 3 be aware that a focus at level 3 is how the Approaches interact. This may mean some topics where the theories of the different approaches integrate in a given context will be more suitable, this doesn’t need to be a restriction at level 2. As always questions are warmly welcomed on our Facebook page throughout the year! Sam Dudek Chairperson, NZAPT Our 2021 Conference looks a little different to usual! Kia ora koutou, Your conference has come to you via the courier this year as a small token of our appreciation for your hard work and enthusiasm, in what has been a very challenging year. So, dig into the chocolate, play with the stress ball and scan the QR code for some printable resources for your classroom. We are very much looking forward to seeing you in 2022 and we are strategizing how to best plan for an event that meets your needs and that does not have to be postponed again. When you scan the QR code (included in pack) , this will take you to a folder which will have some posters for classroom wall displays. We also have some examples of year planners and some of our favourite learning activities. We are feeling very environmentally conscious so have decided to include a QR code instead of numerous printing. The final three unit planning resources have now been finished so we have a complete set of teacher resources for level 2 and Level 3 where you can source ideas, inspiration and support for teaching and assessing psychology. Keep healthy and safe. Have a wonderful holiday in the festive season with friends and family . We are really looking forward to seeing you in the first half of 2022. Ngaa mihi nui, your NZAPT Conference Committee Gaye, Sally, Sam, Eric, Megan, Sarah N, Sarah D, and Craig Psychology - Online Assessor SupportShow: Psychology Homepage
Various free resources to support assessors are available on the NZQA Learning Management System, Pūtake, including subject specific bite-sized modules and a full range of online Best Practice Workshops. The material is available at any time via the Education Sector Logon, at no cost. Available resources for Psychology:
Log in to PūtakeGo to http://lms.nzqa.govt.nz and log in using your ESL details. You will be taken to your own Pūtake homepage/dashboard, showing the content available to you. To quickly access the content for your subject, use the Catalogue button at the top of your browser, and then select your subject from the list on the left Invoices for member schools to renew for 2022 were sent out 9/12/21
Please check your inbox for a Xero Invoice. In the past, some schools have preferred to sneak their invoices through at the end of a school year. Others find their accounts team prefer the start of the new school year. We hope that sending out the invoices now allows you to select which option works best for you. Gaye Bloomfield Treasurer EDITED: Disappointingly, Conference 2021 did not eventuate. But we are all set to see you all for Conference 2022 Latest news from your conference committee PSYCHOLOGY CONFERENCE 2021 – We are postponing not cancelling Kia ora e hoa mai Your conference committee has unfortunately made the tough decision to postpone the 2021 Psychology Conference which was due to be held in November. The committee's preference is to hold a face-to-face conference to maximise participant engagement and overall experience, which is the reason for the decision to postpone rather than move to a virtual format. We are keen to get your feedback for preferred dates and preferred venue ( to be held in 2022). Please help our planning and fill out this short two question form with your preferences. https://forms.gle/j5i8Yp62nNJgjzbM7 Please note, you will still be able to apply for the ‘subject association grant’ for other opportunities in 2022. If you have already been granted pre-approval for the Psychology Conference you will receive a communication from PPTA directly with additional instructions. We wish you all a healthy and safe term 4, and we are really looking forward to seeing you in the first half of 2022. Oh, and keep an eye on your inbox for our Term 4 newsletter - we've got some ideas brewing. A special mention to our members in Tāmaki Makaurau / Auckland: We think you are fabulous. Kia Kaha. Ngā mihi nui Your NZAPT committee Initial post: After what was a year of ups and lockdowns, we are super excited to be able to meet face to face once again with our colleagues across the nation on Auckland’s North Shore. Massey University (Albany) are hosting us this year and our speaker line-up is looking fabulous. With a focus on current research, indigenous psychological practices and real world applications, along with the collegiality that comes from sharing of good practice, we hope conference this year will not only be insightful, it will also give you some wonderful tools to use in your own classroom practice. There is no registration fee for the conference, and if you are a PPTA member and need help with travel and accommodation, a reminder that this is eligible for the PPTA Subject Association grant (up to $700). We look forward to seeing you all in Auckland for what will be a fantastic two days of professional and personal development. The dates for conference are: 18-19 November. So, what are you waiting for? REGISTER HERE Have your say on the proposed subject list for NCEA Level 2 and 3
https://ncea.education.govt.nz/have-your-say Closes 13 August NZQA are looking for another moderator for Psychology
Due to the increased workload with the review of achievement standards, NZQA are advertising for another psychology moderator. Another sure sign that the subject is growing! This is the link to the advertisement: https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/about-us/working-at-nzqa/contract-vacancies/contract-for-service-moderators-secondary-subjects/ Introducing a new subject into a school is always going to be a challenge. There is no doubt that psychology is an incredibly popular area of study with both students and increasingly parents as it becomes essential knowledge in an ever-growing range of professions. It has been an extremely popular subject for many years at tertiary level here in New Zealand and has been one of the most popular subjects at secondary school in comparable cultures such as the UK, US and Australia. Implementing psychology within your school can help enhance the understanding of the scientific method by engaging students in critical analysis of historical as well as contemporary research from a range of cultures identifying the many issues that are at the forefront of current scientific research such as ethics, the replication crisis, cultural as well as gender bias and issues around socially sensitive research. Psychology is directly relevant to both the students as individuals, and their understanding of the social dynamics and stereotypes as they view the world around them. When planning to introduce psychology there are many options to consider. You may wish to enhance an existing course with specific standards. Schools have introduced relevant standards within their senior Social Studies courses, Health, P.E., Business and Science courses. Psychology has also been included within junior Social Science programmes for example when trying to understand the social conformity and obedience exhibited in Europe during the Holocaust. If you are planning a full psychology course it is important to lay out the standards matrix for the levels that you plan to teach. Against these standards identify the contexts and key areas of study that you wish to share with your students. Researching current courses at tertiary level and also knowing your students can be especially helpful in this process. When considering which topics would fit best with which standards, consider looking at the achievement criteria of the standards. For example, if are going to teach the Approaches standards at level 2 and 3 be aware that a focus at level 3 is how the Approaches interact. This may mean some topics where the theories of the different approaches integrate in a given context will be more suitable, this doesn’t need to be a restriction at level 2. A further tip is to think about combining standards within one topic. This might be from other subject areas such as Statistics within the psychology research unit or assessing multiple psychology standards within one topic. There are advantages and disadvantages to this approach but worth considering when planning a new course or improving an existing one. If you would like support in developing your course NZAPT, with the help of submissions from its membership, have developed a bank of moderation which gives examples and feedback for assessments across the range of standards. There are also resources for a range of possible teaching topics within the members area of the website. Further to this we will be running workshops in course planning and assessment design in our annual NZAPT conference which is a fantastic opportunity to discuss ideas with teachers with experience from a wide range of schools implementing psychology standards in a variety of ways, a great way to learn from our collective experience. As always questions are warmly welcomed on our Facebook page throughout the year! AuthorEric Wheater .Moderation of assessments continues to be an area that members would like assistance with. There are now two ways you can get assessments moderated. NZAPT moderation service If you would like to have your work moderated, at no cost, you can contact us via nzapt@hotmail.com and we will allocate your moderation to one of our committee members. On return of your moderated scripts we would ask your permission to share non-identifying samples of work in the shared drive. Essentially, we would like to crowdsource a bank of exemplars in the shared drive. A key issue highlighted was that many markschemes/judgement statements are not specifically linked to the context used for the assessment. Whilst exemplar Judgement statements are given on TKI for each standard it is important that teachers have tailored statements for the expected responses of the specific context the learners will be assessed on. This will enable accurate and consistent assessment of the students for the criteria in the specific context assessed. NZQA external moderation The second is via NZQA. Did you know you can send tasks and/or samples of work to be looked at by the national moderation panel at any time. This is in addition to your annual moderation requirement. We would encourage schools where there is only one teacher to make use of this free service in order to gain clarity over the grade boundary and your task design. You can submit work at any time during the year and this can sit outside of your usual moderation cycle. AuthorSally Bowden PSYCHOLOGY TEACHER MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME Psychology continues to grow as a modern and dynamic subject option across many schools in New Zealand. As schools show a greater willingness to embrace Psychology either as a subject in its own right or as part of an existing programme there is increasing demand for the support of teachers who are looking to implement or enhance their programmes. For the first time in New Zealand we have piloted a mentorship programme which seeks to build new connections and relationships between teachers of Psychology and increase understanding of the Psychology curriculum including ways to kickstart a Psychology course. Tracy from Wairarapa College spent the day at Feilding High School to meet with Megan Liddy and Sarah Norman who are both members of the Psychology Network of Expertise. She was able to observe one Level 3 Psychology class and two Level 2 Psychology classes in action as well as being able to discuss existing programmes, best practice and opportunities for future growth or changes in Tracy’s Psychology courses. In this first pilot the NZAPT has offered the following services: 1x full day visit to Feilding High School 3 x Zoom calls to discuss unit planning and assessment moderation Email contact to easily ask questions How did we get here - A word from Tracy: I joined the NZAPT in Term One 2021 following a request from my school that we offer Level Two and Level Three Psychology due to student demand. I took note that they offered moderation. As I am completely new to teaching Psychology, have no other colleagues or schools in the region that offer Psychology as a subject, and had just completed marking first Level Two assessment, I utilized the service offered. Moderation was completed promptly and gave me guidance in teaching and assessment design. I decided to request more ongoing support in the form of a mentor and NZAPT came back to me with a programme. I visited Fielding High School which was invaluable. It was great to spend a day observing classes in action, discussing planning, assessment design and practices and to have those professional conversations face to face. Megan and Sarah’s depth of knowledge and experience, openness and sharing enabled me to feel confident moving forward with my own programme. What next? From here, Megan and Sarah have offered mentoring in response to needs I identify next. At this stage, planning and preparing an annual programme at each level in advance, changes coming to standards I am just beginning to work with and delving further into the breakdown of the standards and student responses are key foci. I highly recommend approaching NZAPT for this support and am very grateful that such professional development by supportive, experienced and collegial teachers can be accessed. Ngā mihi nui Tracy AuthorsMegan Liddy and Sarah Norman The 2021 external examination at Level 3 has undergone a substantial format change. You can see the sample assessment material here: https://www.nzqa.govt.nz/ncea/subjects/psychology/levels/ Examination date: Monday 22 November 9.30am In addition to the Term 2 Hubs slideshow, there is now a ready-to-print resource booklet to support teachers in preparing students for the Level 3 2021 external exam. These resources include exam tips, in-class revision tasks and a derived grade exam. The slideshow and resource booklet is available via our members only page Why do the exam? As a student: Endorse in Psychology Passing an external helps your resume to stand out from others Reading Literacy credits ESA have published a workbook to assist with preparing for the external: $8.95 (or $7 for 2+ copies) https://esa.co.nz/collections/ame-workbooks/subject_psychology This resource contains revision notes on significant issues and prepares students for extended written responses with practice questions.  AuthorGaye Bloomfield Haere rā e hoa ma Last term the NZAPT and Cambridge High School, said farewell to a stalwart of Psychology teaching in New Zealand. Sarah Monkley has moved her family halfway across the world to join her husband in Denver, Colorado. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Sarah for her many years of service to Psychology and express our appreciation for all the blood, sweat and tears she poured into a subject she is extremely passionate about. Sarah has been a member of the NZAPT committee for 10 years, and she has also taught Psychology at Cambridge High School for more than 20 years. This is a daunting legacy to follow in the footsteps of; Sarah leaves behind a flourishing department which she built from the ground up. This thriving department now boasts a four-teacher team and is one of the most popular options for senior students at Cambridge High School, this is very much a credit to her hard work and dedication as well as the warm and engaging person she is. We will dearly miss her and hope that once her adventures are done, she will return home and pick up where she has left off. We wish her all the best for her travels and look forward to seeing how she brings Psychology to the Americans. AuthorSarah Douglas In response to remote learning, NZAPT has created workbooks for Level 1-3 psychology. The activities link to several standards with a particular focus on methodologies. Students can work through the workbooks independently, without the need for additional resources or internet access.
Workbooks can be found in the NZAPT google drive in the members-only section of this website. Don't be Nuts! The Walnut Rat Brain dissection with thanks to Gerd Banke, Biology Teacher Nayland College. Gerd picked up this gem from a science conference 5-6 years ago and developed this into an ethics activity and a way to tell plant cells from animal cells. Gaye Bloomfield recently adapted it to use with her psychology classes as part of an animal ethics unit. Teaching resources that support this activity: Harry Harlow Monkey Experiments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrNBEhzjg8I The Fatal Swim Test: https://nzavs.org.nz/forced-swim-test/ Step 1: soak 2-3 walnuts in a bottle of red food colouring for 48 hours Step 2: As part of a unit on brain functioning, discuss with class that you want to do a dissection of a rat brain to look at brain structure. (Do not reveal that you are using walnuts as a stand-in for a brain) Step 3: Hold a structured class discussion about the merits and ethics of doing a dissection. Students who are very opposed should be quietly let in on the prank and encouraged to maintain their position. This discussion should not be rushed (allow 30 minutes). Step 4: Help students divide themselves into active participants, observers and objectors. They can arrange themselves around the room accordingly. Step 5: Bring the walnut brains into the room / into view. Step 6:Use a scalpel to slice the walnut brains thinly and put onto a slide. Step 7: View under a binocular microscope or handheld magnifying glass. Step 8: After just a few minutes, reveal the prank. Step 9: Take care to preserve the mana and integrity of all students so that those who took part in the 'dissection' do not feel they are 'in the wrong'. Step 10: Ask students for feedback on the activity: Is this a good 'prank'? Does this help us think about ethics?
On Monday 18th March, a number of psychology students attended a camp which lasted 3 days. The aim of this camp was to see the effects of social media deprivation on the students. At the start and end of each day we conducted the same experiments which included the lick test, stroop test, heart rate, biodot, happiness test and memory test. Throughout the 3 days, we were to write down our results and see if there were any noticeable differences, the longer we went without social media. During this camp we also took part in activities throughout the day such as horse riding, archery, escape rooms, bubble soccer etc. This experience has been great especially due to the fact that this was mine and others first time going on camp. Going on camp without using our phones has been a real eye opening experience because most of us teenagers are so fixated on our phones instead of doing something physical or focusing on things more important. Lasting three days without our phones was easy for me and others because we were surrounded by friends and fun activities to do which kept us busy. Being busy was helpful because we usually tend to go on our phones when we are bored. But because we had activities already planned out for the three days, there wasn’t a split second for us to feel bored. Overall camp was really fun and it also taught us a few valuable lessons. One being that we are able to have fun and experience life without our phones by our side . Thank you for this amazing experience.  Psychology teachers across the country received the news they had been waiting for last Thursday. The New Zealand Association of Psychology Teachers (NZAPT) completed its application for psychology to be on the list of university-approved subjects in February this year. Now they’ve been given the news they were hoping for with NZQA granting approval for level 3 psychology students to be able to count their psychology course as one of the three they must gain 14 or more credits in to gain entrance to study at university from 2019. The change is important because it impacts how many students will take the subject and how many schools will offer it. Nayland College psychology teacher and NZAPT chair Hannah Cameron says it was a bit of an anomaly that psychology was left off the list in the first place, alongside more vocational subjects such as hospitality and building and construction . “Our key argument is that psychology is an academically rigorous subject that deserves to have parity with similarly academic subjects, “ Mrs Cameron said. Mrs Cameron and fellow Nayland psychology teacher Gaye Bloomfield (who is also the former chair of the NZAPT) have been at the heart of the extensive lobbying needed since 2015 to enact the change. It was a long-winded process that involved many steps such as transitioning from unit to achievement standards and the establishment of a teacher working group to work alongside NZQA to develop the new standards. Universities across the country were behind the change with NZAPT receiving letters of support from Victoria, Otago, Massey, Auckland and Waikato university psychology departments. Year 12 Nayland College psychology student Ben Dodds wholeheartedly supports the change. “It’s great because it allows people to actually take psychology and not have to worry about getting enough credits in their other subjects if they want to go to university. I’m really pleased,” he said. “It’s a university course that you can study and also it’s an ever-growing field that’s really important for the future I believe (...). Also, we need some more psychologists in New Zealand because there’s a high demand for that,” Ben added. Photos below of Nayland' College celebrating with 'psychology themed bake off'.
Initial Comment (included here due to website update): ESSAY HELP UK: 12/27/2018 07:20:46 pm Psychology is more than just a subject. It is just a must that it will be in the curriculum. At first, I find this subject as a boring one, but I really appreciate this one because of my professor. She really teaches well and she make sure that there are times in theories and there are times of sharing. Her time is divided into two, she lets her students know more, more than just academics. I hope that students will encounter professors like I had. Posted by Sam Dudek
Last week NZQA requested feedback for the review of Psychology's UE status. I was asked by colleagues in my school to summarise my thoughts around the question NZQA was considering in the review. Will the proposed new subject (and standards) equip students with the skills and knowledge that would -contribute substantially to a student's general ability to undertake a programme of degree-level study; - provide a foundation fro study in a specific degree-level subject or discipline. I started out by writing a list of the skills students had developed in the standards we covered and from there I was able to then identify how they prepared my students to undertake a programme of degree level study and then specifically a psychology degree level programme. Below are my thoughts that will shape my submission Blue for the general degree level programme and purple for the psychology specific degree level programme 91872 Analyse the interaction between psychological approaches. This standard teaches students the skills to not only interpret and understand complex theories and approaches. But, to apply that theory or approach to human behaviour to help; understand, explain and predict human behaviour. Students are able to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of theories and approaches in reference to validity and reliability. Students delve a step further to identify how opposing theories and approaches can interact with each other and the impact this interaction has on society. In reference to a psychology degree level program, this standard provides students with understanding of the key psychological approaches that will be used in the degree. Students are provided with a good firm historical context for psychology that leads them to current theory and research. Student are not only able to describe and apply the well used approaches but understand how they interact. It is the interaction between approaches that reflects current psychological practice. 91873 Analyse the significance of a key piece of research and its impact on society. Students through this standard become familiar with journal article formats and are taught skills to interpret and comprehend the articles. Students use the information they have collected from journal articles to explain the impact the theory, research or approach has on society. In reference to the journal article, students critique the significance of theory and research including validity and reliability. Students will be familiar with how to use psychology journal articles and will have a good foundation for the key terms used in journals. Students are able to move past taking the journals at face value and instead can critique them in term of significance. This will allow students to carefully select appropriate published work to use in their degree. 91874 Conduct independent psychological research with consultation Students develop the skills to conduct independent research in a scientific manner. Our students write up their research in journal format and use APA referencing for sources they have used as background information. When writing the journal students learn to write all sections including; abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion and references. The students have to source the background information independently using a variety of sources such as websites, journal articles and textbooks, they also use this information to develop suitable hypotheses. Students have the knowledge to appropriately select the correct methodology to suit the investigation and are able to justify their choices. Once they have conducted their investigations all students analyse their results and interpret the descriptive and inferential statistics, to draw appropriate conclusions. Finally, student evaluate their investigation, critique the validity and reliability, reflect on the impact their results have on society and they identify the next steps in their research. Students very early on in a psychology degree level program have to conduct investigations. Studying psychology at level 3 allows students to have the skills to independently conduct research and appropriately select the correct research methodology. At Tawa College we work out the statistics by hand and students learn how to select the correct statistical analysis, the correct probability level and learn how to interpret the results.This provides students with the ability to not only analyse their own results thoroughly but also to interpret the results provided in journal articles used in degree level psychology. Student will be able to write their results in the journal style that is required at degree level and use the compulsory APA referencing system. 91875 Analyse how theories are applied within a field of psychological practice. Students develop the ability to take theory beyond the pages of text and apply them to working fields within society. Students are able to critique the effectiveness of the theory when in use in a specific field and finally students reflect and critique the impact the theory had on society. Students can identify the different fields in psychology and are able to select and apply theory to practice in a specific field. Students are able to critique how psychological theory impacts different fields of practice. In a psychology degree level programme students choose their program according to the field they are interested in and potentially the career pathway they wish to follow. Having knowledge and understanding of fields will allow students to have a more informed choice over their pathway through the degree programme. 91876 Analyse a significant issue in psychological practice. For this assessment students all write formal essays based on a statement that outlines an issue. Students need to decide whether they agree or disagree with the statement and provide a critique of the issue using knowledge they have gathered throughout the year. Students need to use evidence to support their critique and suggest ways that psychology could overcome the issue in the future. Issues such as culture bias, gender bias, validity and reliability, methodological issues etc, can be applied to a range of other university programmes. Students understand a variety of issues in psychology and are able to identify the issues in research and theory understanding the impact on psychology. For degree level psychology this will allow student to critique theory and research according to the issues they raise and allow them to successfully identify theory and research that are more appropriate. In the last week of term two Victoria University, School of Psychology opened it doors to 3 colleges from the Wellington region. The focus of the day was the science of psychology, students were introduced to a range of scientific research methods and current research being conducted at the university. Gina Grimshaw and her team organised a full day of mini lectures and laboratory tours, giving students insight into university life for a psychology student. Students came away from the day buzzing with excitement and ideas for their futures. An awesome day was had by all.
As we walk into the F ward students are greeted with display cases that includes a mind blowing range of old medical equipment and remains of the previous buildings. Around the walls are photos and pictures of the original building, its staff and treatments the asylum used. Students are particularly impressed with the display of coma/insulin treatments and the range of old ECT machines and the very keen eyed students spot an old lobotomy needle in one of the counters. Our guides shared their knowledge and experience of the life on the F ward, the typical patients and the lay out of the room we were standing standing in.
As we moved from the ward into the corridor our students feel the change in the mood when they are led into the confinement room, complete with scratches on the wall. In the room is an original bed with original linen and mattress for students to touch; along the walls are the clothing the patients wore along with a straight jacket. Our students are instantaneously transported back in time, which helps them get a glimpse of life in the asylum. We moved through the corridor and into the different rooms including a kitchen, observation room, store room and even a hairdressers. Students are met with all sorts of delights such as old doctor ledgers, mobile baths, nursery equipments and an eye opening telephone operator switchboard. Our students begin to understand the range of patients the original asylum housed and the lifestyle of both patients and staff, which challenges their pre existing idea of a dark dungeon-like place. Students are surprised to see that the asylum included sports teams, hairdressers, communal food halls and are blown away with the size of the original asylum. Finally our tour guides offer a question and answer session, they are regaled with amazing stories of what it was like to live and work in the asylum. One of our guides talks about her time working as a psychiatric nurse in F ward and the patients she treated; with this real life experience she helps student to unpack comparisons with modern health care and treatments. We visited the Hospital museum as part of our level 3 course, we focus our Key Study on Rosenhan’s ‘Being insane in sane places”. F ward provides an anchor to the study, allowing students to reflect on the methodological issues and impact the study has on diagnosis and treatments. Opening hours are Tuesday 1pm-4pm but Friends of Porirua Hospital Incl Museum are more than happy to open to school groups. https://poriruahospitalmuseum.org.nz/?src=nav A teacher's perspective
At the beginning of the year the main question driving our planning was this: “What will our year 13’s want to study?” They always talk about how they don’t get enough sleep. We know that teenager’s circadian rhythms are a little funky. And we know that AS 3.1 requires students to conduct a piece of psychological research. I can’t entirely remember how the idea came up, we must have had too much coffee, but we thought “what about a study about sleep deprivation?” When they heard the words “sleepover”, “midnight feast” and “Friday off school”, the students were in. All 100 of them. On a Thursday early in Term 1, a hundred and three year 13 Psychology students were instructed to wake up at 7am. They spent psychology class finalising their experiment packs. Under the umbrella of “What is the psychological impact of 24 hours without sleep?” students chose their own dependent variables: IQ scores, heart rate, reaction speed, happiness scores, social skills, and skin conductance. We met at the Gym at 9pm that evening for a briefing session - rules, procedures, and so on. We were not leaving school grounds until 7am Friday morning. There would be snacks and games provided. Pizza at 12.30am. Dodgeball at 3am. And most importantly, at three hourly intervals (9pm, 12am, 3am and 6am) group leaders must come and collect an assessment pack, administer the tests to their group, and return the data collection sheets to the office where Sam and I were furiously entering the results into excel. To skip to the results, it turns out that after 24 hours without sleep teenagers report significantly decreased happiness and sociability levels. IQ scores, heart rate and skin conductance were not significantly affected while reaction speed got slightly faster. At 7am the next morning our blurry-eyed students signed out, were picked up by parents, and taken home to recover. Over the next two weeks we taught students how to write a complete lab report on their study. Like any school event, there was a plethora of safety measures to consider: - Informed consent was gained from parents - Students were not allowed to drive home on Friday morning - Students were not expected at school on Friday - Designated sleeping rooms were provided for those who wanted to withdraw - Out of bounds areas were clearly marked with “caution” tape - Two extra teachers helped us so we could rotate supervision. They happened to be Year 13 deans which helped provide some authority. - Dietary and medical needs were recorded - Group leaders provided cell phone numbers and the teachers were on constant roaming supervision - Classrooms had designated activities (e.g. table tennis; giant jenga) including 2 “chill out rooms” It was a hugely exhausting night, but I highly doubt the students involved will ever forget the research skills gained. What’s an extraneous variable? “Oh, like when some people decided to drink coffee!” What does it mean to have the Right to Withdraw? “Like how we had designated sleeping rooms if we decided to give up.” - Rebecca Roche , Teacher of Psychology, Tawa College A student's perspective Certain psychology experiments will go down in history. The Stanford Prison Experiment of 1971. The Yale Milgram experiments of the 1960's. And this year, the Tawa College 2017 Sleep Deprivation Study. How will 24 hours of sleep deprivation affect 103 teenagers full of pizza, sugar and coffee? Will they live up to their claims that 24 hours without sleep is a piece of cake? Or will everything fall apart at 3am? The Tawa College 2017 Sleep Deprivation Study took place on Thursday the 2nd of March, 103 Year 13 Psychology students stayed awake for 24 hours for the sake of psychological science. The purpose of the study was to further scientific knowledge of the effects of sleep deprivation on senior high school students. There was a past study done in 1965 on Randy Gardner who set the world record for staying awake at 11 days. As teenagers often report feeling sleep deprived, we wanted to find out if science has anything to say about the situation. From this curiosity we crafted an experiment to see if just ONE night sleep deprivation would have any effect on students happiness, IQ, reaction speed, and social skills. On the day of the experiment, we met in the gym at 9pm and then stayed awake all night until 7am the next day, as the school staff were arriving at school our participants, exhausted and pyjama'd year 13 students were sprawled on the floor of B block hallway. I would like to thank all the students who took part and also the teachers who gave up their time to let us run this experiment. - Shout out to Mrs Lorenzen who volunteered to help and stayed up all night doing data entry Also Mr Parazda who ran 2am basketball and 4am dodgeball. Finally shout out to Miss Roche's who did a little mid night pizza run to pick up 40 pizzas. Sadly there was a wide range of confounding variables in our experiment which would need to be changed in order to make it a valid experiment. While the experiment may have failed with results, in my opinion the experiment was a success. We had lots of fun and laughter until about 3am when everyone got very grumpy and the validity of the experiments dropped drastically as no one wanted to complete them anymore but it was still hilarious. I highly recommend psychology as a subject and future years should attempt this study again. - Jack Harriss Level 3 Psychology student. Initial Comment (included here due to website update): ESSAY WRITING SERVICE REVIEW: 9/14/2019 02:44:06 am Being sleep deprived will not help you be productive, in fact, it is the contrary. If you deprive yourself of sleep, then you will only have a hard time focusing on what you need to do. I know that you might feel like you need to keep yourself awake to meet your deadlines, but that is not worth the health risks. I hope that you take proper care of yourself more. You can always put in overtimes work some other time.
Students at Nayland College, Nelson anlaysed a partner through their approach to decorating a cake. Carefully observing the techniques used, students evaluated their partner's personality using the Myers-Briggs and Big 5 dimensions. Students who were careful and considered, took care and placed the decorations very deliberately may be more likely to be high on the sensing dimension than the intuition dimension. Keen to display your work to peers and show off your talents? Maybe you're an extrovert! Worked hard on your cake and applied lots of time and effort - maybe you'd score highly on the conscientious dimension of a Big 5 test. (All pretty silly fun of course but it got us all talking about the various ways of assessing personality, their likely accuracy. And then we got to eat the cakes!).
Set up in 2013 by our previous chair of the NZAPT is a Facebook group that promotes collaboration around Psychology in New Zealand secondary schools. Typical post on the page are specific questions around teaching and assessments in secondary school psychology, requests for moderation help and up to date psychological resources. Members of the page are; teachers who offer psychology as a subject, who teach one psychology standard in another subject or teachers who just love the subject, this page is not exclusive to NZAPT members. If you would like a member type in Psychology NZ secondary schools into Facebook and ask to join the group.  |
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