AQA Psychology for A Level Year 1 & AS - Student Book

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It is the ONLY guide that embeds issues and debates into every section of every topic. This is something that I feel is exceptionally important in the new linear A-Levels and therefore this is the only text that takes a truly linear and synoptic approach. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, processes, techniques, and procedures. Show knowledge and understanding of psychological theories, terminology, concepts, studies, and methods. This skill area tests knowledge of research design and data analysis, and applying theoretical understanding of psychology to everyday/real-life examples. There may be one, two, or all (only in the extended writing 16-mark question). It is important to understand how assessment objectives are allocated to each type of question to maximize your chance of obtaining full marks. AO1: Demonstrate knowledge

The OUP ( Green - Brain) book provides good coverage of certain topics, in particular, biopsychology; however, by the time I got to this book, I had enough information from the others to inform my own teaching. It’s a very user-friendly book from a student point of view, and is a good ‘go to’ book for certain topics. The discussion around textbooks comes up a lot on the AQA A Level Psychology Teacher Community on Facebook, and I while my opinions are obviously biased, having authored the two revision and exam companions (the Cat and Dog) books with OUP and writing for tutor2u, I’ll present them, keeping Teaching & Learning and students at the forefront of what I say. Evaluation material uses a three-paragraph structure (point, evidence and conclusion) and includes counterpoints to develop discussion skills. The Hodder ( Lawton/Willard - Mask) is my favourite of the published books; however, I think it better as a teacher guide rather than a student one. I’ll explain that point in a moment. I particularly like the depth, coverage and the comprehensive list of research that accompanies each topic in the specification. Furthermore, the Year 2 book has a particularly impressive Issues and Debates chapter with clear links to other Year 2 topics, which is very useful. Why do I call this book a ‘teacher guide’? Because the evaluations are, in some places, brief and therefore a student would need to expand/develop the points themselves, something which many students struggle to do. However, as a teacher, this is ideal as we can select the points that we want to teach, and develop those with our students.It is updated yearly, and rather than providing 5/6 sample questions, we list all of the possible questions that have come up in every topic, along with exam hints and tips on how to avoid common pitfalls. A new/experienced teacher will never need to refer to an examiner report again! Contextualising how the topic in question relates to broader debates and approaches in Psychology: For example, would they agree or disagree with a theory or the findings of the study? Also, I think the question of which book to buy and then purchasing class-sets is a misguided one and a whole separate discussion. I have never provided my students with a published textbook or revision guide, other than the ones I created myself. The reason for this is simple: I wanted my students to revise the content I provided them with in my lessons, and not be inundated with questions about content I’ve not covered or evaluation points they don’t understand.

Approved by AQA and written by leading psychology authors, Cara Flanagan, Matt Jarvis and Rob Liddle, the 2nd Edition of this popular Student Book will support students through the AS / Year 1 course and help them thoroughly prepare for their exams. Analyse, interpret, and evaluate scientific information, ideas, and evidence, including in relation to issues, to: Furthermore, the majority of printed textbooks are at a massive disadvantage. Most, if not all of the major text books were produced when the specifications were initially launched. The approved textbooks are unable to update their content to reflect exam performance each year, nor are they allowed to over-emphasise exam preparation at the expense of content. Furthermore, approved texts are not permitted to include: specific ‘examiner insights’ or ‘commentary’; ideas on how to achieve ‘top marks’; revision tips; references to what may or may not come up in the exam, etc. That being said, I must say that approval is a rigorous process to ensure that a textbook provides ‘good support for the specification’; however, it is something that I have always taken with a ‘pinch of salt’.Each topic is presented on one spread to see the whole picture with description and evaluation clearly separated. Animal Research: This raises the issue of whether it’s morally and/or scientifically right to use animals.The main criterion is that benefits must outweigh costs. Animal research also raises the issue of extrapolation. Can we generalize from studies on animals to humans as their anatomy & physiology is different from humans?