As a psychology teacher, there are a tonne of interesting and complex concepts you’ll try and convey to your students in every lesson. Some of these concepts can be long-winded, overwhelming and sometimes just plain difficult to explain simply by talking or explaining to your students via word of mouth or scribblings on the whiteboard. Fortunately, there is a vast wealth of resources, websites and apps available online at your disposal, giving you the confidence and information you need to teach effectively, enabling you to effectively connect and educate your students.
Throughout this article, we’ll be exploring what resources are available to you and how they can help you in your lessons. Firstly, we’ll look at great places to source information for your psychology lessons. Web sites such as Psychology Today is a great place to start when trying to collect data to share with your students. This is an extremely detailed site with accurate and up-to-date information, statistics and case studies that can be used to explain your points and psychology concepts, allowing you to back up everything you say with data. If you’re looking for more in-depth data, websites such as Online Psychology Laboratory house a tonne of resources and even detailed teaching aids.
However, as you know, you can’t teach simply by bombarding your students with an overload of information. You’ll need to convey this information is an easy-to-understand yet comprehensive way. This has been proven to be the most effective teaching method. This is where online and portable device apps come in handy. Apps such as 3D Brain, available on iOS devices, grant you access to a full interactive brain map, detailing each region, areas and also explain how the functions work. This is perfect for visually explaining how each piece of information you’re explaining actually works in reality. In addition to this, there are countless applications that you and your students can download and interact with together.
For example, apps such as EPPPF and AP Psychology Prep grant you access to thousands of readily available ‘flash cards’ These have been created by a group of licensed psychologists and cover nearly all the topics you would expect them to cover. You can use these for setting homework, revision purposes or for sourcing questions for pop quizzes and tests. Each flash card is highly interactive, giving your students to become proactive in their education, in lessons and outside of the classroom.
You could also consider creating your own flashcards or test and resource materials based on what are currently teaching. Services such as Best Australian Writers, and Top Canadian Writers have a range of custom writing websites full of professional writers, fully educated in the fields of psychology, who can research, write and create your flash card materials as you require them, ideal for creating personalised resources for your classes.
There’s no bigger contributor to success than teamwork and collaboration. Sometimes, it can be difficult to think of ways to portray a certain lesson or topic and it may help to seek the assistance of other educators in your field. Forums and social teacher pages are scattered throughout the Internet for your use. Pages such as the All About Facebook Page brings together psychology students and teachers from around the world. There are regular updates from the psychology field including latest releases and up to date information. Using the comment and chat features, you can also communicate with other members of the page, discussing the best ways to filter and communicate this information.
However, not all psychology pages are for teachers and lecturers. Pages such as Psi Chi and The Student Doctor Website are prime examples of fantastic forums and online communities where your students can collaborate with one another, discussing recent studies, new case studies and the best way to tackle projects or concepts.
No matter how much you teach, or how well you teach, your students will already know how much they will have to prepare for the testing period of their course. Psychology tests are renowned for being some of the most difficult in all fields of education so you’ll need the resources to give them the best possible chance. There is a vast amount of test preparation tools available online. These can be found with a quick online search but one of the best is Graduate Record Exams. Specifically designed for psychology undergraduates, your students will have the chance to explore study guides, teaching aids and professional, official psychology training materials, enabling you to give your students the best possible foundation of information to succeed in their tests.
Have you used any of these resources in the past or maybe have some other key links that can assist teachers and students from around the world? Let us know your experiences in the comment section below.
