ESS701 - Reflections by Joseph Ferguson

Reflection

2025-07-08 08:21:09 UTC

I feel as though I have a good understanding of the basic concepts of the study design, however I would like to work on finding more culturally responsive ways of teaching the content. When I was in high school, we didn't learn how some cultures could respond differently to experiments or experience some psychological concepts differently, or even how disability might affect this. I would like to work on emphasizing individual differences in all topics and to foster critical thinking around this. While this issue may be the hardest to teach given my own unique identity, I hope to learn to find ways to be respectful and ethical while also allowing for all identities to be seen. This may also be difficult to incorporate in such a content filled curriculum so I will have to plan to interweave these instances of questioning.

Reflection (Nikki)

2025-07-14 09:55:51 UTC

I feel like teaching psychology, in comparison to other curriculum areas, might expose teachers and students to sensitive content areas, like mental ill-health. As is mentioned in the study design, teachers are not counsellors but I imagine this could be tricky for students to understand.

I feel pretty confident that, after a bit of a refresh, the content across most of the units will be easy to teach for me. It's easy because I find psychology really interesting, particularly the biological/neuroscience aspects like areas of the brain and how neurotransmitters work. I'm not the best at statistics but I feel like I understand it enough to teach it at a year 11/12 level, but I guess we'll find out! I think I might also struggle with Unit 3, particularly Area of Study 2 which focuses on memory formation. I wasn't super engaged in this part of psychology in my own studies and so consequentially (and ironically) have not committed a lot of it to memory.

In terms of engaging students, I think implementing applied learning as much as possible will be really beneficial. The things I remember from my own studies were the "applied" activites/assessments. For instance, I created a health promotion initiative based on social psychology theory, I drew the parts of a brain on a swimming cap (I think I still have it!), and I created a wellness app based in mindfulness/positive psychology - to name a few.

I'm curious to see how I juggle curriculum with these kinds of activities and am keen to learn from others, including from experienced teachers on placement.

Reflection on “The trouble with Bloom’s taxonomy in an age of AI?"

2025-07-15 05:59:27 UTC

This article offers a powerful point for reflection — human cognition is not strictly hierarchical. Different cognitive processes are interconnected and often work in collaboration. Depending on the type of task and the learner involved, the sequence of cognitive skills can shift and adapt.
This also raises an important question for the age of AI: how can teachers guide students to use AI effectively as a learning tool? For example, students might begin by using AI to generate a "creative" output, and then be guided through a process of comparison, evaluation, understanding, and final definition. This encourages a more active and inquiry-based learning experience.
Sean

Reflection on "Why multiple intelligences theory is a neuromyth"

2025-07-15 06:20:37 UTC

This is a thought-provoking article. While Multiple Intelligences (MI) Theory has helped promote differentiated instruction and strength-based learning, it lacks scientific evidence for its core claim — that intelligences are modular. The brain works in a highly interconnected way, with many cognitive abilities overlapping and interacting.

Take, for example, a successful singer. They don’t rely solely on musical intelligence. Telling a story involves linguistic intelligence, and performance calls on bodily-kinaesthetic skills. From my view, MI Theory may reflect more of a socially constructed way of categorising human abilities (like vocational labels), rather than a biologically accurate model of intelligence. So I am thinking if the popularity of MI Theory could unintentionally hold back educational progress.

Second, schools are not only for talents and should not just focus on nurturing individual strengths. We also need to help students develop in areas they struggle with — to ensure they gain the well-rounded skills for an unpredictable future.

Sean