Developing Skills Revision

Tutor Information

• Dr Hannah Heath is the Senior Year Tutor
• Email: [email protected]
• Responsibilities include the tutorial system
• Involvement in EC discussions, registration queries, and EC panels
• Acts as a further point of contact between the school and students
• Acts as a link between welfare and the school
• Monitors attendance

Expectations

• Students are expected to be prepared and willing to participate in sessions
• The sessions are a space to explore areas of interest in Psychology
• Attendance is expected at all sessions, and students need to inform their tutor if they're unable to attend.

Tutoring and Success

• Personal tutoring is essential for supporting student success and retention.
• Tutors help build relationships between staff and students, guiding them in their studies.
• Tutors act as points of contact for other university services.
• Open discussion and acceptance are crucial to a positive tutor-student relationship.

Tutorial Attendance and References

• Students will be asked to provide references at the end (or sometimes during) their degree.
• Tutors are often the first point of contact for this.
• Tutors comment on students' abilities to work in teams, communication skills, attendance, preparedness, honesty, integrity, and achievement.
• Tutors can provide detailed tailored references if students engage well.

Group Tutorials

• Regular in-person group meetings with tutors
• Opportunity to get to know peers and the tutor
• Designed to support learning
• Themed sessions (with some flexibility)
• Attendance is expected and monitored
• Students are encouraged to be actively involved.

Individual Progress Meetings

• Meetings are 15 to 20 minutes long
• Meetings occur with a personal tutor
• Students should check their academic email entry and signposts
• Topics to discuss during meetings include academic progress, support needs, and curriculum areas of interest.
• Information about University support and career guidance is provided.
• Discussions on progress review quizzes are included.

School of Psychology Handbook

• A handbook is the primary source for program information
• It acts as a central location for information and updates.
• Students should confirm receipt of the handbook.

Feedback

• Feedback is offered via written feedback, completed rubrics, grades and whole cohort feedback.
• Feedback from staff during teaching sessions (1-2-1) and feedback tutorials.
• Tutors support students in understanding and working with their feedback.
• Tutor feedback on written work and the feedback process itself.
• Resources like Academic Skills Centre, providing academic skill, digital, and mathematical support, aid independent learning.

Attendance

• Students need to attend scheduled classes.
• Non-attendance can result in due diligence processes or course withdrawal.
• Tutors monitor attendance at in-person sessions (lectures, workshops, seminars.)

College Wellbeing Support

• All students have access to wellbeing support through various avenues.
• Support services include personal tutors, college wellbeing officers, and wider university support services.
• Psychology Wellbeing Officers (like Chantelle Ratcliffe) provide support to all students in the School of Psychology.

College Wellbeing Officers

• They provide a supportive, accessible, and safe environment.
• They offer confidential and impartial advice.
• They coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and long-term conditions.

Contact Details

• Chantelle Ratcliffe (relevant contact)
• Email: [email protected]
• Available via email from 9am - 5pm on weekdays, typically responding in ~2 business days.
• Support services (like LES Wellbeing Support Service at bham.ac.uk)

Other Support Sources

• Student Wellbeing Support Line for 24/7 access to emotional and mental health support
• Information is available online about other services, including the Pause@UOB virtual/in person drop-in sessions.
• Additional support from the Mental Health and Wellbeing Team for students in Birmingham (including registering for personalized support)

Extensions or Extenuating Circumstances (EC)

• Extensions can be applied for before the assessment deadline.
• Extenuating circumstances (EC) are used to request additional time on assessments that cannot be extended.
• Such requests for additional time should be made before the deadline wherever possible.

Extensions (Length)

• Short explanations are required for extensions.
• 5 working days – is suitable with supporting evidence.
• 10 working days – is suitable with supporting evidence
• 15 working days – only for exceptional cases.

Extenuation Circumstances (EC)

• The process is for deferring assessments that cannot be extended (e.g., class tests).
• This may lead to a decision about progressing in the academic year.
• Students should be advised of circumstances impacting their performance; these will be considered when assessing their progress.
• Support is available on the university's wellbeing services page for requesting this and more.
• Any request needs to be made well in advance.

Evidence for Extensions and ECS

• Evidence for extensions and extenuating circumstances must be provided with all requests
• Examples include GP letters, death certificates, and police reports.

Reasonable Adjustment Plans (RAP)

• The university supports students with disabilities through RAPs
• A disability is any condition significantly affecting daily activities
• The RAP process is facilitated using university services, including relevant medical certificates.

Learning Objectives and Lectures

• Learning objectives for the module include: differences between essay and other written assignment styles, discussion of essay structure components, discussion of the School's generic marking criteria, examples of essays, and essay structure.
• The module overview includes a pre-lecture recap and essay writing information, as well as the school's marking criteria for essays, the Psychology modules' essay requirements, and essay structure.

Descriptive vs Critical Analytical Writing

• Descriptive writing: states what happened, states something is like, provides the story so far, outlines the steps or order of events, lists main elements of a theory, lists details, lists in any order, etc
• Critical analytical writing: identifies significance, weights one piece of information against another, evaluates strengths and weaknesses, reasons judgments, argues a case according to the evidence, identifies if something is relevant, etc.

Marking: Analysis

• The essay demonstrates subject analysis, using psychological and neuroscientific ideas and concepts.
• The essay shows critical thinking skills, providing explanations for the issues raised by the question.

Essay Structure

• The structure of the essay should enable the argument and discussions to be expressed clearly and coherently
• Students should introduce the aim of the essay clearly
• The conclusions should follow logically from main points in the essay and be fully justified
• The titles of essays should match and be reflected by the essay content.

Essay Title Analysis

• The structure used should be coherent in argument flow and discussion.
• A typical format for an essay is to use processes like Criticizing, Evaluating, Justifying, Comping, and Contrasting.

Essay and Mark Criteria

• Knowledge and understanding
• Analysis
• Reading and referencing
• Essay structure
• Use of language
• Use of Generative Al

Essay Assessments on Psychology Modules

• Essay requirements for differing modules (LC, LI, LH).
• Example essay types in different sections of the Psychology modules.

How to Write an Essay: Structure

• Basic organization
• Title, Introduction, Main Body (organized into paragraphs with argumentation), Conclusion, and References

Thinking About Chance in Exams

Applying Guess Corrections

• Methods for adjusting MCQ scores to account for guesswork in multiple-choice exams
• The number of "correct" answers by chance is subtracted from the maximum possible score, then reported as a percentage to adjust for chance.

Probability and Statistical Evidence

• Probability is the likelihood of an event occurring
• Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) is used to calculate how frequently results might occur by chance alone
• Sample size has an impact on whether a difference between groups is statistically significant.

Effect sizes

• Effect sizes are independent of sample size.
• Effect size is the magnitude of a significant difference.

Causation and Correlation

• Correlation does not imply causation
• Causation can imply correlation
• Research designs including observational studies, experiments, and quasi-experiments are used to infer causality.

Experiments and RCTs

Causal Inference

• Causal inference seeks to understand cause-and-effect relationships
• Establishing causality is often complex and requires careful consideration about confounds, mediators, and colliders.

Open Science Practices

• Examples of poor scientific practices (p-hacking, HARKing), followed by examples of how to improve (open data, open resources, open code)

Discovery and Translational Science

• Discovery science examines fundamental principles/mechanisms
• Translational science applies basic research to real-world problems

Institute of Mental Health

• The Institute's research areas include youth mental health, prevention, intervention, healthy lifestyles, mental wellbeing, suicide and self-harm prevention.
• They study global mental health.

Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing

• Research focuses on the reliability of crime linkage methods.
• This work has international implications.

Prof. Caroline Richards

• Research involves neurodevelopmental disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and rare syndromes including Fragile X and Cornelia de Lange.
• They focus on understanding factors contributing to sleep issues and problem behaviours for neurodevelopmental children.

Dr Davinia Fernández-Espejo & Dr Damian Cruse

• Their research area is on the possibility of communication in the Vegetative State through brain imaging techniques

Assessment (Developing Skills Exams)

• The assessment method is a multiple-choice question (MCQ) exam occurring after the Christmas break.

Note-taking

Our Learning Approach

• The teaching and module design in the School of Psychology draw on both traditional and "flipped" classroom techniques

Our Modules on Canvas/Resources Lists

• The modules on the Canvas resource lists contain the materials for reading, lectures, resources and more.

University of Birmingham Graduate Attributes

• Includes points about future-focused, intellectually curious, and practical wisdom qualities.

Careers Network

• Provides individual advice and guidance on career paths.
• Provides opportunity for work experience, internships and mentoring.
• Offers graduate opportunities, like the Birmingham Award and Birmingham Project.

Academic Integrity - General

• Academic integrity is a set of standards that ensure honest, fair, and original work at a university level.
• Cheating on assignments should be avoided, and understanding the boundaries of acceptable collaboration are important.
• Plagiarism and self-plagiarism are forms of academic misconduct.

Academic Integrity - Specific Cases & Advice

• Instances of text overlap can result in academic integrity issues.
• Turnitin is used for checking work overlap
• Lecturers and staff can help students if they have problems or are unsure.
• Advice about working with materials and paraphrasing is offered
• Avoidance of self-plagiarism and other ethical issues

Feedback and Cover Sheets

• A cover sheet should be completed by the students to explain in 60 words how the student has used feedback from previous work, or how they want to use it, and in 60 words on what they would particularly like feedback on.

Critical Analysis

• Critical analysis is an important part of how students will approach their assignments.
• Critical analysis means evaluating statements, testing ideas, and seeking support through evidence.

Chance and Statistical Evidence

• Chance and randomness are concepts psychologists should engage with in understanding statistical evidence, especially in how sample size affects interpretations
• Effect sizes can provide additional insight
• Correlation does not equal causality

Research Reports and Critical Analysis

• Understanding the types of data reported by experiments (like randomized controlled trials)
• Understanding how different types of research design help, or hinder, cause-and-effect conclusions
• Understanding the role of variables (independent, dependent, confounding, mediating, and collider variables).

Research Methods/Knowledge and Translational Science

• Discussion of how research and knowledge is developed; and applied throughout courses