Psychology in the Classroom: Recent Episodes

Lucinda Powell

The show that takes psychological research and translates it for classroom teachers so they can effectively apply it to their teaching practice to help improve outcomes for their students. Interviews with leading psychologists and other experts in the field of education, as well as deep dives into educational theory and a little bit of neuromyth busting.

...with Angela Myers

In this episode, Angela, an educator with 60 years of experience spanning primary, secondary, further and community education shares her thoughts on classroom observations. Having held roles from classroom teacher through to Deputy Principal at Solihull College, Angela brings a remarkable depth of knowledge to one of the most talked-about — and often dreaded — aspects of teaching: the lesson observation. Whether you're a classroom teacher who feels a knot in your stomach every time someone walks through your door with a clipboard, a middle leader tasked with observing your colleagues for the first time, or a senior leader trying to build a culture where professional learning is genuinely valued, this episode has something for you.

What we cover:

The history of lesson observations: Angela takes us back to the introduction of the first national inspection framework in 1992, explaining how grading and observation became intertwined from the very beginning — and why that legacy still shapes how many teachers feel about being observed today.
From quality assurance to coaching: We explore how the purpose of lesson observations has shifted dramatically over the decades, moving away from a model of judgement and towards one rooted in professional dialogue, reflection and genuine improvement.
What to look for when observing a lesson: Angela shares the five key areas she identified through visits to over 100 colleges, offering practical guidance for anyone stepping into an observation role for the first time. This includes why talking to students during a lesson can be one of the most revealing things an observer can do. Observing lessons for your own development Not all observations are about giving feedback. Angela discusses how to approach watching a colleague's lesson when your aim is to improve your own practice — including a fascinating example of the "narrative approach" as an alternative to traditional lesson objectives.
How to give effective feedback: From the outstanding lesson where you're not sure what to say, to the lesson where learning has broken down entirely, Angela offers a clear framework for feedback that prioritises partnership, teacher agency and sustainable change.
Professional dialogue explained: Angela unpacks the model of professional dialogue she helped develop — drawing on learning conversations and the work of Chris Argyris — and walks us through a detailed, real-world example of how it works in practice.
Building a culture where observations are welcomed: Perhaps most importantly, Angela makes a compelling case for what schools and colleges look like when observation becomes an organic, ongoing part of the way everyone talks about learning — rather than an annual event to be endured.

...with Dr Diana Sorrentino

In this episode, Dr. D, an expert on gender diversity and transgender identities with over 40 years of experience, explores gender identity's neurobiological foundations, social influences, and evolving terminology. Dr. D shares her personal journey, explains foetal development and intersex variations, and discusses support strategies for transgender youth. She highlights the critical role of family acceptance, outlines age-appropriate medical guidelines, and emphasises that gender diversity is a natural, biological phenomenon. The episode encourages educators to examine their biases and seek reliable resources to better support gender-diverse individuals.

Paradoxes of Gender Podcast can be found here: https://paradoxesofgender.com/podcasts-1 or on whichever platform you get your podcasts.

Dr D's Books are available via her website: https://paradoxesofgender.com/books

WPATH website is: https://wpath.org/

Episode in bullet points:

Understanding gender identity and its complexities
Neurobiological foundations of gender identity
Evolution of gender-related terminology and language
The impact of socialization and culture on gender roles
Experiences and challenges faced by transgender and gender-diverse individuals
The spectrum of biological sex characteristics and intersex variations
The role of family and community support for transgender youth
Current medical guidelines for gender-affirming care in youth
The significance of non-binary identities and fluid gender expression
The importance of education and awareness in supporting gender diversity

With Prof Edmund Sonuga Barke and Dr. Susie Chandler.

This episode marks the end of the series of podcasts on the RE-STAR project. In this final episode we discuss the four-and-a-half-year research initiative supporting neurodivergent adolescents with ADHD and autism. The discussion covers how the project shifted focus from internal emotion dysregulation to the school environment's role in mental health, introducing the concept of "emotional burden." Key findings include the importance of teacher understanding, consistent accommodations, and moving away from deficit-based language. The episode concludes with an introduction to their intervention, Place Positive, designed to foster inclusive school cultures and reduce emotional burden for neurodivergent students.

More information about the RE-STAR project and Place Positive can be found here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/re-star

You can listen to the 8 other episodes in the RE-STAR series here: https://changingstatesofmind.com/re-star-project

The episode in bullet points:

Overview of the RE-STAR Project and its focus on neurodivergent adolescents, particularly those with ADHD and autism.
Discussion of the increased risk of mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, among neurodivergent youth.
Shift in research focus from intrinsic emotion dysregulation to environmental factors, particularly the school environment.
Introduction of the concept of "emotional burden" and its implications for understanding neurodivergent experiences.
Importance of interdisciplinary collaboration and community involvement in research.
Insights on the needs of neurodivergent students in educational settings, including the need for understanding and consistency from teachers.
Challenges faced by neurodivergent students in schools, including reliance on formal diagnoses for support.
Development of the Place Positive intervention aimed at creating inclusive school environments.
Discussion on the impact of language and terminology used in relation to ADHD and autism.
Long-term goals for the RE-STAR Project and its potential influence on UK schools.

...with Ann-Kathrin Krause

In this episode, Ann-Katrin Krause, a PhD student in educational psychology at the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education in Frankfurt, discusses her research on the role of habits in students' learning strategy use, exploring why students often default to ineffective strategies like rereading despite knowing better alternatives exist. The conversation covers how environmental cues trigger habitual behaviours, the distinction between automaticity and effectiveness, and practical strategies like habit stacking and if-then planning. Ann-Katrin also highlights how teachers can foster effective study habits by embedding strategies into classroom routines.

Ann-Kathrin Research can be found here: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-025-10087-3

Futher reading is available here:

Gardner, B., & Rebar, A. L. (2019). Habit formation and behavior change. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190236557.013.129

Gardner, B., Rebar, A. L., De Wit, S., & Lally, P. (2024). What is habit and how can it be used to change real-world behaviour? Narrowing the theory–reality gap. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 18(6), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12975

Podcast bullet points:

Research on students' self-regulated learning skills
The role of habits in learning and strategy use
The gap between knowledge of effective strategies and actual behavior
Environmental cues and their influence on habit formation
The distinction between automaticity and effectiveness in study habits
The impact of motivation and self-discipline on study behaviors
The importance of teacher support in developing effective study habits
Strategies for habit formation, including "habit stacking" and implementation intentions
The role of rewards in reinforcing study habits
The need for self-awareness and reflection in changing study behaviours

...with Hannah Brownhill

To kick off the summer term, Hannah Brownhill, a positive psychology practitioner and former secondary teacher shares her insights into embedding wellbeing in to schools through positive psychology.

Following her Churchill Fellowship research in Australia, Hannah shares how schools can move beyond "wellbeing as an add-on" to create a culture of genuine flourishing. This episode explores the PERMA framework, the power of character strengths, and the systemic shifts needed in UK education. Hannah also offers practical, classroom-ready strategies for teachers, alongside honest reflections on the systemic challenges facing UK schools and encouragement to start small, prioritising your own wellbeing first.

Key Discussion Points * The Australian Model: Insights from schools successfully embedding positive education into their DNA. * The PERMA Framework: Breaking down the five pillars of wellbeing: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. * Strengths-Based Teaching: How shifting our language from deficits to strengths transforms classroom dynamics. * Staff First: Why teacher wellbeing is the essential foundation for student flourishing.

Resources * The PERMA Framework: https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/learn-more/perma-theory-well-being-and-perma-workshops * Character Strengths Guide: https://www.viacharacter.org/character-strengths-and-virtues * Churchill Fellowship Research: https://www.churchillfellowship.org/ideas-experts/fellows-directory/hannah-brownhill/ * Hannah Brownhill Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-brownhill-53a78919a/

Bullet point summary:

Transition from secondary school teaching to positive psychology practice
Definition and principles of positive psychology
Application of positive psychology in education through positive education
Overview of the PERMA framework (Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, Accomplishment)
Importance of embedding wellbeing into the school culture rather than as an add-on
Challenges and strategies for implementing positive education in secondary schools
The concept of wellbeing literacy and its role in creating coherence among staff
Use of character strengths in the classroom and their impact on student interactions
Quick wins for teachers to incorporate positive education in their practice
Measuring the impact of positive education initiatives and the complexities involved in assessing wellbeing

Kicking off the summer term, this episode features two brilliant sixth-form students sharing their passion for psychology. Estelle, a year 13 student unpacks the multi-store model of memory, offering teachers genuinely practical strategies around attention, rehearsal, and retrieval practice to support student learning. Then Charlie, a Year 12 student, explores the exciting and thought-provoking role of AI in psychotherapy, examining how technology is making mental health support more accessible and affordable. Together, they demonstrate just how dynamic and relevant psychology is today — a timely reminder of the incredible thinking happening in our classrooms.

A bullet point summary:

Discussion of the multi-store model of memory (modal model) by Atkinson and Shiffrin.
Explanation of sensory registers, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
Importance of capturing student attention in the classroom for effective learning.
Techniques for enhancing short-term memory retention, including rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal.
Strategies for connecting new information to prior knowledge to strengthen long-term memory.
Overview of the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in psychotherapy.
Benefits of AI in mental health support, including accessibility, affordability, and reduced stigma.
Limitations of AI therapy, such as lack of genuine empathy and privacy concerns.
Potential for AI to complement human therapists in mental health care.
Exploration of future possibilities for personalized therapy and improved access to mental health resources through AI.

...with Dr Tracy Edwards

In this episode, Tracy Edwards, senior lecturer at Leeds Beckett University and author of Severe and Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties in Schools, explores the ethical and practical dilemmas teachers face when supporting learners with complex needs. Drawing on her experience in both mainstream and special education, Tracy discusses inclusion, differentiation, and the importance of reflective, learner-centred practice. She highlights the value of embracing difference, fostering choice, and maintaining high aspirations for all pupils. This insightful conversation offers practical guidance and reassurance for secondary teachers navigating the challenges of inclusive education in UK schools.

Useful Links:

Severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties in school: considering ethical and dilemma-based perspectives by Tracy Edwards: https://www.routledge.com/Severe-Profound-and-Multiple-Learning-Difficulties-in-School-Considering-Ethical-and-Dilemma-Based-Perspectives/Edwards/p/book/9781032888750

Beyond the 'Dilemma of difference': an analysis of stories from expereinced teachers about their inclusive practice: https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.4129

Simmons, B. (2021) 'How special are mainstream schools? Reflections on social spaces for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties.' : https://researchspace.bathspa.ac.uk/14531/

BBC Articles on the topics mentioned in the podcast:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cpr0xwx9e7jo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2r8y0v6l7o

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjw0e3zjx2lo

Bullet point summary:

Special and inclusive education challenges for teachers.
Dilemmas faced by educators working with learners with complex special educational needs.
Inclusion versus exclusion in educational settings.
Ethical considerations in teaching and decision-making.
The role of special schools compared to mainstream schools.
Importance of "craft knowledge" in navigating educational dilemmas.
The impact of systemic failures on students with special needs.
The significance of choice and flexible differentiation in pedagogy.
The relationship between classroom practices and student engagement.
The need for ongoing reflection and ethical engagement in inclusive education.

...with Andre Tomlin

In this episode, Andre from The Mental Elf discusses how we can make mental health research accessible and useful for teachers and practitioners. The conversation tackles the challenges of jargon, paywalls, and misleading headlines, sharing practical tips for spotting reliable studies and avoiding common pitfalls. Andre highlights the power of co-producing interventions with young people, the importance of prevention, and the value of focusing on emotions and relationships in schools.

Trigger Warning - the discussion is focussed on mental health and there is brief discussion of suicide.

Links to the resources mentioned are below:

The Mental Elf: nationalelfservice.net/mental-health
André Tomlin - LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andretomlin/
The ReSET Podcast Series https://resetproject.co.uk/the-reset-podcast/
Schools in Mind — free, evidence-based resources specifically for schools: https://www.annafreud.org/resources/schools-and-colleges/schools-in-mind/
Mentally Healthy Schools website — helps schools navigate what actually works https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/
Children and Young People's Mental Health Coalition https://cypmhc.org.uk/
Kiva Podcast with Julia Badger: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/unpacking-the-complexities-of-bullying-from-counter-connecting-to-whole-school-solutions
Kiva Podcast with Lucy Bowes: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/bullying-its-everybodys-problem
More Mental Health podcasts from Psychology in the Classroom: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mental-health-%26-wellbeing

Bullet point outline:

Challenges in making mental health research accessible to non-researchers, particularly educators and practitioners.
The gap between published research and its practical application in real-world settings.
Issues with paywalls, academic jargon, and the complexity of research language.
Importance of critically evaluating research headlines and studies, including understanding correlation versus causation.
Key factors for assessing research quality, such as peer review, study design, and effect size.
The role of mixed methods research in providing a comprehensive understanding of mental health interventions.
The significance of co-production with young people in developing effective mental health programs.
The distinction between efficacy and effectiveness trials in evaluating interventions.
Common myths about mental health research in schools and the importance of evidence-based prevention.
Resources and platforms that help bridge the gap between mental health research and practical application for educators.

...With Professor Silke Paulmann

In this episode I am joined by Professor Silke Paulmann to discuss why how we sound matters just as much as what we say - the irony, as you will hear, being that my voice this week is far from fine! We often focus on the words we use to support student autonomy—offering choice and avoiding pressure—but Professor Paulmann's research reveals that our vocal tone is a primary carrier of psychological information.

Whether you are teaching Early Years or Secondary, the way you modulate your voice can directly impact a student's sense of autonomy, competence, and relatedness. From reducing classroom anxiety to helping students feel truly "heard," your voice is one of the most powerful psychological tools in your teaching toolkit. Learn some easy to implement strategies to help your vocal tone.

You can find out more here: https://www.tone4you.co.uk/

Key Moments: * Introduction to Professor Silke Paulmann: A look at her background in cognitive science and her research on voice as a biomarker. * The "Why" Behind the Voice: Why tone carries as much weight as our actual words in autonomy-supportive teaching. * Needs-Based Learning: How voice influences the three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. * Controlling vs. Supportive Voices: The difference between a "rushed" voice and a "grounded" voice. * Breathing Awareness: An exercise to find your breath and use it to reduce anxiety. * Tension Release: Using the "Sigh of Relief" and "Motorboat" sounds to loosen the vocal apparatus. * The Siren & Range: Stretching the voice to ensure it remains flexible rather than rigid. * Finding Your "Centered" Voice: A trick to stop speaking at an unnaturally high pitch. * The Practice Round: Lucinda tries out three different ways to say "Take your time" (Neutral, Pressuring, and Supportive). * Impact on Student Memory: Why slowing down doesn't just improve wellbeing, but also helps students remember more. * Closing Thoughts & Cool Down: A final breath exercise and a reminder that your voice is a psychological tool.

...With Protyasha Bhattacharyya

Kicking off 2026 this episode dives into the latest research on cyber aggression and its effects on young people. We explore new findings about how different parenting styles can influence online behaviour, and why fostering psychological safety in schools is more crucial than ever. Listeners will discover practical, up-to-date strategies for teachers to help students navigate digital spaces safely and kindly. The episode concludes with a curated list of fresh resources for continued learning, setting a positive tone for the year ahead and empowering everyone to create kinder, safer online communities.

Background and qualifications of Protyasha Bhattacharya in psychology and criminology.
Definition and implications of cyber aggression, including its distinction from traditional bullying.
Impact of cyber aggression on young people's mental health, motivation, and academic performance.
Influence of parenting styles on adolescents' experiences with cyber aggression.
Overview of the four parenting styles and their potential relationship with cyber aggression.
Challenges in researching cyber aggression, including data collection and sample size limitations.
Demographic factors that may predict cyber aggression, such as educational attainment.
Recommendations for educators to address and reduce cyber aggression in schools.
Importance of ongoing research into cyber aggression, including cultural factors and digital environment influences.

Resources:

Childnet International: https://www.childnet.com/

UK Safer Internet Centre: https://saferinternet.org.uk/

UK Department for Education - Preventing Bullying: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/preventing-and-tackling-bullying

DfE Online Safety Guidance: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-online-safety-in-schools/teaching-online-safety-in-schools

Journals:

Computers in Human Behavior: https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/computers-in-human-behavior

Journal of Adolescent Health: https://www.jahonline.org/

Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/cyba

With Prof. Rebecca Lazarides

In this motivational end-of-term episode, Professor Rebecca Lazarides (Professor for Empirical Research on Instruction and Schools at the University of Potsdam, Germany) discusses what keeps teachers motivated - even when energy is running low. Rebecca shares insights from her work on teacher motivation, explaining how self-reflection, supportive colleagues, and celebrating small wins can help teachers stay positive. The conversation explores practical strategies for managing emotions, the importance of authentic enthusiasm, and how school environments shape motivation. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their successes and try new ideas, leaving them with a boost of encouragement as they head into a well-deserved break.

The podcast in bullet points:

Teacher motivation and its impact on teaching quality.
The distinction between enthusiasm for the subject and enthusiasm for teaching.
The role of teacher emotions in classroom dynamics and student motivation.
External factors affecting teacher motivation, such as school environment and job demands.
Strategies for teachers to manage emotions and maintain motivation.
The importance of strong student-teacher relationships in fostering motivation.
Emotional regulation as a critical skill for teachers.
The influence of self-efficacy on teacher motivation and performance.
The significance of reflective practices in enhancing teacher motivation.
The situational nature of teacher motivation and its variability across different teaching contexts.

The British Journal of Educational Psychology Special Edition is available on this link:

https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/20448279/2025/95/4

...With Prof. Neil Mercer

Neil Mercer is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge and a psychologist and in this episode we discuss the pivotal role of spoken language and oracy in education. We explored how classroom dialogue, reasoned discussion, and public speaking can be systematically taught to enhance students' thinking and communication skills. Neil shared insights on the impact of the pandemic on language development, practical strategies for fostering effective dialogue, and the importance of classroom culture and listening. We also discussed the value of public speaking for all students and highlighted resources for teachers to support spoken language development.

The discussion in bullet points:

Importance of spoken language in education.
Development of children's language and thinking skills.
Role of reasoned discussion and dialogue in classrooms.
Influence of educational theorists like Vygotsky on language development.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children's language skills.
Practical strategies for teaching reasoned discussion.
Challenges teachers face in fostering effective dialogue.
Benefits of group work and whole-class discussions for student engagement.
The significance of classroom culture in promoting open discussion.
The necessity of public speaking skills in education and its role in democratic participation.

Links:

Find out more about Neil's work: https://oracycambridge.org/

Blog: https://oracycambridge.org/blog/

Neil's Book - Oracy: The Transformative Power of Finding Your Voice

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/467731/oracy-by-mercer-neil/9781847928566

BPS Psychologist Article on Oracy 'Is it only words' https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/it-only-words

I'll be sharing some older episodes that link to this about speech and language over the break so please do sign up to my newsletter: https://changingstatesofmind.com/contact-me

…with Dr. Marc Skelton.

In this episode we bridge the gap between classroom practice and psychological theory to share actionable strategies for fostering student success. Drawing on years of teaching experience to research at the University of Warwick, Marc breaks down what truly drives student engagement.

Marc introduces us to Paulo Freire's "banking model" of education, and advocates for a shift to active, meaningful learning where students are co-creators of knowledge. The core of the conversation centres on Self-Regulated Learning (SRL), exploring Barry Zimmerman's three phases: Forethought (planning), Performance (the "missing middle" of self-monitoring), and Self-Reflection (learning from experience).

We then dive into the Transformative Power of Goal Setting, emphasizing that success requires both Agency ("I can do this") and Pathways (concrete plans). Learn about the impact of Goal Diaries and the critical role of Meaningful Talk and Social Support in sustaining motivation. Finally, we discuss how educators can redefine success by celebrating Achievement (personal growth) over mere Attainment (grades), creating classrooms where every student thrives.

Bullet points:

Dual role of the speaker as a teacher and researcher in educational psychology.
Journey into teaching mathematics and interest in educational psychology.
Exploration of student motivation and engagement in learning.
Influence of Paulo Freire's pedagogy and Albert Bandura's agency theory on educational practices.
Development of a tutor time program focused on metacognition and self-regulated learning.
Insights from research on definitions and perceptions of learning among students and teachers.
Distinction between attainment (external measures) and achievement (personal significance) in education.
Importance of self-regulated learning, goal setting, and meaningful communication in enhancing student motivation.
Findings on the impact of social interaction and support on students' goal achievement and well-being.
Advocacy for integrating psychological principles into educational practices to foster meaningful learning experiences.

Marc's Website visit www.positivelearningpsychology.com

Theories, Books and Researchers "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" and "Pedagogy of Hope" by Paulo Freire

Albert Bandura - agency theory

Martin Seligman - Positive Psychology

George Kelly - Personal Construct Psychology

Carl Rogers - Person-Centered Approach

Carol Dweck - growth mindset

Zimmerman & Schunk (1989) Self-regulated learning and academic achievement: Theory, research, and practice

Ryan and Deci (2000) - Self determination theory

Paul A. Kirschner, John Sweller & Richard E. Clark - Why Minimal Guidance During Instruction Does Not Work: An Analysis of the Failure of Constructivist, Discovery, Problem-Based, Experiential, and Inquiry-Based Teaching

Snyder (2000) Hope Theory

Barbara Fredrickson - Broaden and Build Theory

Rosenshine's principles of instruction

Key Stage Three: The Wasted Years? Department for education

...with Dr Mike Hobbiss

Mike is an experienced psychology teacher and co-author of "How to Teach Psychology: An Evidence-Informed Approach." In this episode Mike explains how learning and disciplinary fundamentals shape classroom practice, and introduces the SLOP (Shed Loads of Practice) approach, emphasizing varied, repeated practice for deeper understanding. Despite examples and context being set within Psychology as a subject, the concepts and practice is applicable to a wide range of subjects. The discussion explores practical strategies, the importance of building flexible schemas, and how these principles apply beyond psychology.

For Mike's blog please visit: hobbolog.wordpress.com/author/michaelhobbiss/

His book can be found here: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1915261953

Key points from the episode:

Mike's background in psychology and philosophy, including his teaching experience in the UK and internationally.
Overview of his book, How to Teach Psychology: An Evidence-Informed Approach, and its relevance to various subjects beyond psychology.
Theoretical framework for effective psychology teaching, combining general learning fundamentals with subject-specific principles.
Pedagogical implications derived from the framework, including seven key principles for classroom practice.
The concept of SLOP (Shed Loads of Practice) and its emphasis on repeated and varied practice for deeper understanding.
The importance of understanding subject-specific nuances in teaching different disciplines.
The role of schemas in learning and their significance for applying knowledge flexibly in various contexts.
Distinction between performance and learning, highlighting the need for long-term retention and application of knowledge.
Use of examples and non-examples in teaching to clarify concepts and address misconceptions.
The value of engaging with educators through blogs and social media to share resources and foster discussions on teaching practices.

…with Julie Kane

In today's educational landscape, supporting young people's mental health and emotional literacy is more important than ever. We know that many young people are struggling with managing their emotions and this impacts their education in a range of ways.

Julie is a third-year PhD student at Aston University, and discusses her innovative research using zines to support emotional literacy and mental health in young people. Julie shares how her background in psychology and art inspired her to develop creative workshops for primary and secondary students. We discuss the benefits of arts-based approaches, the flexibility and community-building power of zines, and the positive feedback from schools. Julie also highlights practical resources for teachers and her ongoing efforts to adapt and expand this project.

"It's like reading literacy—you can read words but not comprehend them. Emotional literacy involves both naming emotions and truly understanding them." – Julie Kane

Zelp on Breath Education: https://breathe-edu.co.uk/zelp/

Key points of the discussion:

Research on zines as a tool for improving emotional literacy and mental health in young people.
Julie's background in psychology and child development, combined with interests in art and creative expression led to this research.
Definition and importance of emotional literacy in understanding and expressing emotions.
The role of arts-based projects in enhancing mental health and providing alternative forms of expression.
Description and characteristics of zines as self-published materials for personal expression.
The collaborative and solitary aspects of zine-making and its impact on community building.
Implementation of zine workshops in primary schools and their structure, including psychoeducation lessons.
Positive feedback from children participating in zine workshops and its effects on their emotional literacy.
Adaptation of zine workshop materials for secondary school students and the challenges faced.
Resources and support for teachers to implement zine-making in educational settings, including animated videos and lesson plans.

Sign up to the newsletter: https://changingstatesofmind.com/contact-me

With Jade Davies, Dr Ola Demkowicz, Dr Khathustshelo Muluvhu-Malanga and Dr Laura Oxley

In this final episode from the BPS Psychology of Education Setion's conference we hear from four experts on different elements of mental health in schools. We explore how social media impacts teenagers' wellbeing, the unique mental health challenges faced by adolescent girls, effective counseling models for supporting students towards academic excellence, and the importance of teacher wellbeing. The guests share research insights and practical advice, emphasising the need for open conversations, systemic change, and collaborative support. Together, they highlight the complexities of mental health in education and the importance of empathetic, evidence-based approaches for both students and teachers.

Key points from the episode:

Mental health in schools
Impact of social media on young people's mental health
Adolescent girls' mental health challenges
Gender mental health gap and contributing factors
Counseling models to support student wellbeing
Teacher wellbeing and its relationship to student behavior
Systemic changes needed to improve mental health support in schools
Importance of open conversations between adults and young people regarding social media
Strategies for teachers to manage student conduct and support mental health
Collaboration among educators, parents, and institutions to enhance student support systems

Time stamps

Jade Davies: 2mins 6secs

Ola Demkowicz: 14mins 28 secs

Khathustshelo Muluvhu-Malanga: 25mins 16 secs

Laura Oxley: 32mins 34secs

...with Professor Louise Taylor and Professor Silke Paulmann

In this episode of Psychology in the Classroom, Professor Louise Taylor discusses students’ perceptions of using generative AI for assessment feedback, highlighting its benefits and the continued need for human connection in the marking and feedback process. In part two Professor Silke Pohlmann shares research on how a teacher’s tone of voice shapes students’ classroom experiences. Both conversations, recorded at the British Psychological Society’s conference, offer practical insights for educators on integrating AI thoughtfully and using voice effectively to support student wellbeing and engagement.

Subscribe to my newsletter: https://changingstatesofmind.com/contact-me

Key discussion points:

Students' perceptions of generative AI in formative assessment feedback.
Benefits and limitations of AI-generated feedback compared to human feedback.
The role of human interaction in the feedback process and its impact on student wellbeing.
Potential applications of AI in secondary education for developing writing and critical thinking skills.
The influence of a teacher's tone of voice on student emotions and engagement.
The relationship between voice tone and student behavior in the classroom.
Strategies for teachers to manage their voice tone effectively.
The use of AI tools to analyse and provide feedback on teachers' voice tones.
The impact of emotional susceptibility on how students perceive voice tones.
Practical tips for teachers to enhance communication and support student engagement through voice modulation.

…with Dr Charlotte Bagnall and Annie O’Brien

In this episode, Charlotte and Annie discuss the complexities of mental health and wellbeing interventions in schools with me. We explored the challenges of evaluating these programs in real-world settings, the development of child-centered measurement tools, and the decision-making processes schools use when selecting interventions. Our conversation highlighted the importance of stakeholder collaboration, context-sensitive evaluation, and balancing evidence with practical realities. We agreed that while there are no easy answers, ongoing research and co-production with educators and students are essential for creating effective, sustainable mental health support in schools.

Key discussion points:

Discussion on mental health and wellbeing programs in schools.
Evaluation and measurement of school-based interventions.
Challenges in implementing mental health interventions in real school settings.
Development of new measurement tools for children's emotional wellbeing.
Importance of context in evaluating the effectiveness of interventions.
Decision-making processes for selecting mental health interventions in schools.
Role of stakeholder collaboration in designing relevant programs.
Consideration of opportunity costs in intervention implementation.
Recognition of gradual and long-term benefits of social-emotional learning.
Need for qualitative feedback to inform intervention adaptations and improvements.

To hear Prof Neil Humphrey’s interview here is the link: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/beyond-social-media-and-smartphones-factors-affecting-youth-mental-health-with-prof-neil-humphrey

...with Prof David Putwain, Dr Laura Nicholson and Mahdi Moazzen

This episode is a lively discussion with educational researchers Prof. David Putwain, Dr. Laura Nicholson, and Mahdi Moazzen. We explored how teachers’ language and message framing influence student motivation, engagement, and resilience. The conversation covered research on positive messaging in science classes, the impact of gain- versus loss-framed messages, and the role of coping strategies in academic buoyancy. We also discussed practical implications for teachers in the classroom and the potential of technology to support personal reflection and positive communication. The episode offered valuable insights into fostering student success through thoughtful, adaptive teacher messaging and support.

For David's previous interview you can listen here: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/where-education-and-psychology-meet

Key points:

Impact of teacher messaging on student motivation and engagement
Importance of positive, value-laden language in science education
Relationship between teacher messaging and students' academic resilience
Differences in student responses to positive versus negative messaging
Role of individual differences in student sensitivity to messaging
Coping strategies and academic buoyancy in upper secondary students
Distinction between positive and negative coping strategies
Influence of socioeconomic status and cultural factors on student perceptions
Need for teacher training to promote positive messaging
Practical implications for supporting students through academic challenges and transitions

...with Prof. Teresa Cremin.

In this episode, Professor Teresa Cremin from the Open University, an expert on reading for pleasure, talks about why encouraging children to read voluntarily is so important. We explored the academic, social, and emotional benefits of reading, discussed the challenges posed by technology and changing family habits, and highlighted the crucial roles teachers, schools, and libraries play in fostering a love of reading. Teresa shared research insights and practical strategies for building positive reader identities and creating supportive, social reading environments that inspire lifelong engagement with books.

In summary:

Importance of voluntary reading for children and its benefits
Academic, social, and emotional advantages of reading
Consequences of not developing reading habits on cognitive and emotional growth
Challenges in encouraging reading among young people
Role of educators and schools in promoting reading habits
Impact of technology and societal factors on reading preferences
Significance of libraries in fostering a reading culture
Misconceptions about reading as an individual activity versus a social practice
Need for diverse reading materials that reflect student interests
Importance of creating supportive environments for reading discussion

Find out more:

Teresa Cremin: https://profiles.open.ac.uk/teresa-cremin

Reading for Pleasure: https://ourfp.org/

...with Dr Julia Badger

In this episode of #Psychologyintheclassroom bullying expert Dr Julia Badger, from Oxford University discusses her conference talk, “Peer Power: Understanding and Changing Bullying Dynamics in Mainstream and Specialist Special Schools.” Bullying is a public health priority. As teachers we need to know about bullying involvement and its impact. In this conversation Julia explores the challenges of defining bullying, introduces the concept of “counter connecting,” and highlights the unique experiences of children with SEND. She shares evidence-based strategies, including the KIVA program and its SEND adaptation, emphasizing whole-school approaches and community involvement.

Definition and complexity of bullying in educational settings.
Proposal of a new inclusive definition of bullying, particularly for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).
Introduction of the concept of "counter connecting" and its implications in bullying dynamics.
Differences in bullying experiences between mainstream and special schools.
The disproportionate impact of bullying on children with SEND.
Variations in bullying types (verbal, physical, relational, cyberbullying) across different school environments.
The psychological and emotional effects of bullying on victims, perpetrators, and bully-victims.
Importance of whole-school anti-bullying programs and community involvement.
Evidence-based interventions for bullying prevention, such as the KIVA program.
The need for clear policies and shared understanding of bullying among educators, parents, and students.

Links:

Dr Julia Badger: https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/person/julia-badger/

KIVA: https://www.kivaprogram.net/

WISDOM Network: https://wisdom.mhid.org.uk/

Podcast with Lucy Bowes: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/bullying-its-everybodys-problem

Podcast with Chris Tayloe: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/constructive-deviance-with-chris-taylor

...with Prof. Neil Humphrey

In this episode Professor Neil Humphrey from the University of Manchester, discusses trends in youth mental health, the rise in internalising issues like anxiety, and the impact of societal changes such as sleep hygiene and service cuts. He critiques current research methods, advocates for evidence-based, cost-effective school interventions, and emphasizes the importance of promoting well-being through arts, physical activity, and sleep. The episode offers practical insights for teachers and highlights the need for nuanced, whole-community approaches.

Key points: Current state of child and adolescent mental health

Decline in young people's mental health over the past 30 years
Distinction between internalising (anxiety, depression) and externalising (behavioural issues) problems
Societal factors influencing mental health, including sleep hygiene and funding cuts to services
Critique of current mental health measurement tools and the need for updated assessments
Discussion on the effectiveness of universal mental health interventions in schools
Importance of promoting overall well-being and positive mental health, not just addressing difficulties
Role of creative arts and physical activity in enhancing mental health
Need for evidence-based approaches in school mental health support
Challenges faced by teachers in addressing mental health within the educational system

Useful links:

Prof Neil Humphrey:https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/neil.humphrey

Education for Wellbeing In conjunction with Anna Freud: https://www.annafreud.org/research/current-research-projects/education-for-wellbeing/

Youth Futures Foundation: Understanding Drivers of recent trends in young people’s mental health: https://youthfuturesfoundation.org/publication/report-understanding-drivers-of-recent-trends-in-young-peoples-mental-health/

Podcast with Prof Jess Deighton: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/navigating-mental-health-issues-in-schools-strategies-for-teachers-and-students-with-prof-jess-deighton

In this episode Lucy Keller, a PhD researcher in psychology, discusses her work on improving friendship and social connectedness among young people during the critical transition from primary to secondary school. Lucy shares insights on the impact of social connectedness on mental health, In addition she touches on the unique challenges faced by neurodivergent and gender-questioning students. She advocates for inclusive school environments, student-led clubs, and systemic education reform. Lucy highlights the importance of extracurricular activities amongst other practical tips and resources for supporting students are discussed.

Useful Links:

World Health Organisation on social connection: https://www.who.int/groups/commission-on-social-connection

NSPCC building Connections website: https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/services/building-connections

Red Cross Social Connection: https://www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/connected-communities

In summary:

Research on improving friendship experiences and social connectedness among young people.
The significance of social connectedness and its impact on mental health.
Challenges faced by young people during the transition from primary to secondary school.
The emotional and social complexities of moving to a larger school environment.
The importance of maintaining friendships during school transitions.
Practical strategies for schools to support students, including listening to their perspectives.
The specific difficulties faced by neurodivergent students during this transition.
The role of extracurricular activities in fostering social connections.
The need for systemic changes in the education system to better support young people's social and emotional needs.
Resources and support systems available for young people struggling with social connections.

In this episode, Professor Jess Deighton, a leading children’s mental health expert, discusses the growing mental health challenges facing young people today and what this means for educators and schools. We dive into how student mental health impacts learning outcomes, the unique challenges teachers encounter in the classroom, and the critical importance of adopting a whole-school approach to wellbeing.

Jess offers evidence-based insights on effective mental health strategies for schools, highlighting what truly works (and what doesn’t) when supporting students. We discuss the power of fostering a sense of belonging, practical ways to build student resilience, and how teachers can support mental health without needing to be experts themselves.

Jess also give actionable tips and resources for promoting wellbeing in your school community, and why supporting student mental health is a shared responsibility for everyone in education. This episode is for anyone passionate about making a positive impact on student wellbeing and academic success.

Further resources mentioned:

Jess Deighton: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-sciences/research/research-strengths/mental-health/meet-professor-jessica-deighton

Anna Freud Mentally Healthy Schools Website: https://www.mentallyhealthyschools.org.uk/

Youth Futures Foundation Report: https://youthfuturesfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Understanding-drivers-of-recent-trends-in-young-peoples-mental-health-July-2025-final.pdf

UCL Research into breaktimes: https://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/files/Baines%2042402%20BreaktimeSurvey%20-%20Main%20public%20report%20(May19)-Final(1).pdf

Growing up in the 2020s: https://growingup2020s.ipsos.com/#:~:text=our%20contact%20details.-,The%20Study,London%20(UCL)%20and%20Ipsos.

Listen to the mini-series on the Myriad Trial: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mindfulness-miniseries-1

In this episode, Dr Andrew Holliman, Associate Professor at UCL’s Institute of Education and chair of the BPS's Psychology of Education Section discusses the upcoming annual conference focused on psychological well-being in education, highlighting its inclusive, supportive atmosphere for teachers, researchers, and students. Andy shares insights on how psychology informs teaching, learning, and motivation, and emphasizes the importance of teacher and student well-being. Practical advice for engaging with psychological research and self-care is offered, along with conference details. The episode concludes with encouragement for educators to prioritize self-compassion and mental health.

To find out more about the conference please use this link:

https://www.bps.org.uk/event/psychology-education-section-annual-conference-2025

In this deeply personal episode, I’m joined by Harriet Ennis, a psychology teacher from York and this year's winner of the British Psychological Society's Pre-Tertiary Education Psychology Teacher of the Year (PEPTOTY). Harriet reached out to share her personal experience of Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA), previously referred to as school refusal. Harriet brings both professional insight and a powerful parental perspective to the conversation, as she opens up about her daughter J’s journey through this challenging experience.

EBSA describes children who are unable—not unwilling—to attend school due to overwhelming emotional or mental health difficulties. It's estimated that 1–5% of students experience EBSA, though this number may be even higher post-COVID. It's not about truancy or defiance—it's about real, often invisible, distress.

🎧 In this episode:

Harriet shares what EBSA looked like for her family
We learn about how schools can help through deeper understanding of the issues, and strong communication with parents.
J shares a symbolic moment: cutting her hair on Saturday 26th July 2025 as a sign of starting fresh—and fundraising for a cause close to her heart

💬 “I went into a burnout for 6 months and at first, for weeks, I couldn't face light and I spent every day in a dark room... Coping with my sensory processing differences day after day had overloaded me... But I’m getting better and better.” – J

If you would like to learn more about EBSA this article from the Psychologist magazine is a useful 5 minute read: https://www.bps.org.uk/psychologist/cant-not-wont-rethinking-school-avoidance

J is raising money for Thornberry Animal Sanctuary in Yorkshire—a nod to some fellow "hairy" friends—by cutting off her tangled hair and starting again. If you’d like to support her campaign, the JustGiving link is here.

👨‍👦If you would like further advice or support Harriet has suggest these links may be of use: https://daisychainproject.co.uk/autism-central/ (North of England) or https://www.childautism.org.uk/for-families/ (more broadly).

⚠️ A quick note: This episode was recorded under less-than-ideal internet conditions, so you may notice a few audio hiccups. I’ve done my best to smooth things out—thanks for bearing with us.

In this episode of Psychology in the Classroom, Dr. Lauren Margulieux helps explore why failure isn't just a learning opportunity—but a biologically powerful one. Drawing on neuroscience, Lauren explains how our brains react to failure, the role of neurotransmitters like epinephrine and acetylcholine, and why moderate emotional discomfort can actually prime the brain for better memory and attention.

We discuss:

How to help students frame failure positively
Why emotional regulation is key to learning
Practical strategies for secondary teachers to support learning in the face of setbacks
The impact of daily cycles, sleep, exercise, and nutrition on focus and cognitive performance

Packed with practical tips and grounded in cutting-edge science, this episode is a must-listen for any teacher supporting adolescent learners through challenges—especially during exam season.

Resources & Links 🔗Margulieux, Lauren & Prather, James & Rahimi, Masoumeh. (2025). The Biological Benefits of Failure on Learning and Tools to Manage the Fallout. Educational Psychology Review. 37. 10.1007/s10648-025-10013-7. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-025-10013-7

🔗L. E. Margulieux, J. Prather, M. Rahimi and G. C. Uzun, "Leverage Biology to Learn Rapidly From Mistakes Without Feeling Like a Failure," in Computing in Science & Engineering, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 44-49, March-April 2023, doi: 10.1109/MCSE.2023.3297750.,(practitioner-focused paper, 5 pages): https://doi.org/10.1109/MCSE.2023.3297750

🔗Learn more about Dr. Lauren Margulieux’s work: https://laurenmarg.com/

In this episode we explores the impact of perfectionism on exam anxiety, particularly among neurodivergent individuals. Dr. Tracey Donachie, a lecturer in sports and exercise psychology, discusses the components and prevalence of perfectionism, highlighting its psychological and behavioral effects. Maciej Matejko, from the Re-Star Project, shares his perspective on perfectionism in relation to autism, while consultant Julia Gudinchet offers strategies for managing perfectionistic tendencies in individuals with ADHD and autism. The episode provides valuable insights and practical advice for educators and students to foster healthier attitudes towards achievement.

Find out more:

Dr Tracy Donachie: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/psychology/people/profile/tracydonachie.html

Julia Gudinchet, Sunflower Autism Consultancy: https://sunflowerautismconsultancy.co.uk

Pomodoro Technique: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/how-effective-is-the-pomodoro-technique

RE-STAR project (Maciej Matejko): https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/re-star

Time Stamps:

Expert Insight on Perfectionism (00:01:15) Dr. Tracey Donachie discusses her extensive experience with managing exam stress and perfectionism & explains two main components of perfectionism: high standards and self-criticism.

Prevalence of Perfectionism (00:02:58) Discussion on the rising rates of socially prescribed perfectionism among students and its debilitating effects.

Good vs. Bad Perfectionism (00:06:00) Exploration of the spectrum of perfectionism, distinguishing between striving for excellence and harmful perfectionism.

Long-Term Psychological Effects (00:07:39) Discussion on burnout and other psychological issues linked to chronic perfectionism.

Impact Beyond Academics (00:09:31) Perfectionism's effects on sports, body image, and interpersonal relationships are examined.

Strategies for Teachers (00:13:49) Recommendations for teachers to help students manage perfectionism and foster a growth mindset.

Advice for Students During Exam Season (00:16:15) Practical tips for students to combat perfectionism during high-stress exam periods.

Understanding Autism and Perfectionism (00:19:00) Discussion on autism and its relationship with perfectionism, featuring insights from Maciej.

Understanding Perfectionism in Neurodivergent Individuals (00:20:02) Discussion on how perfectionism can stem from positive qualities but become problematic, especially for neurodivergent individuals.

Perfectionism as a Coping Mechanism (00:22:20) Exploration of how perfectionism can serve as a response to social difficulties and low self-esteem.

Personal Experiences with Perfectionism (00:23:36) Insights into the speaker's personal struggles with perfectionism and its draining effects.

Advice on Managing Perfectionism (00:29:30): Changing Relationships with Failure (00:30:09) , Exploring Interests to Reduce Pressure (00:32:14), The Need for Recovery Time (00:34:17), Exploring Neurodiversity (00:35:15), Seeking Mental Health Support (00:38:02)

Final Thoughts on Perfectionism (00:40:07) Reflection on the need to help students foster a healthy relationship with failure and imperfection.

Summary

In this episode Dr. Carolina Guzman Holst is a NIHR Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, discusses her recent paper titled Scoping review: potential harm from school-based group mental health interventions.

Where the authors ‘examine three areas: the types of potential harms and adverse events reported in school-based mental health interventions; the subgroups of children and adolescents at heightened risk; and the proposed explanations for these potential harms.’The conversation explores the rising mental health issues among young people in schools, focusing on universal interventions like mindfulness and CBT. Carolina Guzman discusses her scoping review on the potential negative effects of these interventions, emphasising the importance of understanding their impact on vulnerable groups. The discussion highlights the need for careful implementation and monitoring of mental health programs in educational settings, advocating a tailored approach rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.

Links:

Guzman-Holst C, Streckfuss Davis R, Andrews JL, Foulkes L. Scoping review: potential harm from school-based group mental health interventions. Child Adolesc Ment Health. 2025 Mar 18. doi: 10.1111/camh.12760. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40101758: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40101758/

Learn more about the Myriad Trial on a universal mindfulness intervention on the Mindfulness Mini Series: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mindfulness-miniseries-1

The link to the DfE technical report mentioned is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/education-for-wellbeing-programme-findings

Key takeaways:

Mental health issues among young people are rising.
Universal interventions aim to help all students, regardless of need.
Mindfulness and CBT are common school interventions.
Negative effects of interventions can occur, especially in vulnerable groups.
High quality implementation quality is crucial for intervention success.
Long-term benefits of interventions are often not well-studied.
Schools should monitor the effects of mental health programs.
A hybrid approach may be more effective than universal interventions alone.
Teachers should consult evidence before implementing programs.
Tailored support is essential for students with specific needs.

Timestamps

01:45 Introduction to Mental Health in Schools

04:17 Understanding Universal Interventions

07:25 Exploring Mindfulness and CBT Interventions

09:41 Negative Effects of Universal Interventions

16:01 Identifying Vulnerable Groups

19:45 Long-term Effects and Benefits

25:07 Conclusions of the Scoping Review

27:11 Implications for Schools and Teachers

This month Dr Katy Burgess, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Cardiff University, talks about her research into students’ learning - what they do and how effective they think this is - this is useful for us, as teachers, to understand how, what we are teaching them in school about learning and revision, is being interpreted and used by students. We discuss the best ways to revise but perhaps more importantly what we should be telling our students to get them to use more effective strategies. Plus additional thoughts on where we could slip retrieval practice when students don’t even notice (some good advice for parents!), forward testing effect and that we need to remember that learning involves an awful lot of forgetting before students actually remember everything they need to know.

If you'd like to learn more about Dr Katy Burgess or read her publications you can do so here:

https://profiles.cardiff.ac.uk/staff/burgesskv

T-FUN Network - https://t-fun.co.uk/

The NEurodivergent peer Support Toolkit (NEST) is a set of free resources for staff in mainstream secondary schools who wish to facilitate peer support for neurodivergent young people. The toolkit was co-created by researchers at the University of Edinburgh, neurodivergent young people and a neurodiverse group of adults who work with neurodivergent young people. The project was funded by the Salvesen Mindroom Research Centre Scientific Advisory Board.

In this episode Katie Cebula and Catherine Crompton talk about how the NEST came about, what it involves and how it could support pupils in your school.

You can find out more and download the resources here: https://salvesen-research.ed.ac.uk/our-projects/nest-neurodivergent-peer-support-toolkit

This is the 7th podcast from the RE-STAR team and Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke and Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou share the findings from work package one. This episode explores how the RE-STAR team has collected qualitative data through innovative methods that really allow the voices of young people with ADHD and Autism to be heard. They also share the findings about the upsetting experiences of young people with ADHD and Autism, what these experiences are (and if you are a teacher you might be surprised) and the intensity of those emotional experiences and as well as how these differ for neurotypical, ADHD and Autistic groups. The team is also considering the long term impact of this emotional burden on depression and anxiety.

If you would like to hear more from the RE-STAR team please do take a listen here: https://changingstatesofmind.com/re-star-project

If you would like to read the paper the link is: https://acamh.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jcv2.12287

A second paper is also available: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/dras7

Why do attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder and/or autism traits place adolescents at risk for depression? Protocol for a longitudinal comparison of the mediating role of deficits in emotional processing and control versus emotional burden

In this week’s episode Purvi (Vi) Gandhi shares her knowledge about implementing effective and evidence based strategies to improve mental health or mental fitness in schools.

Vi has recently published a book 'A little guide for teachers: Student Mental Health' with lots of ideas of how teachers can support the mental health and fitness of the young people in schools. In this interview we discuss the language we use around mental health, why mental health is so important in school and how we can support our pupils to thrive and much more.

If you would like to find out more about her book here is the link: uk.sagepub.com/en-gb/eur/author/purvi-gandhi

If you want to hear more podcasts on mental health from Psychology in the classroom here is the link: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mental-health-%26-wellbeing

On World Mental Health day 2024 Psychology in the Classroom discusses Mindfulness. We eschew the ‘Crystals and Muesli’ version and reframe it to ask how to be more attentive, calmer, more grounded, more aware, more responsive, less anxious. Willem Kuyken and Maggie Farrar join me to discuss, how we can make moments in our day to be mindful and how this can help us align ourselves better with our personal values.

You can find the podcasts on the Myriad Trial into Mindfulness in schools via this link: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mindfulness-miniseries

This is the link to Willem’s website and book: https://mindfulnessforlife.uk/

This is the link to Maggie’s website and book: https://www.empoweringleadership.co.uk/

In this final summary interview with Prof. Dr. Suzanne Narciss, we review all our learning about failure over the last few months. There is much we can do to encourage our students to learn from errors, including interactive formative assessment and feedback strategies, prompting reflection and adaptive strategies for dealing with errors and using other people’s errors. As teachers we need to help students overcome their fear of failure by creating a positive error climate and supporting students to develop a more positive error mindset. But this is an area that is challenging to research and we still have much to learn.

More than one in 10 children ‘almost always’ or ‘often’ fear failure. But where do they learn this from?

This fear can often pass from parents to children. Parental communication about failures and setbacks plays a critical role in shaping a child's perception of mistakes. In her research Dr Elizabeth Peterson found that:

Clear action plans without discussion of collaborative resources increased children's fear of making mistakes.
When mothers acknowledged their child's emotions and discussed collaborative problem-solving, there was a notable decrease in the child's fear of mistakes.
Many mothers minimally acknowledged or dismissed their child's emotions (40%), rarely discussed action plans (55%), or collaborative resources (79%).

Effective parental communication involving emotional acknowledgment and collaborative problem-solving can help reduce children's fear of making mistakes. In this interview we discuss the consequences of this research for the classroom and how we as teachers can have positive conversations with our students about failure.

You can find Elizabeth’s paper here:

Peterson, E. R., Sharma, T., Bird, A., Henderson, A. M. E., Ramgopal, V., Reese, E., & Morton, S. M. B. (2024). How mothers talk to their children about failure, mistakes and setbacks is related to their children's fear of failure. British Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12685

https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjep.12685

Today's discussion focuses on our perceptions, as teachers, of failure. When as a teacher we watch our lessons back on film where do we see failure and how do we respond? Reflecting on our own relationship with failure could be important in informing our practice in the classroom. For example our personal relationship with failure will inform how we respond to student failure and this in turn could hinder or facilitate student growth and learning. In this episode Dr Amber Simpson and Dr Alice Anderson discuss their paper 'Identifying and shifting educators' failure pedagogical mindsets through reflective practices'.

The details and link to the paper is here:

Simpson A, Anderson A, Goeke M, Caruana D, Maltese AV. Identifying and shifting educators' failure pedagogical mindsets through reflective practices. Br J Educ Psychol. 2023 Dec 23. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12658. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38140824.

Informalscience.org

Failure in Making: https://sites.google.com/binghamton.edu/failureinmaking/home?pli=1

How students and teachers navigate and prioritise different learning processes after encountering impasses during learning can be complex. Recognising that failure moments can be multifaceted, today’s episode explores how classroom discourse reveals varied valued learning processes, such as problem-solving, preventing future issues, and developing troubleshooting skills. The research being discussed identifies five valued learning processes in debugging: resolving the immediate issue, preventing future bugs, developing skills for novel problems, engaging with authority, and calibrating self and collective efficacy. It explores the tensions between pursuing different learning outcomes and how these decisions are negotiated between teachers and students. It also addresses the classroom culture, including fostering growth mindsets and addressing racial inequities in learning environments.

DeLiema D, Hufnagle A, Ovies-Bocanegra M. Contrasting stances at the crossroads of debugging learning opportunities. Br J Educ Psychol. 2024 Feb 16. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12666.

How errors are handled in the classroom is an important aspect of teaching and has a variety of consequences for students' own dealing with errors, their learning and their performance. In classrooms with a negative error climate, students are more likely to experience fear of making mistakes and feel alienated from their teachers. Teachers' unsupportive behaviours, such as negative reactions to errors, may increase students' alienation. Unsupportive teacher behaviours may also indirectly contribute to the development of fear of failure by influencing students' self-beliefs and motivation to do well in school. Positive and supportive student–teacher relationships have been shown to alleviate school alienation, suggesting that student–teacher interactions have a strong impact on academic as well as social learning experiences. In this episode we will learn how to ensure we create a positive error climate where students feel safe and that reduces the chances of alienation.

Steuer G, Grecu AL, Mori J. Error climate and alienation from teachers: A longitudinal analysis in primary school. Br J Educ Psychol. 2024 Jan 2. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12659.

https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjep.12659

If you would like to learn more about alienation please do take a listen to my podcast with Dr Ben Looker (20th June 2022) about student-teacher relationships.

In order to learn from errors it is important that pupils regulate their emotions. The emotions that they feel when they make an error is underpinned by their Error Learning Orientation - whether they see errors as positive and an opportunity to learn or as a negative thing that brings shame. In this interview Rahel Schmid discusses her paper about emotions pupils feel when they make errors and how this may be linked to error learning orientation. This episode includes lots of great tips to help teachers develop a positive error learning orientation in their pupils.

Schmid R, Smit R, Robin N, Strahl A. The role of momentary emotions in promoting error learning orientation among lower secondary school students: An intervention study embedded in a short visual programming course. Br J Educ Psychol. 2024 Mar 19. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12681. Available : https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjep.12681

This week find out how you can encourage students to persist with learning and engage with metacognitive strategies when they make mistakes. Dr Maria Tulis talks about her experiments that aimed to find a causal link between beliefs about errors, how these beliefs maintain motivation and how students then adapt their actions to effectively analyse and correct errors. In study two during learning students were given encouragement to persist and prompts about what action to take immediately after they had made the error. Might this increase persistence, metacognitive control and effort? What are the implications for our classrooms?

Paper and link:

Tulis M, Dresel M. Effects on and consequences of responses to errors: Results from two experimental studies. Br J Educ Psychol. 2024 May 8. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12686

https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjep.12686

This is the 3rd episode in the failure series of podcasts this term. We are staying with the theme of feedback to errors this week. Professor Janet Metcalfe discusses her paper on learning from errors and in particular how one teacher uses an interactive approach, encouraging students to work out why they made an error rather than simply correcting them, and the impact it had on the students’ learning. But as always there is discussion plenty of wide ranging discussion on this topic.

If you wish to access the paper here is the link:

Metcalfe J, Xu J, Vuorre M, Siegler R, Wiliam D, Bjork RA. Learning from errors versus explicit instruction in preparation for a test that counts. Br J Educ Psychol. 2024 Jan 11. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12651. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38212139.

When students receive error feedback it usually causes a negative emotional response, this in turn can impact learning. If we could somehow elicit a positive emotional response to error feedback, research suggests that this will increase motivation, enhance the desire to continue on a learning task and promote the use of efficient metacognitive strategies. In today’s podcast with Dr Annalisa Soncini we discuss how using a simple smiley in written error feedback can nuance the feedback so that the emotional reaction is more positive and the surprising impact this has on a student’s learning experience.

Annalisa’s paper ‘Supportive error feedback fosters students' adaptive reactions towards errors: Evidence from a targeted online intervention with Italian middle school students’ is open source and can be found on this link: https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjep.12679

You can find out more about Hattie’s Visible Learning here: https://visible-learning.org/

Failure - a word that is taboo in education and yet is part and parcel of the learning experience. As teachers, dealing with errors in the classroom can funamentally change so much of the learning experience. The beliefs teachers and students hold about failure and errors changes behaviour and can cause students to persist and grow or to avoid risk and challenge. This term Psychology in the Classroom will be exploring Failure with the help of researchers and the British Journal of Educational Psychology(BJEP). This first episode introduces several key concepts with the editors of the BJEP Special Issue on failure: Gabriele Steuer, Elizabeth Peterson and Maria Tulis

Exam season is now in full swing and we are all really trying to encourage students to move away from the comfortable passive revision strategies such as reading and highlighting notes and get them to engage in more retrieval practice with flashcards and mindmaps. This week I talk to psychology teacher, Jonny Wainman about how he teaches his students study skills, we cover a wide range of topics and if you want do dive a bit deeper into the different concepts he mentioned you can find much more on the links below:

Cognition & Learning: https://changingstatesofmind.com/cognition-and-learning-1

Exam prep mini series: https://changingstatesofmind.com/mini-series

My guest this week is Dr Michelle Tytherleigh author of Positive Education at all Levels: Learning to Flourish, and we are talking about how we can use positive psychology in the classroom to students to flourish. Martin Seligman asked two questions:

In two words or less what do you want for your children?
In two words or less what do most schools teach?

To answer these questions so that the responses are not contradictory or incompatible Positive Education recognises the need to incorporate wellbeing into education, into the everyday learning experience and needs to involve the whole community - teachers, leaders, parents and student. In this podcast we look at how we can do just this.

Link to Michelle's book: https://books.emeraldinsight.com/download_pdf.php?k=9781837531578

Link to Worthit: https://www.worthit.org.uk/

Dr Charl Emmerson is an Organisational Psychologist who has worked in schools and researches wellbeing in schools. In this interview we are discussing teacher wellbeing at both an individual level and an organisational level. WIth top tips of teachers and leadership on creating a supportive culture. In addition we discuss how SEND impacts teacher wellbeing

Key papers/links:

NASUWT study findings on pupil behaviour: https://edexec.co.uk/verbal-and-physical-pupil-abuse-skyrockets-in-the-past-year-says-nasuwt-report/

Importance of teacher-pupil relationship: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-011-9170-y

Pupil wellbeing - teacher wellbeing: https://www.sueroffey.com/wp-content/uploads/import/32-Roffey%20ECP29-4.pdf

Charl’s research with University of Sheffield: EU-funded project looking at developing compassionate workplaces https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/iwp/research-projects/eu-cowork

Education Support Partnership: https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/

This week I am joined by Professor David Daley from Notting Trent University to talk about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD is something that most teachers will come across at some point and managing it well in the classroom can make a huge difference to outcomes for young people with ADHD. In this episode we cover the main psychological underpinnings of the disorder and how these manifest in the classroom as behaviour. David also offers some really useful tips on how to help young people with ADHD manage in the classroom.

You can find more on executive function, working memory and cognitive psychology here: https://changingstatesofmind.com/cognition-and-learning-3

You can learn even more about ADHD here: https://changingstatesofmind.com/send-and-inclusion

The teaching profession is in crisis and whilst it can be an extraordinarily rewarding and it is also an exhausting profession so self-care is essential. As a regular diary keeper I was curious to find out just how this might be helping my own wellbeing. Dr Lucy Kelly is an Associate Professor in Education in the School of Education whose main research interest is reflective practice as a positive tool for educator wellbeing, and she is Principal Investigator for the 'Reimagining the Diary' project. Lucy talks about how our narrow concept of what diary keeping is could be a barrier to engaging with it, how it can many benefits and how we can engage with a broader and more creative concept of diary keeping.

If you want to find out more about Lucy’s work here are the links:

The Diary Toolkit: https://thediarytoolkit.com/

Reimagining the Diary (Book): https://www.johncattbookshop.com/products/reimagining-the-diary-reflective-practice-as-a-positive-tool-for-educator-wellbeing

More about the project itself: https://reimaginingthediary.blogs.bristol.ac.uk/

In this episode Dr Hannah Wilkinson talks about her doctoral research which focused on re-evaluating teachers’ use of test-taking practices from a psychological lens; unpicking how students appraised these types of communications and how it affects their engagement in the classroom. Essentially we will consider the messages that we, as teachers, give to students when we talk about exam preparation specifically and the different ways that students might interpret these communications and how, hopefully we can make them more impactful. We talk about threat and efficacy appeals. Papers Hannah Mentioned: Wilkinson, H. (2024). Efficacy Appeals in the High-Stakes Classroom: Re-Examining Teachers' use of Test Preparation Strategies (Doctoral dissertation, Liverpool John Moores University): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215091920300018?casa_token=DxwxBEbesPIAAAAA:TUTqZCb43dZAokxGby9v6k2sfGKV9FosFhbi7Lhux0xjlYsgtYw8Hk_U_GeQjJsdkmWQ13Gw Putwain, D. W., Symes, W., Nicholson, L. J., & Remedios, R. (2021). Teacher motivational messages used prior to examinations: What are they, how are they evaluated, and what are their educational outcomes?. In Advances in motivation science (Vol. 8, pp. 63-103). Elsevier: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/22471/2/2024wilkinsonphd.pdf

In this episode, and as we fast approach exams, we look at how to help student manage their nerves. There are lots of strategies that can be employed but learning to sit comfortably with the uncomfortable feeling of exam anxiety can be challenging. This episode looks at one way we can help our students to learn to bring their thoughts and feelings under control using a technique stolen from sports psychology, but equally effective for high pressure exam performance situations: visualisation. It allows students to practise their coping skills and to understand that they can manage any exam scenario however terrifying!

For further tips of Exam anxiety strategies do also listen to these two podcasts:

https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/control-the-controllables

https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/exam-preparation-exam-anxiety

This week we look at why exam technique matters - the more working memory students can free up to write good answers, rather than figuring out what they need to do and how long they have got left, the better. This episode covers 5 things that students should practice to help make an exam go smoothly:

Knowing the rubric
Overall plan of attack
Managing timing (including extra time)
Breaking down the question
Spotting traps

If you want to know more about working memory and cognitive load there are a couple of good episodes you can listen to here:

Working Memory: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/long-term-and-short-term-memory

Cognitive Load: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/cognitive-load-finding-the-sweet-spot-with-bradley-busch

Despite all our efforts to teach students to revise using effective methods they often revert back to less effective methods such as copying and reading and rereading notes. Why is this, when we have told them that these techniques are less effective in the long term? This week's episode looks at 4 common reasons why students revision fails:

Planning Fallacy
Illusion of Fluency
Misinterpreted-effort hypothesis
Failure to reflect

The link to the episode about Roediger and Karpicke's research is https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/recall-or-re-read-the-research-into-retrieval-practice

The references for Misinterpreted-effort hypothesis is:

Afton Kirk-Johnson, Brian M. Galla, Scott H. Fraundorf, (2019) Perceiving effort as poor learning: The misinterpreted-effort hypothesis of how experienced effort and perceived learning relate to study strategy choice, Cognitive Psychology, Volume 115, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogpsych.2019.101237.

This week the episode will be based around retrieval practice - a concept most of you will be familiar with, and if you aren’t then do take a listen to this episode which delves into the research underpinning the concept.

Many students when learning, make the error of being passive recipients of information, reading, listening, watching or copying. Whilst a few bits may stick, more information will stick if they actively reconstruct the information through some sort of recall activity.

Today we will cover 4 retrieval concepts you will know but thinking about the why. My hope is that this episode will perhaps reframe some of these basic ideas so that students use them even more effectively.

Just in case the link above doesn't work here it is in full to copy and paste:

https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/recall-or-re-read-the-research-into-retrieval-practice

You know that thing, you're listening to the radio and minding your own business and a song comes on the radio and memories flood back (possibly embarrassing teenage ones!). That song is a cue to unlocking your memory - all sorts of things can be cues - smells, images, letters, words. In an exam the main cues are going to be words - specifically those in the question. If we understand that cues help us remember and that they are important at the time of learning then we can ensure that when we learn information we learn it with specific cues at the forefront of our mind. This week we consider how to leverage the theory of 'cue dependent forgetting' during revision to help us recall more when we are in an exam.

If you want to watch my very embarrassing 'Mind Palace' video here you go: https://youtu.be/l4kPShjm9mM?si=0rkcOEa4PXrLJYKv

As I mention too in the podcast I am really seeking listener feedback so please spare 2 minutes to complete this form: https://forms.gle/d3ehS8citt2NvsSy7

Finally you can find out more on this podcast: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/cues-to-recall-0

This week we move from the practialities of starting and planning revision to the learning itself. The focus is on how we can help students to build learning so that it is retained in long term memory. Whilst there are lots of ways to approach this today's episode focused on 3 key concepts: Levels of processing, spacing and interleaving.

I mentioned that there are several podcasts that delve into these concepts in more depth. Further information can be found here:

Levels of processing: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/getting-stuff-to-stick-in-long-term-memory

Interleaving: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/interleaving-a-useful-learning-strategy

Finally please do fill in the podcast feedback form so I can make the content even better!

https://forms.gle/jJzpJwWDNovwAPez5

I would argue that good planning is an art or at the very least a skill that needs to learned and perfected and yet we often cut our planning teeth on a revision timetable just before we do exams. How many student's plans turn out to be too vague, over ambitious or too rigid? This week's episode explores this skill and how we can best encourage students to become effective planners: understanding what they need to get done, what the time frame is in which they need to do it and how best they can plan to suit their own context.

If you want to watch the youtube video I made you can take a look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UuJiwvfppg

What is it that motivates students to study? A few lucky people may genuinely enjoy the process of memorising facts and preparing for exams, but this is probably rare. For most people studying requires effort and despite the high stakes, the reward of good exam results (or fear of bad ones) in the distant future is not enough of a motivation when there are far more exciting and immediately rewarding things to do instead. So this week we consider how we can motivate students to engage in independent study by bringing in short term, tangible rewards.

If you want to learn more about planning the link I mention is here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/epdf/10.1177/237946151500100205

In this second episode we explore why study habits may help students with independent study and how we as teachers can support students to build effective study habits. Behavioural change is really hard, as anyone who had already forgotten their new year's resolution, can attest to! There are a few key things that we can help students with if they want to build in independent learning to their schedule. We consider the role of homework in building habits, habit stacking, cueing habits and reducing friction. Finally we think about how we can help students embed behaviour change when it needs to happen outside of the classroom context. These behavioural change tips are equally applicable to other behaviours such as exercise, sleep and work, so worth a listen if you want to change your habits too!

The two books for further reading are Wendy Wood's Good Habits, Bad Habits and James Clear's Atomic Habits.

Inherent in our educational system is the expectation that students will study independently to achieve at the higher levels. Some students are lucky and hit on strategies that work, others flounder whilst motivated to do well they don’t know how to learn. As educators why leave the effectiveness of independent study largely up to chance when we have a whole host of excellent tools at our disposal, we need to share them with our students in a strategic and coherent way to give students the confidence to use these tools effectively in a wide range of different scenarios and ultimately to take control of their own educational success.

Welcome back to the new term of podcasts. We are starting off with an episode about wellbeing with Dr Ros McLellan from Cambridge University. We take a deep dive into exactly what wellbeing means and its impact on educational attainment. Rather than taking wellbeing as a homogenous concept this discussion considers the difference between eudaimonic and hedonic wellbeing and how they have differing impacts on educational outcomes.

You can find the original paper here:

Tania Clarke, Ros McLellan & Gordon Harold (2023) Beyond Life Satisfaction: Wellbeing Correlates of Adolescents’ Academic Attainment, School Psychology Review: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2372966X.2023.2217980

Companion Paper: https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/rev3.3393

Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory posits that an individual’s development is influenced by a series of interconnected environmental systems, ranging from the immediate surroundings (e.g., family) to broad societal structures (e.g., culture).

In this second 'takeover' Niamh and Summer, from Bootham School, ask you to think about autism and some common misconceptions - which peice of research is real and which is fake. Test your understanding in this fun podcast.

It's Christmas Takeover time and today's episode is hosted by Oliver Sherratt, a year 12 student at Abingdon school studying A level psychology. He delves into the intricate and fascinating world of psychology approaches. These six approaches will lay a base for your understanding of what we know psychology to be as well as igniting a flame within you which will spur you onwards to learn more about the great subject. Today's episode will be a brief and concise whistle stop tour and thus I encourage listeners to read more in depth after listening to fully cement their understanding. Come along for the journey! A great taster for those thinking of choosing psychology A level.

There are many things that make this time of year special, one of which is music - whether that is carols or corny Christmas songs, they can prompt memories and get us together to sing as a community in ways that we simply don’t at any other time of year. But there is strong evidence to suggest that singing has physiological, psychological and social benefits and we should not just relegate community singing to Christmas. Today I am speaking to two psychologists who believe that schools can and should be a place where singing is embraced everyday - Dr Yoon Irons and Natasha Hendry.

Links from this week’s episode:

Sing Up: https://www.singup.org/

You are the Music by Victoria Williamson

Why we sing by Julia Hollander

Singing by Yoon Irons and Grenville Hancox

Links to Natasha’s research can be found here:

Hendry, Natasha (2023), ‘Fitting in and sticking out: An exploratory study of the Whiteness of the school music curriculum and its effects on Global Majority musicians’, Journal of Popular Music Education, 7:1, pp. 25–45, https://doi.org/10.1386/jpme_00107_1

Hendry, N., Lynam, D. S., & Lafarge, C. (2022). Singing for wellbeing: formulating a model for community group singing interventions. Qualitative Health Research, 32(8-9), 1399-1414. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497323221104718

We know that many neurodivergent young people such as those with ADHD or autism traits develop depression during adolescence – but we currently don’t know which individuals are at risk, what underlying processes increase that risk or, perhaps most importantly, the best way to intervene to increase resilience to reduce that risk. RE-STAR aims to address this by exploring the interplay between autism and/or ADHD traits, exposure to environmental stressors, and emotional responding in neurodivergent young people (NYP), in driving developmental pathways to depression. My Guests this week are Dr. Steve lukito, Eloise Funnell and Tiegan Boyens from the Re-Star team who are heading up work package 2: My Brain, Emotions and me or BE ME.

If you would like to find out more about RE-STAR in general here is the website: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/re-star

The BE ME Website is: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/my-brain-emotions-and-me

Maciej's Blog: https://kingsengagedresearchblog.wordpress.com/2023/10/04/enhancing-participatory-neuroscience-research-the-re-star-project-perspectives/

As we come to the end of a very long term a few of you might well be considering which lessons you might be able to put on a film. So to ensure that this is a justifiable educational tool Dr Sheila Thomas talks about her use of film in the classroom: how to make it a really valuable experience for the students and get them thinking more deeply and in a cross curricular way about films.

To get Sheila’s website and get hold of the list of films and how to use them you can follow this link: https://www.thepsychologyschool.com/

The previous podcast I did on videos and learning is here: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/making-the-most-of-videos-as-a-teaching-resource

The AI question generator for Youtube videos is Quizizz.

'Smart' or 'Study' drugs are usually prescribed for people with ADHD to help them concentrate. However many people without ADHD take them, in theory, to focus on studying - e.g. writing an essay or revising for an exam. The estimates of how many people have taken them vary between about 16-20%, and the use of these drugs is on the rise. So the question is do these drugs actually help complex cognitive processes that are required for study? Recent research done by Elizaeth Bowman and her colleagues aimed to find out and in this episode Elizabeth joins me to talk about their research and most importantly their findings.

You can read the orginal paper in Science Advances here:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add4165

You can read a summary (or share it with your students) here:

https://theconversation.com/smart-drugs-make-you-worse-at-solving-complex-problems-new-study-finds-207711

You can find out more about the Centre here:

https://www.unimelb.edu.au/cbmm

Here is the next installment of the ‘Talking to psychology teachers series’ with guest teacher Sophia Afsar. We are going to be talking about how to create the perfect multiple choice question (with and without the help of ChatGPT), the importance of student-teacher relationships and how using concrete examples that students can relate to helps them understand more abstract concepts.

The links to the episodes mentioned are:

Dual Coding: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/working-memory-and-dual-coding

Interleaving: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/interleaving-a-useful-learning-strategy

Student-Teacher Relationships with Dr Ben Looker: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/the-pupil-teacher-relationship-with-dr-ben-looker

Metacognition: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/an-introduction-to-metacognition

Desirable difficulties: https://changingstatesofmind.libsyn.com/powerful-learning-with-patrice-bain

“Be the best you can be, now.” This is the overriding message to self and others which aligns to my personal values and fuels my being! Joshi Jariwala

During, the Covid era, there was a will to be kind to students who were overwhelmed with endless unpredictable lists to survive, completely unrelated to study. Though committed, they could not jump start their drive to learn. Joshi Jariwala shares with you her journey of turning that kindness into a practical tool to softly help her students unfreeze their state of mind and guide them towards their study in bitesize chunks. The journey culminated into a six-step bite size learning cycle to help form new habits in a simple and easy to follow manner. The basis of the model resides in positive psychology, neuroscience, and mindfulness, which are her interests particularly the latter which she enjoys and in which she has completed the eight-week course. Although honestly, the model was borne through reflection, practise, and an urge to help! With nearly 30 years in the fields of youth and community work, accountancy, human resource management, and teaching initially on a sessional basis and on a full-time basis for the last six years, she is happy learning and contributing to make a difference where she can!

To get in touch with Joshi email: J.J.Jariwala@ljmu.ac.uk

This episode is the 4th in the ‘Talking to Psychology Teachers’ Series and Paramjeet Moon, psychology teacher with 24 years experience, talks about her love of psychology and the myriad of ways in which it has influenced her teaching practice, from cognitive psychology, working memory, interleaving, relationships, the teenage brain, seating arrangements and much more this conversation is full of great tips for any teacher wishing to tweak their practice to make it just a little better.

If you want to watch the ‘Kevin becomes a teenager’ it is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLuEY6jN6gY

And an example of a PLC can be found on this link if you go to the show notes via the podcast page of my website (if you are listening via an app such as Spotify or Amazon): www.changingstatesofmind.com/podcast

In this episode Dr Brooke Macnamara shares details of her research about mindset. Her research is a fascinating insight into the interventions around mindsets including growth mindset - a concept which I am sure you are familiar. If you, like me, have read Carol Dweck’s work it is compelling, but can we really change mindset? The concept itself is quite vague and is a belief or set of beliefs that then impact behaviour. The challenge for research is to show that we can firstly change the belief (and only the belief) and this will ultimately result in improved academic ourcomes. The interventions though rarely just focus on the beliefs as we shall hear.

You can find the Twitter/X thread here or search @BrookeMacnamara on X to find the thread which is pinned to her profile.

The paper we are discussing can be read via open source here: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/ba7pe

This week Evie Bentley talks about how her knowledge of psychology helped her understand and manage what could have been a very frightening experience. As teachers we are often asked ‘what is the point of learning this’ whatever this might be. But you never know when knowledge may come in handy and sometimes it is at the moments you least expect, something Evie discovered in the early hours of the morning.

Alessia Evans developed a love of makeup from a young age and started working in the cosmetics industry at 19 where she climbed the ranks as a makeup artist, trainer and manager for L'Oreal. Fast forward 10+ years, and Alessia has bowed out of the beauty industry to study Psychology, undertaking a dissertation investigating whether applying makeup makes us smarter... what she discovered was remarkable! Since being awarded the British Psychological Prize for Best Dissertation 2020, Alessia has gone on to write for a magazine on the psychology of beauty and currently lectures at the University of South Wales where she also recently completed her Masters in Psychology Research.

This week she joins Psychology in the Classroom to talk about the impact that make up can have on social interaction, mental health and cognitive function. We discuss schools’ general aversion to make-up and ask the question ‘Is this rule appropriate?’ The answer may not be what you expect, whatever you think about make-up, Alessia provides some really fascinating insights into the reasons why we wear make-up and why we should perhaps open up the conversation around make-up in schools.

You can get in touch with Alessia Here: https://staffdirectory.southwales.ac.uk/users/alessia.evans.html

You can find details of Nancy Etcoff’s book here - Survival of the Prettiest, or just search her name online.

Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty

This week is the third in the ‘talking to psychology teachers’ series and Ed King shares some insights into expectancy-value theory and how it drives motivation as well as some practical tips on how to work on both expectancy and value to increase student (and our own) motivation in the classroom. Student’s Achievement can be determined by two factors: Expectancy & value - These two interact to predict outcomes such as engagement, continuing interest, and academic achievement.

For more information this is the link: https://education.okstate.edu/site-files/documents/motivation-classrooms/motivation-minute-expectancy-value-theory.pdf

To find out about the diary project: https://www.standandstare.com/reimagining-the-diary

This week Felicitas Biwer talks about how students can study smarter with better self-regulation, effort regulation, planning and reflection. Packed with top tips on independent learning this is the episode I want all my students to listen too, but can also help teachers understand how and why we need to teach these skills to our students. If you would like to listen to the original podcast about Felicitas's research the link is here.

If you would like to find out more about the study smart programme this is the website: https://www.studysmartpbl.com/

This week Lyndsey Hayes talks about how she has learned to support learners who don't have English as their first language, the challenges this poses and some really practical tips to help them learn. This is the second podcast introducing psychology teachers talking about how psychology has influenced their practice. Below are the links to some useful resources that Lyndsey mentions:

International House, London: https://www.ihlondon.com/course/content-and-language-integrated-learning-clil/

Some Ideas on encorporating CLIL into your lesson: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/professional-development/teachers/knowing-subject/articles/clil-lesson-framework

Link to the ATP Article

...with Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou and Dr Myrto Kakoulidou.

How do neurodiverse individuals experience emotions? Is it different to neurotypical people? If not then should schools be relying on interventions based on neurotypical (adult) experiences? The team at RE-STAR (Regulating Emotions - Strengthening Adolescent Resilience) are part way through a huge 4 year project to understand emotional experiences of young neurodiverse people with Autism and Attention Deficit Hyper activity disorder or ADHD In this episode Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou and Dr Myrto Kakoulidou talk about their work on understanding emotional experiences of young people with Autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or ADHD and how schools (in particular) could better understand and support these young people with their emotions and we get a sneak peek at some of the results!

To find out more follow the link: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/re-star

The link for families to find out more about the My Emotions and Me-part 2 study and take part: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/my-emotions-and-me

The link for teachers/schools to register an interest and get involved in the RE-STAR programme more generally: Microsoft form

This week sees the first of the ‘talking to psychology teachers’ series, Dani Bryton discusses how the psychology of motivation has influenced her to think carefully about the social dynamics in the classroom: from seating plans to making a cuppa for your colleague, managing the relationships and building a sense of belonging in your classroom can have a clear and visible impact on academic outcomes.

As we start a new academic year how can we ensure that we manage our own wellbeing? This week my guest, Gemma Drinkall, a qualified coach, trainer and supervisor shares her top tips on setting boundaries, managing expectations and learning how to look after your own wellbeing, after all you can’t pour from an empty cup.

If you would like to learn more about Gemma’s work you can find it on these links:

Website: https://headsphere.co.uk/

Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/teacherswithboundaries/

Twitter: @Gemma_Drinkall

It's the holidays - but just how can we make the most of the summer break and ensure we go back to school rested and recharged, ready for another year. In this week's episode, the final one for the 2022-23 academic year, Dr Jill Dunbar and Dr Nicola Cann, part of the team behing the Travel Psychologist blog talk about their top tips for getting the most out of your holidays. And if you happen to be moving abroad next year to teach in a foreign country they have some really good tips for managing the transition. If you would like to find out more you can read their blog at thetravelpsychologist.co.uk

Happy Holidays!

...How to reduce upsetting experiences in school for young people with ADHD and Autism with Dr Sylvan Baker and Prof. Jane Hurry

In this podcast we discuss the amazing work that is being done in 'work package 5' of the RE-STAR project. We discuss the importance of communication and leadership in driving change. As well as ways to hear the different voices in our school communities.

If you would like to get involved in the project the link is: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/emotional-lives-young-people-school-1 and you can email the team on re-starinfo@kcl.ac.uk

If you want to listen to the other podcasts in this series you can do so via my website: www.changinstatesofmind.com/re-star-project

The 7th and 8th July was the 40th Annual Conference for the Association for the Teaching of Psychology. With 34 workshops and 3 keynote talks it was a veritable feast of information as well as a fantastic time to catch up with our psychology family. Whether or not you teach psychology this episode covers some really interesting ideas for your classroom, thought provoking conversations and psychological theory.

My guests were David Foster, Rosie McGinty (AQA), Ashok Jansari, Michelle Satchwell, Cara Flanagan, Bea and Lucia and Dr Bo Kelestyn. (Podcast artwork photo myself with conference organiser, Helen Kitching)

Links that you may be interested in:

Teaching Using Analogy with Matt Slocombe

Prosopagnosia and other neuropsychological things with Ashok Jansari

Prosopagnosia with Judith Lowes

Inspiration Walks links to follow.

This week I am joined by Bradley Busch and Edward Watson from InnerDrive for one final time this year and we are talking about their new book 'Teaching and Learning Illuminated'. Chris Hack from Abingdon School is also co-hosting the episode. This week you have the chance to win your very own copy of the book so just listen to the episode and find out how you can win.

(T&Cs can be found here).

This week Karen Duffy and the Psychology PGCE students of Manchester Metropolitan University have taken over the podcast. Take a listen to this lively conversation about the dreams, fears and expectations of teachers just entering the profession. A reminder too, for those of us who have been here a while, about the joys of the classroom. With just a hint of how a knowledge of psychology has supported these trainees through the past year.

What a year this has been, as I upload this podcast I currently have 145 episodes of Psychology in the Classroom for you to listen to. But there are still more to come but this is the last solo episode of the year so I thought I would take the chance to reflect on the year gone and look forward to the year ahead. As I plan for 2023-24 please do let me know what you would like to learn more about, get in touch via social media or on the speakpipe link. I love hearing from you.

Here is the link to my Libsyn page - just in case.

This podcast reviews a paper with the title ‘Teacher, forgive me, I forgot to do it’ the impact of children’s prospective memory on teachers’ evaluation of academic performance. Prospective memory is, according to Einstein and McDaniel the memory for intentions. It enables us to remember to carry out an action that has been planned for a predefined time in the future, while performing a concurrent activity named ongoing task. One of the interesting things about prospective memory is how others perceive it. If you fail to carry out your intention it is seen as character flaw - so where you forget to hand in book you might be considered forgetful, flaky, or in terms of social skills - like remembering to wish someone happy birthday you might be thought of as indifferent. Can this then affect teachers' perceptions of students and can this in turn inpact academic success?

The link to Grace Molloy's podcast on cognitive bias is here.

Reference:

Basso D, Corradini G, Cottini M. "Teacher, forgive me, I forgot to do it!" The impact of children's prospective memory on teachers' evaluation of academic performance. Br J Educ Psychol. 2023 Mar;93(1):17-32. doi: 10.1111/bjep.12537. Epub 2022 Aug 7. PMID: 35934815; PMCID: PMC10087291.

The Note Taking Effect is the well documented effect that taking notes during learning increases retention and recall. There are factors that effect it such as whether you type or hand write - the latter is more effective - for example. This episode looks at research into the underlying cognitive processes that may help us improve our students retention through more effective note taking techniques.

If you would like to take a look at the original paper:

Lalchandani, L. A., & Healy, A. F. (2022). Elucidating the cognitive processes involved in the
note-taking effect. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 36(5), 1009–1021. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3985

This week looks at a research paper into the Pomodoro Technique - breaking down revision into 25 minutes segments with 5 minute breaks. Whilst many people use this we often don't consider why it is useful or what processes might support its use or not. The use of system-regulated breaks may have several benefits over self-regulated breaks such as reducing secondary cognitive load, making students more motivated and more efficient but little research has been done on this. This paper is a starting point for this research.

You may also like to listen to these podcasts on Cognitive Load and Task Switching.

Original Paper: : Biwer, F., Wiradhany, W., oude Egbrink, M. G. A., & de Bruin, A. B. H. (2023). Understanding effort regulation: Comparing ‘Pomodoro’ breaks and self-regulated breaks. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 00, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjep.12593

This week Psychology in the Classroom talks to Dr Daniel Jolley, Assistant Professor in Social Psychology at the University of Nottingham. His research explores the psychology of conspiracy theories, where he is interested in understanding why millions of people find conspiracy theories so appealing. He is also keen to explore the social consequences of believing in conspiracy theories and develop tools to address their negative impact. In particularly we talk about how adolscents may develop beliefs in conspiracy theories and how, as teachers, we can address such beliefs and encourage young people to critically assess the content they are viewing.

If you wish to have a go with the Conspiracy Kitchen here is the link and you can find out more about Daniel's work here or follow him on twitter: @DrDanielJolley

Additionally (not mentioned in the podcast) Daniel has also helped to develop some lesson plan about mis/disinformation more broadly which can be found at Project Real.

This week (15th May 2023) is Mental Health Awareness week and the theme is anxiety and to mark it I am looking at the link between perfectionism and anxiety. This is based on two papers by Burcas and Cretu (2021) and Egan et al. (2022) that explore the link between the two concepts in different ways.

I have got quite a lot out there this week so please do take a look at my blog for OCR and my podcast with Natalie Hunt for Abingdon School. Further back in time I have a wide range of mental health podcasts that you can find on my website.

To download resources please click this link.

References

Burcaş, S., Creţu, R.Z. Multidimensional Perfectionism and Test Anxiety: a Meta-analytic Review of Two Decades of Research. Educ Psychol Rev 33, 249–273 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-020-09531-3

Egan, S., Wade, T., Fitzallen, G., O’Brien, A., & Shafran, R. (2022). A meta-synthesis of qualitative studies of the link between anxiety, depression and perfectionism: Implications for treatment. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 50(1), 89-105. doi:10.1017/S1352465821000357

How do students choose A levels? There are all sorts of reasons that might influence a student’s A level choices such as enjoyment of a subject, parental influence, university requirements and in Psychology we talk about the therapy hypothesis - that students choose psychology to better understand themselves and possibly their own neurodivergence or mental health conditions. But the GCSE data in 2020 provided a unique opportunity to understand how much influence class rank (and potentially self-perception of their ability in a given subject) plays into students’ A level choices. Whilst this research is quantitative in nature it raises so many interesting questions around setting, self-perception, referencing and even student-teacher relationships. My guest Dr Joanna Williamson from at Cambridge University Press & Assessment where she is a Senior Researcher in educational measurement.

You can find the research on this link and the link to the Fleischmann paper here.

We all use videos in teaching and the ability to embed them directly into powerpoints or just find a good link on Youtube has transformed our ability, as teachers, to bring learning to life. But passively consuming videos doesn't necessairly encourage long term learning. This week we look at research that considers how to make the most of videos to aid learning. Based on Fiorella, L. (2022) Learning by explaining after pauses in video lectures: Are provided visuals a scaffold or a crutch? Applied Cognitive Psychology 36:5, 1142-1149 https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3994.

This week I am speaking to Bradley Busch from InnerDrive about the most recent research on the impact of social media and screens. We consider how teens navigating this new digital world are affected in terms of Mental Health, wellbeing, learning and life in general. As parents we also share some of the challenges we have have faced as digital immigrants when our children are digital natives, and the battle against the brains of silicon valley screaming for our children’s attention - and mostly winning. We mention the latest OfCom report - Children and Parents: Media use and attitudes report 2022 - which you can read on this link.

The second of 5 podcasts helping you to make the most of your revision. In this episode we will think about making your revision as effective as possible and how to avoid bad revision strategies that feel good but don't help you remember things long term. You can listen to other podcasts in the series on this link or hear more about sleep here.

The fourth of 5 podcasts helping you to make the most of your revision. In this episode we will think about where you revise and things that make it easier or harder to get started and stay focused. It also discusses whether music is a good or bad thing and the challenges of mobile phones. You can listen to other podcasts in the series on this link.

The third of 5 podcasts helping you to make the most of your revision. In this episode we will consider 5 effective revision strategies that can help you make the most of your revision. You can watch a short video and listen to other podcasts in the series on this link.

The second of 5 podcasts helping you to make the most of your revision. In this episode we will think about making your revision as effective as possible and how to avoid bad revision strategies that feel good but don't help you remember things long term. You can watch a short video and listen to other podcasts in the series on this link.

The first of 5 podcasts helping you to make the most of your revision. In this episode we will think about the best way to plan your revision to make sure that you get the most out of the time you are revising and a balance between work and play. You can watch a short video and listen to other podcasts in the series on this link.

When we switch between one task and another due to an interuption there is a cost. Whilst we may feel like we are managing we often underestimate the toll task-switching has on our time, productivity and wellbeing. In this episode we take a brief look at how we get interupted, the cost of those interuptions and the impact it has on learning, productivity and our wellbeing as a whole. Plus there is a great little experiment you can do so have a pen and paper ready. The book mentioned is Flow: the classic work on how to achieve happiness by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

This week we really start to draw on previous episodes with the theory of Dual Coding. Key to this is Working Memory Model (for a image of this please use this link) which is covered here. This epsiode then discusses dual coding before extending to the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning proposed by Mayer (2002) and links it back to Schemas and Cognitive Load Theory (the links take you back to previous episodes). Finally we consider the EEF's review of the evidence and then the implications for classroom practice.

What exactly are schemas and why should teachers know about them? We learn about retrieval practice, metacognition, cognitive load, working memory and many other cognitive theories and underpinning pretty much all of them are schemas. It is the way that we theorise about how knowledge is stored in, linked and retrieved from long-term memory and so therefore we need to understand not only what they are but how to move our students from novice schema to expert schema. In this episode we will look at different ways that this can be done and reflect on some best practice. There are lots of previous episodes that link to schema that can be found via this link.

The links between sports psychology and education may not be immediately obvious but talking to Matt Shaw from InnerDrive clearly demonstrates just how interrelated these two areas are. Both sport and education require learning, need students to manage emotions especially during performance and aim to encourage behaviour change for many different reasons. Packed with top tips this is a really fascinating podcast.

Matt mentions the InnerDrive Blogs: the sports blogs can be found here and the education blogs here.

This week's episode looks at Cognitive Load Theory (CLT) in detail, we have talked about it before with Bradley Busch but this delves into the original theory and how it has been researched more recently. With a good understanding of CLT and various other concepts that underpin it such as working memory and schemas teachers can transform learning in the classroom. We cover Sweller's 5 principles, different types of cognitive load and 14 things you could try in your classroom.

The document mentioned in the podcast can be downloaded here.

Sweller, J. (2010). Cognitive Load Theory: Recent Theoretical Advances. In J. Plass, R. Moreno, & R. Brünken (Eds.), Cognitive Load Theory (pp. 29-47). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511844744.004

The EEF Review can be accessed on this link.

Don Berg is an author, education psychology researcher, alternative education practitioner, and leader. He has over 20 years of experience leading children in self-directed educational settings. In this episode we focus on motivation, going beyond the traditional intrinsic-extrinsic paradigm to discuss the need for autonomy, competency and relatedness in order for students to feel motivated and engage with learning in the classroom. Some great ideas on how to make small changes to help motivation, engagement and wellbeing.

You can find out more about Don’s work on his website www.holisticequity.org and click this link for his Book: Schooling For Holistic Equity: How To Manage the Hidden Curriculum for K-12

Interleaving is a concept that has been around in the pyschological literature for about 10 years, the findings are quite robust but there is a lot of confusion about exactly what interleaving is and how it should be used in the classroom. This episode we define what interleaving is and is not, the consider the research that underpins it as a concept and the theories as to why it might work and finally what exactly interleaving could look like in your classroom.

There are two reviews that I mention and you can click on the links below to access them:

EEF Cognitive Science in the Classroom: Evidence and Practice review (go to page 53)

Firth, Rivers & Boyle (2021) Contest and Implications Document for: A systematic review of interleaving as a concept learning strategy.

Following on from last week Bradley Busch from InnerDrive talks about the importance of retrieval practice in learning and how it links to the broader landscape of learning through the development of schemas, how to develop effective questions, not to mention why students don't opt for retrieval practice in their revision.

If you's like to listen to Bradley's other Psychology in the Classroom Podcasts you can hear them here: The Science of Learning or Cognitive Load.

You can find out more about the work that InnerDrive does at www.innerdrive.co.uk

Many teachers understand the concept of retrieval practice in learning, in this week’s podcast we are looking back at some seminal research on this by Roediger and Karpicke (2006) that looks at how effective recall is over reading as a learning strategy, whether more retrieval practice means better learning and how good we are at judging how well we know stuff. Knowing this research has implications for our classroom practice, students revision techniques and the links to metacognition as well.

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). Test-Enhanced Learning: Taking Memory Tests Improves Long-Term Retention. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01693.x

Dancing has been shown to have numerous benefits and as we will hear they are physical, social and cognitive. Dr Peter Lovatt explains the psychology of dance and movement, why it is so important to get movement into the classroom and suggests some great ways to do this in any classroom.

You can find out more about the psychology of dance and join the programmes on these links:

Dr Peter Lovatt’s Website: www.peterlovatt.com
Dance Assure: https://move-assure.com/
Movement in Practice: https://www.movementinpractice.com/
Or get reading: The Dance Cure: The surprising secret to being smarter, stronger, happier.
Or follow Peter on LinkedIn

I have been struggling to get my head around Metacognition and what it looks like in the classroom. In this episode I go right back to Flavell's 1979 paper where he outlines his ideas and discuss a variety of examples of metacognition in the classroom. I hope you find it a useful introduction to metacognition and a spring board to thinkin about what it looks like in your classroom.

Useful links:

Podcast on Cognitive Psychology

EEF Metacognition Guidance Document (2018)

Reference: Flavell, John H. 1979. “Metacognition and Cognitive Monitoring: A New Area of Cognitive-Developmental Inquiry.” American Psychologist 34 (10): 906–911.

Today’s episode we are revisiting the RE-STAR project or Regulating Emotions - Strengthening Adolescent Resilience, a large 4 year research project looking at the relationship between poor mental health and neuro-atypicalities, in particular Autism and Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder (ADHD). Today I am joined by Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, who is leading the project and we are also joined by Professor Emily Siminoff who is also involved with the project. The focus for today’s discussion is why young people with Autism and ADHD might be at greater risk of mental ill health, in particular depression. Emily and Edmund also talk about how both these conditions present in the classroom, how we, as teachers, can support young people with Autism & ADHD. We also consider how depression and anxiety present in a typical developing adolescent and how it might be different in young people with Autism and ADHD.

You can hear all the RE-STAR podcasts here.

For information about the Tools for School research study click here information about the research study. The toolkit resource itself is on www.toolsforschools.info (see "resources bank") although please be aware that this is in very early testing so it is not recommended that schools adopt just yet however, you are welcome to explore it though and provide any feedback - the details are all on the website

For more information about the ADHD Foundation click here

The final takeover podcast of the season comes from Will, Todd and Dan who, as you will hear, are all keen sports fans. Whilst the conversation is loosely linked to psychology it is great to hear young people's thoughts on the effects of crowds on performance, the issue of sport related violence and why it is so prevalent in football rather than other sports. It is great to eavesdrop on the conversation and as Will says sometimes this is the best way to learn!

Psychology in the Classroom will be back next week with and interview from the RE-STAR research team.

Welcome to the next of the takeover podcasts about memory, music and Alzheimer’s from Effie from Bootham School. I am sure that for many of us there are songs that come on the radio and we are instantly transported back to a specific moment in time, a memory. There is something different about the way we store musical memories and this is what forms the basis of music therapy for patients with dementia. In this short podcast Effie takes us on a personal journey about the effect of Music on her grandfather.

What is the point of Psychological research. In this short episode James asks if you can spot the real and the fake research? Showing our intuition isn't always correct.

For the next two weeks I hand my podcast over to students and teachers who would like to tell you about an area of psychology that interests them. Today Harriet Ennis (a teacher and trained hynotherapist) introduces self-hypnosis with an explanation of what self-hypnosis is, how it can help you relax and how you can do it. The second part of the recording (at 14 minutes) is the self-hypnosis recording so if you want to skip straight to that you can, equally if you are driving that is where you might want to pause it until you can engage more safely! If you would like to know more please do feel free to email Harriet on Harriet.ennis@boothamschool.com.

As Research fellows of the Oxford Character Project, co-authors of the book ‘Leader: Know, love and inspire your people’, Senior Fellows of the Human Flourishing Program's Network at Harvard University, and director and founder, respecitvely of the Wellington Leadership and Coaching Institute Emmie Bidsotn and Dr Katy Granville-Chapman are well placed to talk about leadership and its role in schools. In this podcast they talk about the importance of love in leadership and how it can enable flourising.

You can find out more about their work on these links.

https://www.leadershipforflourishing.com/

https://oxfordcharacter.org/

https://hfh.fas.harvard.edu/flourishing-network-HFH

Brene Brown's Dare to Lead

McKinsey: The Boss Factor

Amy Edmunsdon - Psychological Safety

Leader Know, Love And Inspire Your People

None

Sleep is a vital part of every animal's life and plays a vital role in emotional regulation, memory consolidation and physical health. But many people struggle to get a good night’s sleep and that includes adolescents. The impact of poor sleep can be devastating. This week Dr Maria Gardani talks about her research into sleep and why and how we can all get a better night’s sleep.

The links Maria mentioned are The National Sleep Foundation and The NHS Sleepio Website

How can Neuropsychology integrate with education to support our understanding of how learning works? This week Clinical Psychologist and neuropsychologist Dr Jenny G’in-toni talks about her work in the multidisciplinary fields of educational neuroscience. This is a really interesting area but it is difficult, as we shall hear, to make the move from research to practical application. If you want to find the paper that I talk about and more about Jenny’s work please use this link.

Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou is an assistant professor based at the Department of Psychology and Human Development at University College London and is the lead autism workforce trainer at the Anna Freud Centre. She is the founder of the Group for Research in Relationships in Neurodiversity.

We discuss the relationship and experiences of neurotypical siblings who have a neurodiverse sibling. The impact this may have on them both positive and negative and as schools what we need to be aware of and what we can do to support them in the role.

Georgia mentions several free access research papers with and for siblings. Which you can find on the links below:

Adolescent females' siblinghood experiences, needs and perspectives growing up with a preverbal autistic brother or sister
“I often have to explain to school staff what she needs”. School experiences of non-autistic siblings growing up with an autistic brother or sister
A strengths-based approach to autism research with siblings

To join free events and find out more about Relationships and Neurodiversity visit: https://www.neurodiversity-research.org/

For free support and advice by siblings for siblings: https://www.sibs.org.uk/evidence/

Cognitive Load is something that we should all be aware of when teaching, but what is the scientific theory that underpins it and how can we hit the sweet spot where cognitive load isn’t too high but is still high enough to engage and motivate students to learn. This week Bradley Busch from InnerDrive talks about the science of cognitive load, as well as redundancy effect, coherency effect and split attention to name just a few concepts that affect learning in the classroom.

To hear Bradley and Edward’s previous interview click here.

Over its very long history, cannabis has been celebrated by some for its pleasures and medicinal properties. It has also been demonised for inducing psychotic effects, addiction and cognitive impairment. A cannabis plant can contain over 140 cannabinoids and levels of these vary widely in different strains of cannabis. In this episode I am talking to Professor Valerie Curran from University College London. As we will hear, her research focuses on the short- and long-term effects of psychoactive drugs on mental health, cognition, memory and the brain. Also how cannabis use and effects have changed, how cannabis addiction could be treated and how, as schools, we can better educate young people about cannabis.

For more information about Valerie’s research click here and here is the link to DrugScience.

Is it ok to smile before Christmas? This week my guest, David Lowe and I talk about humour in the classroom - what it is, how it can help learning and how it can go wrong, there are also some (very good) jokes! If you want to find out more about David’s research or get involved you can visit his website hahasquad.com.

Research Mentioned:

Huber, G. & Brown, A. (2017) Identity Work, Humour and Disciplinary Power (in Organization Studies) found:

Humour is used by coop workers to set and uphold norms
Identity creation categorised into: 'homogenising' (common characteristics across the group, i.e. identifying as part of the co-op community; respectful to each other); differentiating (identifying how they are different from other members of the organisation who have undesirable characteristics, i.e. being a flexible rule follower vs officious; not too serious/self-righteous); personalising (identifying as independent from the coop, i.e. being oneself/having autonomy).
Power is help by collective workforce, not just implemented by specific people or groups (i.e. managers)

Research into humour and academic success:

Archakis, Argiris, and Villy Tsakona (2005) Analyzing Conversational Data in Gtvh Terms: A New Approach to the Issue of Identity Construction Via Humor (in HUMOR: International journal of humor research) - studied youths and found that people used humour as a covert correction mechanism of in-group behaviour (reinforcing existing bonds, evaluation of behaviour) and social identity.

Lovorn, M. (2008) Humor in the Home and in the Classroom: The Benefits of Laughing While We Learn (in Journal of Education and Human Development) -- social and intellectual development among preadolescent children can be enhanced and enriched when the children are exposed to the regular, structured, appropriate use of humor by parents and teachers.

Dr Laura Jenkins, Laura is a University Teacher in Psychology at Loughborough University, a Chartered Psychologist (CPsychol) and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Laura’s research interests focus around areas of personality and factors that could be influenced by personality. Today we are going to be talking about how three very specific personality traits may be linked to academic misconduct (in other words cheating) and what, if anything, teachers can do to intervene and stop academic misconduct occurring. We also talk about the challenges that face researchers trying to study both personality and cheating behaviour.

If you would like to find out more, the book Laura mentioned can be found on this link and her blogs on personality and education can be found here.

Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change

We don’t give much thought to names, but we probably ought to. In this emotive podcast Prof. I. M. Nick, the current Editor-in-Chief of NAMES, the scholarly journal for onomastic research(“Onomastics” is the formal name for the scientific study of names and naming) discusses name-based prejudice and how incredibly harmful to individuals and groups. Teachers have a critical role to play in calling attention to this problem and helping to end societal tolerance of name-based prejudice and discrimination. You can find out more about the American Name Society and access the ANS Journal. If you would like to get in touch with Iman please do email her: nameseditor@gmail.com

A couple of years ago I saw a tweet asking if the fashion for hessian backing on display boards was based on any evidence. It turns out no one has researched this but Dr Karrie Godwin researches (amongst other things) the impact of classroom displays on off-task behaviour and learning. In this podcast we talk about just how distracting displays can be to learning and what the perfect classroom might just look like. You can find out more about Karrie here and her work on her website here.

Aphantasia is the inability to visualize, people with aphantasia don’t create any pictures of familiar objects, people, or places in their mind’s eye. Not for thoughts, memories, or images of the future. This conversation is a fascinating insight into the condition itself but also how our assumptions about other people’s perception and understanding of the world may differ from our own. Whilst research into Aphantasia is in its infancy this conversation is full of thought provoking ideas about the uniqueness of individual perception and a reminder that we need to be mindful in the classroom about assuming one-size-fits all.

If you would like to find out more check out the Aphantasia Network and you can find out where you fall on the imagination spectrum.

This week Dr Grace Molloy discusses Unconscious Bias, something she believes we all need to be thinking about more carefully particularly in the context of how it can impact students and families we work with. Closely linked to prejudice, it is a tricky topic to address and to be able to address it, we need to be able to create a safe and open culture in schools.

If you want to look at the reading Grace suggests or take the implicit bias test the links are:

Unconscious Bias in Schools (Book)

Thinking Fast and Slow (book)

Implicit Bias Test

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Psychological and Educational research is often difficult to access and fully of jargon that makes it hard to understand. In this interview Edward and Bradley from InnerDrive talk about how they have made research more accessible, their favourite pieces of research, why they are important and how they can help teachers in the classroom. We discuss their book the 'Science of Learning - 99 Studies That Every Teacher Should Know' and give you the opportunity to win a free copy of the book (T&Cs can be found here).

Ever wondered about the difference time makes to your teaching practice? This week David Weston from the Teacher Development Trust discusses the difference between novice and expert teachers, how teachers develop expertise in their craft and how schools can best create conditions for teachers to thrive professionally - all of which is underpinned by research. With top tips for both early careers teachers and the more seasoned professional it is well worth a listen. You can find out more about the Teacher Development Trust on their website www.TDTrust.org or follow them on Twitter @informed_edu. Click to access the Kraft and Papay (2014) paper and the DfE Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development and the TDT Culture of Improvement Review.

Want to know why you should listen? Here's a little bit about the podcast and how it could help you in your teaching practice.

It's really hot today! Some schools have closed, others have cancelled events such as sports day. But how much does weather really affect our mood and behaviour. Does wind really make kids a bit wild? It is the last episode of the year and as a bit of fun I have been researching how weather affects us and the implications this might have in the classroom.

Trevor Harley's book the Psychology of Weather can be purchased here.

This is the third and final episode with Professor Willem Kuyken. Over the last two episodes we have discussed the national picture of mental health in young people, the role of schools in providing mental health and wellbeing education to young people, what mindfulness is and how it might help people with their mental health. In this episode we discuss the findings of the Myriad Trial (My Resilience in Adolescence) a large, randomised control trial funded by the Wellcome which looked at the impact of a brief Mindfulness intervention on the wellbeing of young teens. Willem was one of four principal investigators (with Mark Williams, Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and Tim Dalgleish) on this trial and as you will hear, the findings challenge us to think afresh about how best to support young people, teachers, parents and policy makers in addressing the challenges of ensuring mental health in young people.

You can find more about the Myriad project here. If you would like to read the papers they are open source and available here. There is also a film you can watch here made with a group of young people from schools that took part in the trial, that provides their perspective on mental health and the role of schools.

Links mentioned in the episode were Casel and Penn State University

In this second podcast with Professor Willem Kuyken, we explore mindfulness - what it is, how it can be practised and how it can benefit mental health. We debunk the idea of mindfulness as a panacea and explore instead for whom and under what conditions it might be helpful. We consider the many facets of mindfulness such as curiosity, kindness and compassion and how we learn mindfulness through our everyday lives and other people. We discuss how our attention has become a commodity that social media successfully harnesses and that perhaps mindfulness is a way to claim back our attention. Finally we start to think about the best ways to introduce mindfulness in schools, revisiting the idea of school climate.

If you want to hear more about codesign do listen to the RE-STAR podcasts

This is the first of 3 podcasts with Professor Willem Kuyken in which we discuss mental health in schools culminating in an episode about the Myriad Trial (My Resilience in Adolescence) which looked at the impact of a brief Mindfulness intervention on the wellbeing of young teens. In this episode we start with a broad discussion around mental health in young people, the role schools have in supporting mental health, why mental health and wellbeing interventions should be evidence based, what ‘evidence based’ actually means and, the challenges of delivering universal interventions. We begin a discussion of school climate and how this may be central if we’re to take a fresh and evidence-based approach to mental health in schools.

Willem references Casel in our discussion - here is the link should you wish to find out more. Another couple of useful links are Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Centre and the EEF Toolkit

This week Bee, Tiegan and Maciej, RE-STAR YRAPpers, along with researchers Sylvan and Georgia discuss their experiences of neuro-atypicalities. This honest and vulnerable discussion demonstrates why we should never make assumptions about behaviour and always be curious about the young people in our classrooms.

This is the second part of the RE-STAR podcast interview. You can listen to the first part here.

This is the second of the RE-STAR research project episodes, taking a 'behind the scenes' look at the planning, considerations, challenges and applications of a large research project over 4 years. Many young people with neuroatypicalities such as ADHD and ASD traits develop depression during adolescence – but we currently don’t know which individuals are at risk, what underlying processes increase that risk or, perhaps most importantly, the best way to intervene to increase resilience to reduce that risk. RE-STAR aims to address these gaps by testing the role of emotion regulation difficulties, commonly observed in young people with neuroatypicalities, in driving developmental pathways to depression. In this episode we hear from the Y-Rappers or Youth Researcher Advisory Panel about how they are driving the research to ensure it is relevant to those it is researching.

The Pupil-Teacher relationship has a huge impact on educational outcomes and yet we, as teachers, often fail to spend time on building, maintaining and repairing those relationships, often to the detriment of the most vulnerable of pupils. In this week's episode I talk to Dr Ben Looker from the University of Worcerster's Social Psychology of Education Research Group about the importance of the Pupil-teacher relationship, what his research has shown and strategies on how to repair damaged relationships, power dynamics, alienation and so much more.

This week Dr Nicola Cann, Founder of the Family Sleep Consultant, talks about how sleep is different for teens, the importance of sleep in learning, how to help teens make the most of sleep and getting them to buy into the importance of a good night’s sleep as well as the usual screens and sleep and finally the impact that covid has had on teens’ sleep. You can find out more about sleep for teens and Nicola’s work on her website: www.thefamilysleepconsultant.com

This week and next we are delving into the world of sleep and its importance for everyday function, wellbeing and learning. This week Amber Tout talks passionately about the importance of sleep for teachers. We cover the importance of sleep to carry out the job of teaching effectively. Amber shares top tips on how to get a good night’s sleep and the possible links between positive traits and good sleep. So if you want to learn about ‘revenge procrastination’, the effect of caffeine and alcohol on sleep, how sleep is linked to self-compassion and much more then this is the right podcast. We mention a couple of links for those who would like to learn more - the importance of self-compassion podcast is here, you can download the questions discussed here, the NHS website link is here and finally you can find Amber’s Sleep Positive Blog here.

Psychology in the Classroom has been up and running for almost two academic years and by the end of the term will have just shy of 100 episodes. But sometimes it is worth just taking time to reflect on the learning that has been afforded by the researchers who have contributed. This week I reflect on the 3 things I will be taking into my teaching when I return to the classroom in September. And as I start to prepare the podcast for September do let me know what you'd like to hear more about.

In this episode Dr Chris Bagley discusses masking in schools, student voice and whether the education system is fit for purpose. Chris is Director of Research at States of Mind and a lecturer, tutor and doctorate research supervisor at The Institute of Education, UCL. He is a teacher, Educational Psychologist and writer. As a practitioner, Chris has spent many years working with the most marginalised young people and families and in particular, those subject to school exclusion and the youth justice system. At States of Mind, Chris co-delivers 'Participatory Action Research' projects, led by young people and supported by doctorate researchers at the Institute of Education with a focus on evaluating education systems and actioning change. He is also a Co-Director at Square Peg, a social enterprise dedicated to promoting change for children who struggle to attend school and their families. You can find out more about the Education Futures in Action Conference Chris mentioned and book tickets here.

Dr Martin Graff is is a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of South Wales and his main area of research is in CyberPsychology and in particular how romantic relationships are formed online and how our digital world affects our mental health and wellbeing. TO find out more about Martin's work please visit his website www.martingraff.com

Curious - I was too, how on earth could getting pupils to watch a baby and parent help improve mental health and wellbeing. Alison Waterhouse has a wealth of experience as a teacher, SENCo, Psychotherapist and more. Over the last 8 years she has developed Circles for Learning to improve wellbeing in classrooms from KS1-KS5. It is a fascinating project and offers some real insight into everyday things that all teachers can to do support wellbeing.

When do we teach pupils how to learn? For most the answer is never, it is an assumption that they know how to get information into their memories in an effective way. Patrice Bain is on a mission to change this and is an experienced teacher who has worked with cognitive scientists for over 15 years to develop effective methods to support pupils' learning. Today she talks about the four powertools - Retrieval practice, spaced learning, feedback driven metacognition and interleaving and what these look like in the classroom. Find out more: * PatriceBain.com * Powerfulteaching.org * Retrievalpractice.org * The Facebook Group - Powerful Teaching Book Club

Adele Bates is Behaviour and Education Specialist, Author and Public Speaker. She empowers school leaders and teachers to support pupils with behavioural needs and SEMH to thrive with their education. She’s an International Keynote Speaker, a features expert on teenagers and behaviour for BBC Radio 4 and the author of "Miss, Ion't Give A Sht," Engaging with Challenging Behaviour in Schools*. We discuss the importance of context in understanding and interpreting behaviour, how to effectively implement high expectations and why teacher wellbeing is so important in managing behaviour amongst other things. You can find out more at Adele's Website: adelebateseducation.co.uk

Planning revision requires practice and thought and yet we very rarely teach or model good revision planning with our students. In this podcast we look at the when (creating a realistic timetable), what (what to revise and how to set revision targets) and how (how to map what you want to learn onto your timetable) of revision planning to ensure that time is well spent both in and out of the classroom, we also consider how we as teachers can model what good revision sessions look like (using the retrieval practice we looked at the beginning of this mini-series). If you want to watch the video I mention you can find it here titled ‘Revision Timetable’

Between the ages of approximately 10 and 25 the brain undergoes a huge change. Whilst this is happening we see what is typically described as ‘teenage behaviour’ - emotional, irrational decision making, risk taking behaviour, parents becoming less important and peers becoming more important, none of which is ideal for revision. If we use what we know about teenage neuropsychology though we can perhaps encourage revision and make it more palatable for young people. This podcast considers 3 ways that we can leverage our understanding of the teenage brain in the classroom - through reward, peer relationships and teenage decision making. If you want to learn more about teenage neuropsychology please do listen to these podcasts as well.

A little bit of stress is not a bad thing - it helps motivate students to revise for exams, but too much or too little can lead to students giving up on revision for a variety of reasons. But how can we enable students to deal with exam stress (the worrying thoughts they may have) in the build up to exams. In this podcast we look at two strategies - controlling the controllables and ‘if…then …’ thinking. If you want to learn more about helping students manage exam stress and anxiety both in the moment and in the long term do check out this LearnEd CPD course on Managing Exam Anxiety

Many of the students taking exams are feeling anxious, this is perfectly normal and we need to teach our students how to manage anxiety. This podcast covers the normal response to an stressful event, how to help students understand what is going on then identify this response in their own body and then four strategies to manage anxiety in the moment. If you want to learn more about helping students manage exam stress and anxiety both in the moment and in the long term do check out this LearnEd CPD course on Managing Exam Anxiety

Retrieval practice is quite simple the act of retrieving information from memory and research has shown that the process of retrieving information aids information retention more strongly than simply reading information through. The challenge is getting students to do retrieval practice more than looking over notes or watching youtube when they are revising for exams. In this video we consider the research that underpins retrieval practice and ways that you could implement retrieval practice in revision lessons and encourage students to do it in their independent study. If you want to learn more about using retrieval practice and other evidence based learning strategies in your classroom please do visit our Science of Learning Course on this link.

In the UK students will be sitting public exams for the first time a since 2019. This means that the current year 13s won’t have done GCSEs and many teachers that have joined the profession haven’t taken a cohort through the exams process and this may mean there is some additional apprehension about the whole process. With this in mind I thought I would start this term with a week of short podcasts that look at ways to make revision effective and engaging. I am starting with an interview with Lucy Carey from OCR talking about the big picture for assessment this year, the concerns that teachers and students are raising and what advice assessment bodies such as OCR have for both students and teachers for this exam period. You can find more support on the OCR website.

Over the next 4 years Psychology in the Classroom will be following the RE-STAR research project. The aim of this is to really bring the the research process to life and take a 'behind the scenes' look at the planning, considerations, challenges and applications of research carried out on and with young people. This first episode I am joined by principal investigator, Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, who talks us through the project - its process, aims and challenges. If you want to get involved, you can get in touch with Edmund or Susie Chandler via the RE-STAR Website

This week Dr Jo Taylor from Psychology Associates joins me to discuss supervision. Most importantly what supervision is (probably not what you expect), how it can really benefit school staff, the barriers to implementation and how we can overcome them. We discuss the challenges and complexity of the school environment and how supervision can give teachers space to think slowly about problems, unpick emotions and improve practice at whatever level they need.

Shahana Knight is the founder and director of TPC Therapy Ltd. She grew up with her own experiences of childhood trauma and as a result has been on a mission to help children feel loved, understood, and noticed ever since. In this episode we talk about emotional intelligence and the importance of modelling in for young people, how to support the most vulnerable young people and much more. You can find Shahana on LinkedIn and on Twitter as @Shahana_tpc

This week I talk to Rebecca Leong about her research in to engagement - its effects on attainment and motivation. She gives lots of top tips on how to engage students in the classroom, why it is so important and why relationships form such a big part of student engagement.

Professor Dave Putwain's research interests are at the intersection of Education and Psychology - so what better guest for Psychology In the Classroom? His research has focused on how psychological factors influence, and in turn are influenced by learning and achievement and he has a particular focus on motivation, emotion, engagement, and the learning environment. In this episode we cover the role of Psychology in Education, motivation in the classroom and exam anxiety. Find out more here.

Dr Charles Margerison is a great story teller and he uses stories of amazing people to inspire young people. By using the life stories of others, Charles created Amazing People Schools to support the development of key character strengths including resilience, creativity, gratitude and perseverance. These strengths have never been more important and greatly increases the odds that our young people will flourish. You can find out more on these links:

Amazing People Schools

Can Do Kids Band

Imagineland

Just like behaviours become habits the way we think is habit too. Mostly we consider negative thinking habits like Automatic Negative Thoughts. In this Episode I talk with Mo about how we can encourage positive thinking habits in children and young people. If you want to find out more about Mo you can go to his profile via LinkedIn or visit his company's website. Remember to search up 'Compounding Habits'.

This week's guest, Dr Alex Barrable, discusses why connecting with nature is so important and how we can encourage young people to connect with nature inside the classroom, outside the classroom, on trips and even in an urban environment. She is really keen to hear from teachers about the ways they encourage their students to connect with nature and the challenges they face, so please do get in touch with her here. If you would like to find out more about the Outward Bound Trust she talks about you can visit their website.

Hannah Dunn, a psychology teacher of 20 years has been researching the impact of self-compassion on teacher wellbeing, how it can reduce stress and teacher burnout. In this interview she discusses 6 threads that she drew out from her research in helping teachers to be more self-compassionate. You can find out more about Hannah and her work here: PsychExcel Toolkit

Dr Dean Burnett joins me this week to delve into the mysteries of the teenage brain and the neuroscience that can help us make sense of the ‘typical’ teenage behaviour we see and how this can help us support young people through the turbulent adolescent years. We cover sleep, tech, mental health, emotion regulation and much more. Here is the link to my Parent’s Facebook Group - Parenting Your Child Through Secondary Education Dean is a full-time author, and his debut book ‘The Idiot Brain‘ was an internationally acclaimed bestseller. More recently he has written a book for teenagers ‘Why your parents are driving you up the wall and what to do about it’ and has two more books in the pipeline. You can find him on the following links: Website: www.deanburnett.com Twitter: @garwboy Facebook: www.facebook.com/DeanBurnettAuthor

Blog: https://cosmicshambles.com/words/blogs/deanburnett

The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head is Really Up To

Harriet Ennis is a Psychology teacher at Bootham School in York and joins me this week to discuss motivation - something every teacher wishes their students had just a little bit more of. The conversation covers a wide ranges areas such as grit, resilience, wellbeing, ugly coping, perfectionism, healthy striving and more. Harriet mentions several pieces of research and links to these can be found below: Education Endowment Fund

York St John University - Perfectionism in the most talented pupils

Resources Mentioned can be found here

Martin Seligman’s Work at Penn University Positive Psychology Centre

Welcome to the first episode of 2022! This week I speak to Dr Jo Van Herwegen from UCL Institute of Education about her work with NeuroSENse - addressing neuromyths in special educational needs and disabilities. We also discuss the impact of Covid-19 on the mental health of young people with neurodevelopmental conditions. Finally Jo has also been researching how neurodevelopmental conditions affect mathematical ability.

You can find out more about Jo’s work from the Child Development and Learning Difficulties Lab here. NeuroSENse resources are available on this link. And you can keep up to date with resources from NeuroSENse on Twitter @UoL_CEN or Facebook @CDLD Unit Research Group.

In the final episode of Bootham School’s Psychology in the Classroom Christmas Takeover Podcast Audrey introduces Mastery learning, the main components, what it might look like in an A level classroom and how it has helped motivate her.

Welcome to the second of the Bootham School’s Psychology in the Classroom Christmas Takeover podcasts. This week Libby talks about meditation - she is open and honest about her beliefs and experiences of meditation, why she tried it and, whilst recognising that her experience may not be representative, is keen to encourage you to give it a go.

Over the holidays I asked psychology students from Bootham School in York if they would like to make some short podcasts about psychology that teachers might be interested in. To start us off we have Maddy who talks about her interest in social psychology and cross curricular opportunities.

Martin Galpin in a Chartered Occupational Psychologist who draws on positive psychology to help people be at their best and bring the best out of others. This episode is all about how to how psychology can help us thrive and flourish in the work place, but also teach children a few tricks to develop a more optimistic outlook and understand their strengths and why they are valued. For all the links and resources mentioned visit www.changingstatesofmind.com

For many of us Statistics is something we steer well clear of, well this week I am diving right in - head first. With the help of Professor Obi Ukoumunne, from Exeter University we get right to the heart of the matter and break it down for the non-mathematician so that we can really understand what the statistics mean behind the research and most importantly so we can be critical of the numbers that are constantly thrown at us by leaders (both in school and out)! If you are interested in research, are doing research or think you might this is the podcast for you!

Kenji and Marsha talk honestly and openly about Kenji's transition, his coming out, his school experience, the highs and lows as well as Marsha's role as a parent. We discuss the challenges that trans people face and the difference getting things right can make. We cover what not to say as well as how to support young people who may be transitioning. And we delve into the research to unpick our understanding of the science behind gender.

Mermaids Charity information can be found at https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/

Sport is all about timing - ensuring you reach peak at just the right moment and can perform under high pressure. If you think about it, exams are like this too - you need to reach your peak at just the right moment and not allow the pressure to get to you. So what can sports psychology teach us about exams? This week Rhys Davies International Double Canoe Slalom competitor talks about his career as a high performance athlete and we think about how his research in sports psychology and mental health might translate into classroom practice.

Now most of you will go through your day saying hello to students and colleagues, greeting friends in the supermarket and not give a second thought to how you know it is them. Well imagine not being able to recognise faces, you know you are looking at a face but you have no idea who it belongs to, you aren’t sure if you should say hello or keep on walking. For about 2-4% of the population this is a daily reality, they struggle with face blindness. PhD researcher Judith Lowes sheds some light on this fascinating topic and helps us to understand how we can support those around who may have Prosopagnosia.

If you are interested in participating in Judith's research do get in touch via judith.lowes@stir.ac.uk or visit her research website.

For more information on Face Blindness do visit the NHS website or faceblind.org.uk

Every teacher has a plethora of strategies to manage behaviour and create a safe an calm learning environment. But for a small minority the usual strategies just don't work and the pupils end up in a escalating cycle of punishment, usually resulting in exclusion. New research is showing that there are alternatives to the systems of reward and punishment in most schools that are more effective for these pupils, but senior leaders are often reluctant to be the first adopters. Dr Laura Oxley talks about her research into this area, the alternative systems and the barriers that face schools in being early adopters. To find out more about her work please do visit Pedagogies of Punishment

Many of you will have heard that journaling can be of benefit to mental health, but in the new digital age there is evidence that blogging can also benefit wellbeing, especially for young people. Dennis Relojo-Howell shares his insights into the world of blogging, how it may be able to help build resilience in young people and how it can be used in the classroom to aid learning. His passion for psychology and blogging has come together in his work on Psychreg and helping clearly communicate psychology to a wider audience. Do take a look at his website and YouTube Channel.

As a psychology teacher with many years of experience Trevor is passionate about the wellbeing of teachers. In this interview he raises concerns of many teachers about workload amongst other things and the challenges that new teachers faces when they enter the profession.

Dr Polly Waite works both at Oxford University and University of Reading as a Clinical Psychologist and Research Fellow with a particular interest in Panic disorders in Adolescents. In this interview she discusses the difference between 'normal' anxiety, clinical anxiety and how this may then become a panic disorder. She also offers excellent advice on how to manage a panic attack in the moment and how to support a young person more broadly if they are struggling with a panic disorder.

Aletia Hagedorn is Head of Psychology at a College in Guernsey and a committee member for the Association of the Teaching of Psychology. She is passionate about evidence based teaching and learning which she strives to use in her practice. Following the completion of a master's in education, Aletia embarked on a PhD in Psychology. She is a year into her part-time course and continues to teach full-time. Her work is both translational and interdisciplinary, primarily within clinical, developmental and educational psychological domains. She aims to explore the impact of trauma on education and assess the effectiveness of trauma-informed educational intervention. In this podcast she will discuss some of the research area and the next steps for this field.

This week Dr Eleanor Leigh talks about how, for some adolescents, social situations create such feelings of anxiety that it interfere with learning and education as well as other aspects of their day to day lives. Eleanor is principal Clinical Psychologist and the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow at the department of experimental Psychology, University of Oxford. Her research is focused on social anxiety in adolescents. Social anxiety disorder is a common and disabling mental health condition that usually starts in adolescence and persists in the absence of treatment. Using experimental methods, her work aims to improve our understanding of the psychological processes that maintain social anxiety in adolescents in order to inform cognitive approaches to treatment.

At what point do people accept the label 'Disabled'? What are the barriers to acceptance? Why do students fail to tell educational establishments about disabilities when it may be in their interests to do so? Dr. Julie Hulme, Reader of Psychology at Keele discusses all these question and introduces us to Social Identity Theory and explains why social context is so important in defining who we are. You can find out more about her work here.

Ever been in the situation where you feel you should do one thing but it goes against the 'rules' in some way? Chris researches the phenomenon of Constructive Deviance and what makes us stick to the 'rules' even when we feel we shouldn't and what makes us break them and whether or not this is a good thing in an organisation such as a school. We cover bystander apathy (a fascinating topic) and how to encourage people, including students, to intervene when they see poor behaviour. The YouTube video on distraction can be found here.

Dr. Malik Boykin is the first Black professor in the Department of Cognitive, Linguistic, and Psychological Sciences (CLPS) at Brown University. In this conversation we discuss how student-teacher relationships affect learning, and the importance of being vulnerable in front of our students. We then consider how stigma and prejudice arises and how to reduce this within schools at both and individual level and an organisational level. Oh and Dr Boykin AKA Malik Starx is also a hip hop artist and has currently joined forces with producer Stephon Alexander, a theoretical physics professor at Brown University. The results include jazzy, Afro-Caribbean styled-single “Dancing for Freedom,” alongside vocalist Kanjia. A sample of their song “Dancing for Freedom” can be heard on this podcast.

More information about Dr Boykin can be found here:

Dr. Boykin and Brown University

Dr. Boykin’s Research Lab

This is my final episode of the 2020-21 academic year and as we take a break for summer what better than to consider the psychological benefits of holidays and how to make the most out of them. Here are my top tips and a little hint of what is to come in the Autumn. Enjoy!

I am so excited to be taking this podcast into a second year. This autumn I am going to be bringing you a range of really interesting interviews from leading psychologists in their fields, as well as a wide variety of ideas, information and understanding about how psychological research is conducted and can be applied to the classroom. Here is a taster of what is to come in September as I take a short Summer break.

During our conversation on Autism Jo and I digressed on to being a parent of children with SEND. Both of us have children with SEND in Secondary school and both of us work with parents of children with SEND. We know first hand the challenges that parents face and the wide range of emotions that it brings to the surface, but we also recognise that teachers face challenges as well. This open and candid conversation covers the highs and lows of SEN parenting as well as the importance of working together with school to support our young people.

The 9th and 10th July saw the return of the ATP conference live and in person. Despite having to sit spread out in lecture theatres and not shake hands, clean desks, wear masks and generally keep away from each other it was a hugely fun event. This podcast brings you the highlights from the keynote speakers, workshops and event organisers. Guests: Professor Edmund Sonuga-Barke, Professor Sophie Scott, Sarah Atayero, Scott Pilkington, Dr Ashok Jansari, Dr Guy Sutton, Sarah Ping, Jock McGinty, Helen Kitching, Harriet Ennis, Mandy Wood and Dr. Patrick Rozenkrantz. Contact details and links can be found at www.changingstatesofmind.com/bonus-episodes

This week it was a pleasure to talk to Dr Seonaid Anderson about Tourettes Syndrome, understanding what it is and isn't, the challenges those with TS face and how it can disrupt learning. We cover the treatments, classroom support and the effect of Covid in this enlightening interview. Seonaid is a chartered research psychologist and freelance neurodiversity consultant with many years experience in neurodevelopmental disorders. She works with a variety of organisations advocating for those with Tourettes. All the links to her work, Tourettes Action and contact details are available on the show notes on my Website.

Ant McVerry is currently the Director of Inclusion and SENCO at Notre Dame Catholic College in Liverpool. He spent 10 years working in the largest special school in Liverpool, which catered for the needs of pupils aged 3 to 19, all of whom had a diagnosis of Autism and other associated difficulties. He transitioned over to mainstream as he saw the potential for inclusion within mainstream settings and believed that he could bring skills and knowledge from specialist provision into the mainstream to allow pupils to have an equal experience and gain the support that they need. Follow Ant on Twitter @NotreDameSENCo.

As a parent I have met Educational Psychologists (EP) but as a teacher I haven't, so it was fascinating to hear about how varied the job of an EP is and the work that Dan does with teachers. Working with such a wide range of people and organisations enable EPs to see the big picture of SEND across a county, understand best practice and support teachers with the day-to-day challenges they face in the classroom. Dr Dan O'Hare is an Educational Psychologist who currently works for Gloucestershire County Council and as a professional tutor on the doctoral EP training courser at the University of Bristol.

He is the current co-chair elect of the Division of Educational and Child Psychology and in this role has contributed to a range of guidance regarding the wellbeing of children, young people, and teachers during the coronavirus pandemic.

He is also the founder of edpsy.org.uk - an online magazine for educational psychologists. Dan can often be found on twitter @edpsydan tweeting about all things educational psychology.

Philip Asherson is Professor of Neurodevelopmental Psychiatry at Kings's College London, in this episode he shares his research around ADHD from a clinical perspective discussing the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, the role of medication, the impact that ADHD can have on wellbeing and how ADHD overlaps with other specific learning difficulties.

Ella is an insightful and articulate young Trainee Educational Psychologist (TEP) who is clearly passionate about inclusive education. In this interview she talks about her journey to become and TEP, what it involves and why she is particularly passionate about educating teachers about ADHD. She offers plenty of practical advice to help support young people with ADHD in the classroom as well as discussing some of the challenges and dilemmas that ADHD poses.

This week's podcast covers Sensory Processing Disorder. This is a very varied disorder which affects how people process sensory information and as a consequence how they respond to the environment. Though often linked with Autism SPD doesn't always go hand in hand with ASD. SPD can be triggered via all senses such as vision, noise, touch and smell and considering your classroom environment can really help to support young people who struggle with SPD. If you want to find links to the research and projects discussed in this podcast check out the links on my website: www.changingstatesofmind.com/podcast and go to season 3.

This week I speak to trainee teacher Jasmine Selwood who shares her experience of growing up with a deaf parent and how this has impacted the way that she approaches the classroom, and supports students with hearing impairments. Her insights of life both in and outside of the classroom are fascinating and should give us all pause for thought. For more on the McGurk Effect you can check out this link.

1 in 10 people have dyslexia and given that so much learning requires reading and writing it can really hinder progress in school. Dr Cathy Manning talks about her research on Sensory Processing in those with dyslexia and autism, how we can use this to understand the condition and how we can support those who have dyslexia. Alexandra Gardner from the Unicorn School talks about her experience of working with young people with dyslexia and how the school she works in supports young people with dyslexia.

This week continues the Speech and Language theme from last week. I speak to Speech and Language Therapist Meera Deters about how speech typically develops and what issues bilingual children may face in school. Then Dr Saloni Krishnan from Royal Holloway, University of London talks about her research as a cognitive neuroscientist into language disorders and brain function in children. Links discussed can be found at changingstatesofmind.com/podcast (season 3).

Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) is prevalent in classrooms, hidden and has devastating consequences for those who struggle on undiagnosed. This week I speak to Hannah Hobson about her research and speech and language therapists Lisa Sharp and Alex Winterbottom about their work with children and young people. We cover DLD, how to spot it, its impact on learning and life, and how we can support young people with DLD. For links mentioned in the episode please visit www.changingstatesofmind.com/season-3

In this Episode I speak to Julia Gudinchet (Sunflower Autism Consultancy), Alexandra Gardner (Unicorn School), Jo Billington (University of Reading) and Meera Deters (Super Speech Solutions) about how to support young people with Autism in the classroom. Whilst the conversations are wide ranging, the over-riding message is to listen carefully to the young person to find out what works for them.

Inclusion is a word we are using more and more in the context of education, but what exactly does inclusive education look like? Creating inclusive educational systems is incredibly complex, in fact just trying to define inclusive education throws up more questions than answers. In this interview Tim Kent, from Roehampton University considers the semantic, political, philosophical and practical dilemmas that the education system faces when trying to be inclusive. For further information and links please visit www.changingstatesofmind.com/podcast

As an introduction to this season's podcasts on the Psychology of SEND I am starting with a brief overview of the SEND Code of Practice. It covers the 4 main areas of need and how classroom teacher need to support pupils and adapt practice around SEND. I have also created an acronym cheat sheet which you can find on my website: changingstatesofmind.com/season-3

Sonia Guerriero works for UNESCO, where she leads research, strategic development, and implementation of international projects that support developing countries to improve learning outcomes through better teacher education. This interview explores teacher training and development, how teaching is regarded as a profession and how we might encourage teachers to stay in the profession. Sonia's understanding of the global picture of teaching is phenomenal and she offers some fascinating insights for anyone in the profession from those just starting their training right through to senior leaders. You can find further links to Sonia's work here.

Tamsin Ford is an internationally renowned Child Psychiatric Epidemiologist who researches the organisation, delivery, and effectiveness of services and interventions for children and young people’s mental health. In this interview we talk about the Mental Health picture for Young People in the UK, the effects of Covid-19, how schools can implement best practice, SEND and so much more.

As a parent of neurodiverse children and a teacher this is an area that is particularly important to me. This season will cover all sorts of neurodiverse conditions, what the research tells us and how we can apply this to classroom practice. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss an episode or visit my website changingstatesofmind.com

Neuropsychology holds a unique fascination, the way the brain functions in order for us to survive in the world and it's adaptability when damaged never fails to surprise us. How we can use our understanding of damaged brain to increase our knowledge of the intact brain is Dr Ashok Jansari's specialism. In this interview we consider how our understanding of neuropsychology can applied to the classroom through neuroplasticity, prosopagnosia (face blindness), the importance of sleep and the role of the prefrontal cortex.

You can find out more about Dr Jansari here, his work here, or watch his videos here. The link to join his talk this evening (23/3/21) is here.

Every time you teach your students something you literally change their brain. I think this is the most amazing concept - every lesson, each learning experience students have causes brain cells to make new and stronger connections. Understanding how our brains develop over time and how individual's differ could in time help us to created more effective curricula and interventions to support every learner. This episode explores what neuropsychology can offer to classroom practice.

In this interview Lucy discusses a wide range of research and theories surrounding working memory and the implications for the classroom, especially for maths. Working memory is so important in helping control what we are thinking about, what we are paying attention to and what we are ignoring, and yet for some this can go awry. Understanding Working Memory can help teachers better support young people in the classroom. Links mentioned in the podcast: www.pretermbirth.info

In this bonus episode Simona Skripkauskaite talks to me about the results coming from the CoSpace Study. In September Professor Cathy Creswell shared the findings from the first school closure and this episode updates the findings and considers what schools might need to have in place or be looking out for as pupils return to school. You can hear the original episode with Prof. Creswell here and find out more about CoSpace at cospaceoxford.org

Have you ever heard a song on the radio and it transports you back to different time? Or smelt Cold Tar soap and remembered your grandparents? Songs and smells amongst other things can act as cues to recall. Knowing how to use cues to help us remember can be helpful when revising. This episode looks that theory behind cues and how we can use this to help us learn more effectively and hopefully recall more efficiently in an exam. The British Psychological Society resources can be found here, and my video is here.

This week I am talking to Matt Slocombe from the Centre for Educational Neuroscience. His research investigates the cognitive and developmental processes involved in reasoning and learning by analogy and the implications of this research for educational practice. This fascinating discussion unpicks how to make learning by analogy effective in the Classroom as well as the pitfalls. It is clear that whilst analogy is a really useful tool for teaching, psychologically it is quite a complicated skill that we need to learn. To find the links mentioned in the episode please visit www.changingstatesofmind.com/podcasts

Education for all was created in a very different era and many argue that it is now not fit for purpose. Does education prepare us for the collaborative, agile and rapidly changing work place? Psychology informs the workplace as much as it informs education, but what lessons can education learn from the tech landscape - do we teach youngsters to take risks, learn through experimentation and to be lifelong learners? This conversations dares us to think differently about the future of education. For all the links please see the show notes at www.changingstatesofmind.com/podcasts

There are lots of tricks and tips that we can use to help remember things for exams. But ultimately understanding material makes learning easier. In this podcast I explore a few of the theories that underpin our understanding of long term memory and how students and teachers can use this understanding to help prepare for exams. If you want to download the video on memory you can do so here. Craik, F. I. M., & Tulving, E. (1975). Depth of processing and the retention of words in episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 104(3), 268–294.

Over recent years we have learned so much about adolescent brain development and how changes in the brain affect learning. In this wide ranging interview we discuss how emotion, social interactions and learning are intertwined, the distraction of phones, how executive functions (working memory, inhibitory control and cognitive flexibility) are different in teenagers an adults and most importantly as teachers, how we can support the teenage brain to learn effectively. The book mentioned is : Hohnen B, Gilmour J & Murphy T. (2019). The Incredible Teenage Brain.

An you can find more resource links at www.changingstatesofmind.com/podcasts

Cognitive psychology is probably the most important branch of psychology for teachers in helping to understand memory, learning and education. In this week's podcast I consider 3 questions about the cognitive approach to psychology to help teachers: * What is cognitive psychology (and also cognitive neuroscience)? * How do we study cognitive psychology? * How can cognitive psychology help in the classroom?

You can find out more about apply cognitive psychology on my video at www.changingstatesofmind.com/memorytips

Dr. Rebecca Merkley is Assistant Professor in Cognitive Science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada interested in how people learn. She studies how young children learn early maths skills and also investigates whether knowing how people learn could help teachers support all learners. This interview is a fascinating discussion ranging from Executive function to special educational needs to gender differences in STEM to the nature of intelligence and much more.

Find my video here: www.changingstatesofmind.com/memorytips

There are many misconceptions about memory, that it is like a video camera accurately recording our lives. The differences between short- and long-term memory. In this short podcast I look at the underpinning theories of short-term and long-term memory and how teachers can utilise this to help students prepare for exams, getting information to stick in their long-term memory. Want to find out more about memory and learning? Watch ‘Top 10 Tips on Learning and Memory’ video right here.

Metacognition, cognition, revision strategies...these are the bread and butter of teaching and yet many misconceptions are still out there. Jonathan is a teacher, author and research with a particular focus on memory and metacognition. This discussion is the perfect start to a season of podcasts on Learning to learn - Cognitive psychology in education. You can find out more about Jonathan and links to his books at his website: jonathanfirth.co.uk

Can't wait for next week? Watch ‘Top 10 Tips on Learning and memory’ video right here.

This term I will be focusing on the psychology of learning including memory, metacognition, intelligence, and much more. I have some excellent guests lined up and cannot wait to share their insights with you. I am excited to be partnering with British Psychological Society who also provide resources for teachers which can be found here.

Please do visit my website if you want more information about me and my work www.changingstatesofmind.com or watch my free 'Top 10 tips for learning' here.

This live Q&A panel was recorded on 2nd December and was hosted by Opogo.com. I was joined by Delyth Lynch from Wellington College, Rob Vaughan from Launchpad Alternative Provision and Zelia Munnik and Andrea Davies from Chertsey High School all of whom are part of the School Mental Health Award. It is a lively discussion covering engaging parents, working with external agencies and the role of governors amongst other things.

What do colonoscopies have in common with optimism? Understanding what parts of an event we remember can help us ensure that any experience can be made more positive, even school. Psychology around mental health often focuses on the negatives but there are ways that we can work with everyone everyday to help them reframe the way the see the world from 'glass half empty' to 'glass half full'. Teaching positive thinking habits can benefit not only students but teachers as well. This episode is full of ideas on what this might look like in the classroom. You can down load the question list here.

You can join the Opogo webinar here.

With smartphones and 24/7 connection to the internet teenagers are growing up in a different world to their parents. Many people are quick to blame screens and social media for the poor mental health in young people but how accurate is this accusation? This podcast considers what the research says and how certain we can be about the effects of screens on teens. If you want to find out more you can read about the research on my Mental Elf blog. If you'd like to join me next week for my webinar tickets are available here.

As a teenager I knew plenty of girls at school with eating disorders. As a new teacher I was really worried about how to support any young person who might disclose they had an eating disorder. In this podcast I ask Dr Paul Jenkins from Reading University, all the questions I wish I had been able to ask 20 years ago about different types of eating disorders, signs, supporting suffers and the misunderstanding that surrounds them. Further support/resources can be found here:

BEAT

National Eating Disorders Risk factors

9 Truths about eating disorders

9 More Truths about eating disorders: boys and men

Dove

By teaching effective study skills we give students coping strategies to deal with the stress and pressure of exams. Although many schools teach these students often need support to implement and maintain behavioural change around study. Once positive routines are established students feel more in control and have more resilience to cope with the challenges of school work and exams. This podcast considers key skills and how they should be embedded in school practice.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a much misunderstood condition affecting around 2% of young people. Dr Georgina Krebs, MRC Clinical Research Training Fellow at King’s College London,talks about her work as a clinical psychologist specialising in OCD and Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) in this episode. We cover what defines OCD, the signs and symptoms, and how teachers can best support young people with OCD. If you are concerned about a young person in your care or about yourself and would like further advice or support you can visit ocduk.org or ocdaction.org.uk

Teacher recruitment and retention is often linked to wellbeing. In this episode I talk to Jack Worth, Lead Economist at the National Foundation for Educational Research about his work into recruitment and retention. We discuss the key factors that cause teachers to leave the profession, the impact of Covid-19 on the teaching workforce and what schools can do to encourage teachers to stay in the profession. From flexible working to professional goals this interview offers a fascinating insight into the importance of job satisfaction in teaching.

Teachers are often seen as being at the frontline of those who can identify and support young people who are struggling with their mental health. It is daunting, but it shouldn't be. Schools have clear referral systems that you can access but what should you be looking out for? This short podcast gives you simple guide to the signs of low mood, depression and anxiety and what to do if you are concerned. You can also download my '10 Places to get help' poster for your classroom - just click here.

Have you ever wanted to share a problem and the person you are talking to just keeps jumping with their solutions or tells you about a similar incident in their life and you just don't feel like they 'get it'. Often our responses when someone opens up to us are an attempt to show empathy but often make the person feel they haven't really been heard. Listening is a real skill and needs practice. This podcast delves into what it means to be a good listener.

Around 30 percent of 15 year olds report experiencing bullying. In this interview Professor Lucy Bowes from Oxford University, talks about the long term impacts this can have on mental health, who is at risk of being a bully and being a victim and why we should understand the whole picture. It really is everybody's problem and schools need to address if from a whole school stand point. If you want to find out more about Lucy's research and the KiVa project click here.

As teachers we often underestimate how much of our behaviour our students pick up on and model. In this podcast I consider why teachers are such important role models and 5 key things they need to role model to improve mental health and wellbeing: * Values * Strengths * Positive reflections * Failure * Asking for help

Classroom atmosphere is so important in improving wellbeing and making the classroom a safe place to learn is paramount. But how can teachers do this? In this podcast we look at 4 variables that can help to create a safe classroom: * Relationships * Belonging * Fairness * Learning process

There are lots of ideas of how you can build relationships, create a sense of belonging, be fair and focus on the learning process. If you want to know more about the Cook et al. Establish-Maintain-Restore model click here.

Presenteeism and absenteeism due to mental health issues costs schools £1697 per year per employee. It underlines why there is a clear business case to look after teachers. However, it is clear that teachers who are struggling will not be as effective and this will impact the students in their classrooms. This podcast considers a few simple things schools and teachers can do to improve mental health and wellbeing. If you want access to the Mood Journal and 5 Ways to Wellbeing infographic click here.

If you want to join me for either of my webinars:

Opogo 24th September 2020 Whole School Mental Health

British Psychological Society 1st October 2020 Returning to school after Covid 19.

Maff Potts from Camerados joins me to discuss everything from why we don't need to fix people, the power of failure and the importance of tea. Although he is not a psychologist his expertise in supporting people through tough times demonstrates that we don't need training and qualifications to sit alongside someone when they are struggling. If you'd like to find out more about the work of Camerados in schools or their 6 principles visit www.camerados.org or email office@camerados.org

In this very first episode I dive into what it means to take a 'Whole School' approach to mental health and wellbeing. Moving beyond the token gestures so that Wellbeing is something that runs like a thread through everything your school does - every day, every interaction, every decision holds the wellbeing of the whole community in mind. More information about the webinars can be found on my social media, my website or by signing up to my newsletter.

You can download the reading list here, or sign up for my webinar here.

It is a real pleasure to talk with Professor Cathy Creswell, Professor of Developmental Clinical Psychology at Oxford University, who has been researching the effects of Covid-19 and Lockdown on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people from the beginning. Her findings are fascinating and not what you might expect. Here she shares her research and lots of practical advice for teachers and parents as we all prepare for the return to school. If you'd like to know more or get involved with her research on the CoSpace Study please follow this link.

Welcome to Psychology in the Classroom, the podcast for teachers who want to apply the latest psychological research and thinking to their classroom practice. Find out about more about me, Lucinda Powell, and why this podcast is so important to me, as well as why this first season will be focused on Mental Health and Wellbeing in the classroom.