AS – May 25th 2011 Wednesday am

WJEC    PY1    (1h 15m)
OCR    G541   (1h 00m)
Edexcel    Unit 1 (1h 20m)
AQA (A)  PSYA1 (1h 30m)
AQA (B)  PSYB2  (1h 30m)

AS – June 7th 2011 Tuesday pm

AQA (A)  PSYA1 (1h 30m)
AQA (B)  PSB2  (1h 30m)
Edexcel    Unit 2 (1h 40m)
OCR    G542  (2h 00m)
WJEC    PY2     (1h 45m)

A2 – June 17th 2011 Friday pm

AQA (A) PSYA3 (1h 30m)
AQA (B) PSYB3 (2h 00m)
WJEC    PY3   (1h 30m)
OCR    G543    (1h 30m)
Edexcel    Unit 3    (1h 30m)

A2 – June 21st 2011 Tuesday am

AQA (A)  PSYA4 (2h 00m)
AQA (B) PSYB4  (2h 00m)
OCR   G544    (1h 30m)
Edexcel    Unit 4 (2h 00m)
WJEC    PY4  (2h 30m)

All of the dates and times were kindly provided by www.modernisationonline.org.uk

January 2010 exams are here.

AS -   January 12th 2011  Wednesday am

Edexcel Unit 1 (1h 20m)
AQA (A)  PSYA1 (1h 30m)
WJEC PY1 (1 h 15m)
OCR G541 (1h 00m)
AQA (B)  PSYB1 (1h 30m)

AS -  January 19th 2011 Wednesday am

AQA (A) PSYA2 (1h 30m)
WJEC PY2 (1 h 45m)
OCR G542 (2h 00m)
AQA (B) PSYB2 (1h 30m)
Note that Edexcel do not offer unit 2 in January

A2 January 28th 2011 Friday am

Edexcel Unit 3 (1h 30m)
AQA (A) PSYA3 (1h 30m)
WJEC PY3 (1 h 30m)
OCR G543 (1h 30m)
AQA(B) PSYB3 (1h 30m)

February 2nd 2011 Wednesday pm

Edexcel Unit 4  (2h 00m)
AQA (A) PSYA4 (2h)
WJEC PY4 (2h 30m)
OCR G544  (1h 30m)
AQA (B)  PSYB4 (2h 00m)

All of the dates and times were kindly provided by www.modernisationonline.org.uk

GCSE exams coming soon and GCE summer exam are here.

For psychology, candidates currently working towards their AS exams in May, and A2 exams in July there will still be a number of opportunities for re-sits.

AS re-sits will be available in January 2009 and then the following May 2009. No more re-sits of the current AS psychology exams will be available after May 2009.

A2 re-sits will be available in January 2009, June 2009, January 2010 and June 2010.

Of course, only those units that are normally offered in January will be available in January.

For those psychology candidates studying the new specifications, the A2 units will not be available for examination until 2010, which means that candidates cannot complete the full A level in the first year of the new specifications.

Furthermore, the units from the current (legacy) specifications cannot be combined with units from the new specifications.

The draft 2009 psychology GCSE specifications from OCR and AQA have been published.

The drafts have to be submitted to the regulators in April 2008 and the specifications will be available from September 2008, with first teaching from September 2009.

Edexcel and WJEC have announced that they will offer GCSE psychology from 2009 but have not yet published their drafts.

The OCR GCSE draft psychology specifications are here

The AQA GCSE draft psychology specifications are here

Update – here is the link to Edexcel draft GCSE specifications

Update – here is the link to WJEC draft GCSE specifications

Steve Taylor from onlineclassroom.tv has kindly provided psychnews.co.uk with an excellent DVD to give away as a prize.

Classic Studies in Psychology 1 is a best selling, smashing DVD, which consists of a five short video programmes designed to give teachers the flexibility to integrate illustrative video material into their lessons. This compact DVD features original footage, up to date expert analysis and reinforcing graphics to bring five major studies to life.

The five classic studies include the Strange Situation, Bandura on Social Learning, Loftus on Eye Witness Testimony, Milgram’s Experiments on Obedience and Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison Experiment.

To win the DVD is very easy really. All you have to do is subscribe to this site (psychnews.co.uk) by entering your email into the box on the right and following a link in your email which activates your subscription.  You will then be entered into the free draw.

On April 30th your email will be picked out (somehow randomly – although I am not quite sure which random method I should use – suggestions welcome) and give the lucky recipient a week to reply to the email. If this recipient does not reply, I will do the same random procedure again until somebody wins the classic studies psychology 1 DVD.

I promise that the winner will not be an employee of psychnews (psychnews doesn’t have any employees) or any member of psychnews’ family (as nobody related to psychnews reads this blog as far as I know).

Anybody who already subscribes to this site will automatically be entered into the prize draw although you could always subscribe again with an alternative email to double your chance of winning the prize. Obviously all email addresses will have to be genuine for this crafty way of winning to work.

There is a review of the DVD here.

Philip Allan Updates have announced the dates and times for their workshops for the new A level specifications. They are offering workshops for teachers of the OCR, AQA (A), AQA (B), and Edexcel specifications.

Below are the latest workshops for teachers.
 

  Philip Allan Updates do provide many quality conferences for psychology teachers and students and employ some very experienced presenters. If you would like more information, have a browse of their updated website.

The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) has this month announced plans for changes to GCSE qualifications – including psychology GCSE.

Teaching of the new criteria will begin in 2009 (if you are teaching the course over two years) and the first awards will be given in 2011.

The awarding bodies will have to produce a subject criteria that explains the general aims of studying the subject at GCSE, outline the core material that should be present in all specifications irrespective of the awarding body, and indicate the assessment objectives and the scheme of assessment.

This will have to be submitted to the regulators in spring 2008, with the majority of these being accredited by August 2008. The specifications will be available from September 2008, with first teaching from September 2009.

Currently OCR and AQA offer GCSE psychology although Edexcel is proposing to offer GCSE psychology.

For psychology, coursework will be dropped, the content will be updated, be more consistent and comparable between the different awarding bodies, and inline with current 14-19 curriculum developments, the assessment arrangements will provide stretch and challenge for all learners and make assessment less formulaic and predictable.

Commenting on the new changes, the chief executive of the QCA Dr Ken Boston said, ‘The revised GCSE qualification and subject criteria will ensure that public confidence is maintained in the qualification for the future.’ He added that it will also help to stretch and challenge young people by setting them ‘extended writing tasks and more varied question types’.

Here is the new GCSE subject criteria for psychology.

One of the requirements of the new GCSE psychology specifications is that the GCSE specifications in psychology must require learners to develop knowledge, understanding and skills in the following core areas of psychology:

Biological
Social
Cognitive
Developmental
Individual differences

Edexcel have announced that they are to offer psychology GCSE.

Currently AQA and OCR offer GCSE psychology, which is still a relatively small market. Last summer 3275 candidates sat AQA GCSE psychology and 3843 sat GCSE OCR psychology.

However, looking at the Edexcel web site it does seem that they have some way to go in putting together their new GCSE psychology specifications.  They want your help.

T.E.S. have discovered that Edexcel’s profits have risen seven-fold in three years and that one of Edexcel’s directors earned a whopping £450,000 in pay and pensions contributions last year – easily the highest known figure earned by anyone in British education.

In 2005 Edexcel became the first large examination board to be held in private hands when Pearson PLC took complete control. Edexcel was formerly a charity.

Pearson PLC is a media conglomerate and is the largest book publisher in the UK and the second largest in the US. Edexcel’s status as a profit making company has led to criticisms and calls into question conflict of interest within the education system, as a private publisher runs an examining board, which relies on set texts for many of its courses.

According to the report in TES, since its takeover by the Pearson publishing group in 2003, Edexcel has moved from a yearly profit after tax of £3.6 million to the latest total of £25.1m on a £203m turnover.

In January 2007, Pearson announced that it had agreed to acquire Harcourt Assessment and Harcourt Education International for $950m in cash. Harcourt Assessment is a company that publishes and distributes psychological assessment tools and therapy resources. Harcourt Education International is a leading educational company who in the UK publish as Heinemann.

In response to the profits announced by Edexcel John Bangs, head of education at the National Union of Teachers, said, “This raises a big question as to who this money is for. Is it for a private company or is it for the good and quality of the examination system?”

Here is the story in TES

The AQA (A) specification is still the clear leader in terms of number of students sitting the different specifications.

Last June (2007) 60.6% of students sitting A level psychology followed the AQA (A) specifications and 60.4% of students sitting AS psychology followed the AQA (A) route.

Below are figures taken from the various awarding bodies’ websites.

Percentage of students sitting A level psychology June 2007

AQA (A)   60.6%
OCR         19.9%
AQA (B)   10.2%
Edexcel      9.2%

Percentage of students sitting AS level psychology June 2007

AQA (A)    60.4%
OCR          19.2%
AQA (B)    10.1%
Edexcel       8.6%
WJEC          1.8%

Below are the percentages of students sitting A level psychology June 2006

AQA (A)    60.3%
OCR          18.5%
AQA (B)    11.0%
Edexcel     10.2%

The percentages are all rounded up to 1 decimal point.