IB Psychology - How to Hook Students and Captivate Minds from Day One

When students choose to start IB Psychology, they often don’t fully grasp what they're getting themselves into. 

The subject sounds fascinating and cool—which it is! 

But it's also built on a foundation of high academic rigour and scientific expectations. 

It's crucial to make students aware of this from the outset.

So, how do you hook students into the captivating world of Psychology while also opening their eyes to the processes, conventions, and requirements of the subject in the first lesson?After 18 years of introducing Psychology to new students, I've tried many strategies. 

Extended introduction lessons tend to bore students, and student-led projects often don’t deliver worthwhile outcomes. 

What I’ve found works best is dedicating one lesson to demonstrate the main processes of psychological inquiry.

Main Processes of Psychological Inquiry in a One-Lesson Nutshell:

Theory: Start with a theory (while acknowledging that sometimes studies come first, we’ll leave the chicken-and-egg debate for later).

Research: Theories need testing, which is where research, or studies, come in.

Study Stages: Studies typically follow these stages: aim, hypotheses, method (participants and procedure), results, and conclusion.

Evaluation: As critical thinkers, we evaluate the research to determine if it supports or challenges the initial theory.If students grasp the theory > study > evaluation process in their first IB Psychology lesson, they're well-prepared to dive into the Biological Approach in lesson two.

Providing Context:

To ensure students fully understand the process, context is key. 

I prefer not to use a theory from the syllabus at this early stage (though you might choose to). Instead, I base my first lesson on astrology and its potential influence on human behavior, thoughts, and feelings. Students find this topic engaging and intriguing. 

I guide them through a simple experiment that tests the validity of astrology, making the final evaluation stage fun and interesting.

Here’s the PowerPoint presentation, with notes, that I use for my first lesson with my IB Psychology classes each year (L1 Introduction to Psychology.pptx.)

Take a look and let me know what you think. 

Feel free to adapt and use it for your first lesson too.

I hope this saves you some time so you can enjoy more of your summer with the people you love.

See you next week,

Thes


Future articles in the series:

  • Timing and pacing IB Psychology.
  • Using the stimulus in Paper 3.
  • How scientific do you need to be for the Biological Approach?

Whenever you're ready, here is how I can help:

The Freedom Framework for IB Psychology Teachers

If you answer yes to any of the following questions, reach out and we can discuss my workshops, resources, mentoring programmes:

  • Are you seeking complete confidence in your ability to teach IB Psychology?
  • Could you benefit from support to organise your IB Psychology teaching?
  • Do you want to save time helping students to progress in IB Psychology?

Coming soon!

Add your email to the mailing list to get the latest articles and join IB Psychology teachers around the world achieving a strong work-life balance.

Thank You