Easy psychology study for children

We are in lock down and I have decided to share some psychology study resources for children to have a go at.

Many questions I get asked when people find out I have studied psychology are:
How does my brain work?
Can you read me? (This one makes me laugh)


I think that it would be beneficial if children learnt more about the brain; how learning happens, how memory works, the different kinds of memories etc. I think it could help them with how they approach learning, exams and much more.

This is a simple study based on Murdoch's serial position curve.

In this time I  think it would be a great reason to call friends or family to be participants.

I hope you enjoy

Writing prompts for children.

Writing prompts for children:

Kids are human and are understandably worried and anxious about the coronavirus situation.

They may not feel like they can focus on school-work while there are big changes happening around them.

I have put together some writing prompts to help them focus on the beauty of the world around them, the things that are special to them and to get down on paper what they are feeling and what is inside of them. 

Parents: There are no right or wrong answers, overlook spellings and punctuation. This is about your child getting down on paper what is inside them.

 Give them a small notebook, it would be lovely to look back at the questions and answers in the future. 

Notallclassroomshave4walls.blogspot.com

1.    Describe your family. Who are they? What do they do? What is special about them? 

2.    Describe your favourite place. Where is it? What does it look like? How does it make you feel when you visit your favourite place?

3.    Look out of your bedroom window and write about what you see. Take notice of the little things.

4.    What are you most thankful for?

5.    If you went to a desert island, what 3 items would you take and why?

6.    Who is your best friend and why? 

7.    What is your favourite animal and why? 

8.    Where is the place where you feel most safe? Why do you feel safe there?

9.    What is the best present you have ever received and why?

10. Who makes you smile? 

11.  Write about things that you do that makes people around you smile.

12.  Write about your favourite character from a book or film.

13.  Write about something you are proud of achieving.

14.  Write about someone who inspires you and why?

15.  What is your favourite food? Try and describe it to someone who cannot see? How does it look? How does it smell? Is it hard or soft?

16.  What makes you angry and why? 

17. If you were given 1 million pounds, what would you do with it?

18. What is your favourite colour? Think of as many things that you can that are that colour.

19. What do you want to be when you grow up? 

20. What would you like to learn about and why?

Intergenrational learning

The idea of intergenerational learning is not a new one. The passing down of knowledge from elders to youngsters has been around as long as history is documented. This still happens in many cultures but in other, this is an idea that has been put to one side and I would argue that so many opportunities are being missed out on because of this.



Socialisation is a skill that would benefit from intergenerational learning. There is a generation of young people who we struggle to communicate with and understand. Is this because they are not being given the opportunities to learn socialisation skills with people of different ages? Schools in general segregate children by ages and they are spending six plus hours, 5 days a week with people the same age. Talking and being able to communicate with those of different ages is true socialisation. Not only would it help develop the language skills of youngsters, it has been proven that when the elderly talk with children it helps their cognitive functions.



The world as we know it is moving at such a pace technologically and the younger generations are at the fore front of this. They could be helping the older generations keep up to date. However, it is not just the younger generations that we can learn from, other global issues such as environmental challenges call for us to look for solutions and I would argue many of them come from the older generations who lived more sustainably and carefully.



I recently has my 75 year old mother in law from Algeria to stay for 6 months and she taught me skills that are very beneficial in my effort towards being more sustainable.  She is from a generation and country where you don’t waste anything. Things are re-used, recycled and home-made. Food is bought locally, is seasonal and always made fresh.



Not only do I think that intergenerational learning is important for learning knowledge and skills, the impact on the community and creating empathetic tendencies in the younger generations towards the elderly and fostering relationships would benefit society greatly.



Intergenerational learning is something that I believe should be included in school curriculums. Education is so much more than memorising facts, learning skills, taking exams and focusing on the individual. I would argue the benefits for individuals to shape themselves and society as a whole would be great.

The classroom: is it a good learning environment?

Is there an environment that is better for learning than others? Can certain factors increase potential memory absorption. Are traditional classrooms hindering learning? 

When we think of a classroom with 20-30 students, the carbon dioxide they breathe out can create high levels, especially if the classroom is poorly ventilated. So the mid morning slump that you often hear teachers talk about is real! When the children arrive they have a good amount of oxygen in their bloodstream, this is why the best work is often done in the mornings. After a couple of hours the carbon dioxide levels in their bloodstream are increase considerably. Even with breaks for outside playtime, the air is the class is not being replaced so the same thing will happen when they return to the classroom.

According to medical research, increased levels of carbon dioxide in the blood stream decreases the cerebral metabolism of oxygen and in turn has an impact on thinking abilities. Put simply, the brain is deprived of oxygen.  Scientists at University College London found in studies that higher levels of carbon dioxide reduces memory, impairs concentration and lowers decision making capacities.

Classrooms often reach average carbon dioxide levels above 1000ppm, as observed across elementary classrooms in Texas, Michigan, Washington, Sweden and England. In a 2002 study, 21% of classrooms in Texas had carbon dioxide concentration over 3000ppm (Corsi, 2002).

One of the issues is that there are many schools still operating in older building, where the classrooms are dark and have small windows that do not allow efficient air circulation. When interviewing a state primary school teacher from Cardiff,Wales recently, she told me how the windows in her classroom did not open and at the beginning of the day the room is freezing and by 11am it is too hot. This affects the children's behaviour and concentration levels.

What is the answer? Oxygen levels need to be kept at certain levels. There should be regulations to check the air quality in classrooms. There should be opportunity for sufficient ventilation and the children should be getting breaks outdoors once an hour, Finish schools often do not have the children indoors for more than 45 minutes at a time. This gives them opportunity to refresh the oxygen in their systems.

Somethings else I think would be beneficial to classrooms is having plants in them. Plants as we know absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. It has been shown that plants have a positive affect on brain functions.  Plants play a role in cleaning the air.

Scientists at NASA in the 1980s discovered that plants were adept at removing chemical such as Benzene Trichloroethylene from the air making it cleaner for humans. Plants can reduce carbon dioxide levels by 25% in buildings. (Study by Dr Fraser Torpy - director of technology, Sydney - Plant and indoor environmental quality research group.)

It has also been shown that plants can reduce noise levels - they can absorb sound. This can only be a benefit in a bustling classroom. Plants are also a great visual for increasing creativity. 

As a start for this topic, plants and well oxygenated classroom would make a massive difference on thinking and learning ability in classrooms. The next thing I would like to research and look into is how colours can have an influence on mood and behaviour in the classrooms. Can some colours encourage better behaviour and creativity??

References:

Ciphr.com/benefitsofplants

Not

Socialisation in homeschooling children

When you mention homeschooling to someone, one of the first responses you get is about how your children won't be socialised. How can they socialise if they don't attend school?

As a homeschooler there is plenty to worry about - how your children are doing  academically, which activities to attend, which curriculum to use but socialisation is not one of the worries. Why do I not worry?

School is a environment where children are put into groups according to their ages and then are with that same group of children for a number of years. Playtimes and lunch are often segregated by key stages and staggered by year groups. Children in school rarely interact with children older or younger and often the adult/child relationships in schools are dictatory.
Chatting in class is not allowed and often questioning is not encouraged (due to time and the number of children in a class).

Having spent a lot of time around home schooling families  I see children attend activities on a daily basis where children mix amongst adults and other children of varying ages. Older children play with younger children. Older children teach younger children and then chose to have  conversations with adults. The children naturally bounce off of each other and are confident to question/ talk to adults. There is no segregation due to ages.

Seeing home schooled children in a variety of situations socialising with people of all ages, shows me what true socialisation is.

I personally think that schools need to work more on socialisation and collaboration. Great ideas come from bouncing ideas off of others, talking to those of different ages and learning from others.

Not all classrooms have 4 wallls

Over the past century we have become accustomed  to learning and education as something that only happens during the 6-7 hours a day when you attend school. School - a institute where children are segregated by age and taught what is deemed appropriate and relevant for there age.

Learning however is something that is innate. As babies we learn to talk and walk, learn from the environment and from the people around us. We have however become accustomed to the idea that our abilities to teach our children end at the end of 4/5 years and that they must got into a educational setting.

 I have seen the quote many times ‘If we sent babies and toddlers to school and they learnt to walk and talk in the school setting, over a period of time we would come to believe that parents and children themselves are incapable of walking and talking without schools'.  You may laugh at this because it seems extreme but what I hear from many home educators is similar. They are nervous about taking on the task of educating their child and fear without a school and a teacher,  their children will not learn to read and write or gain a 'worthy' education. Is this the case? No?

 Children and indeed us adults are constantly learning throughout out lives on a daily basis. Learning is happening all around us. We are being taught by many different people, the environment, by our natural curiosity and by life. Travel and experiences, new people and cultures all shape our learning.

I see everything as an opportunity for learning. Even when you don't call it learning and make the intention to seek knowledge, it is still happening. This is why I personally see the classroom as a very limiting experience of learning. When you have reached what is deemed relevant for your age, you are held back; four walls defiantly do not inspire natural curiosity.

I often come up against resistance when trying to get one of my children to do maths. Even when I try to make it fun. One day, I took some marker pens and headed to a pebble beach. I wrote  algebraic equations on pebbles and the way he reacted was incredible. He was asking for more work and I actually saw him enjoying it. Was it the extra oxygen in his lungs? the freedom of the outdoors? I am sure they played a role in how he viewed the work.

I believe that school environments need updating and well as the idea that learning only happens there. Colourful displays and some toys are not enough but rather zones that are for different purposes. Classrooms that encourage collaboration and self learning, more didactic resources and opportunities for children to take hold of their own learning, use their passions and develop creatively into adults that think outside the box.

The world is our classroom.