Skills you learn from Psychology (Year 11)

This is one of three lesson plans for teachers working with Year 11 students considering A-Level Psychology - most of whom won't have studied GCSE Psychology, since few schools offer it:

• Jobs that use Psychology (Year 11)
• Skills you learn from Psychology (Year 11)
• Why study A-Level Psychology? (Year 11)

These lesson plans will help you show students how Psychology connects to their future careers.

We recommend using this lesson plan at the end of the autumn term. By this point Year 11 students are beginning to weigh post-16 options. Recognising the skills Psychology builds - and seeing where the same skills are developed in other subjects - helps them choose a complementary set of A-Levels, T-Levels, or training routes. Because A-Level Psychology straddles the sciences and the humanities, the skills it builds compound unusually well with both sides of the timetable.

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Learning objectives

• Students will name specific skills Psychology builds, with examples.
• Students will recognise other subjects that build the same skills.
• Students will consider how that shapes their post-16 choices.

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Before the lesson

• You will need a computer connected to the internet and a classroom screen.
• Open the What can you do with Psychology? page and have it ready on the screen.
• Review the Skills that Psychology builds section and think of examples for each one - drawn from GCSE Psychology if your school teaches it, or from PSHE, science, English, and the classic studies students may have heard of.

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During the lesson

1. What does Psychology cover? (5 mins)

• Ask students to call out what they know about how Psychology works - from GCSE Psychology if they take it, from PSHE and mental health awareness, from things they've read or watched, or from their own observations of people.
• Write the suggestions on the board and highlight any patterns: how memory works, why groups influence individuals, why early experience matters, how stress and emotion shape decisions.

2. Skills that Psychology builds (15 mins)

• Bring up the What can you do with Psychology? page on the classroom screen.
• Review the contents of the page with students so that they understand what it covers.
• Scroll to the Skills that Psychology builds section and work through each skill in turn.
  • Ask students which topic, study, or real-world example from the board involves that skill.
  • Share your own teaching examples if students are stuck.

3. The same skills in other subjects (10 mins)

• Ask students to think about where else they've built these same skills.
  • Which subjects ask you to read data and decide what a finding actually shows?
  • Which subjects ask you to weigh several explanations for the same thing?
  • Which subjects ask you to write a structured argument that uses evidence?
• Go round the class, asking each student to name one skill and one other subject they've built it in.
• Close by reminding students that choosing a good set of post-16 subjects isn't just about which ones they enjoy - it's about which ones compound the skills they want to take into work or further study. Psychology pairs unusually well with both sciences and humanities.

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After the lesson

• Share the What can you do with Psychology? page with students and their parents/carers:
  • www.coffeewith.xyz/subjects/what-can-you-do-with-psychology
• Encourage parents/carers to explore the page with their child and to discuss the contents.
• Use the School Tools / Activities feature to record the lesson activity:
  • Activity name: Year 11 - Skills you learn from Psychology
  • Activity type: Linking curriculum learning to careers
• Read the follow-on lesson plan:
  • Why study A-Level Psychology? (Year 11)