Skills you learn from Psychology (Year 9)

This is one of three lesson plans for teachers introducing Psychology to Year 9 students - whether through standalone Psychology lessons, PSHE, or careers programmes:

• Jobs that use Psychology (Year 9)
• Skills you learn from Psychology (Year 9)
• Why study GCSE Psychology? (Year 9)

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 students will have had some exposure to psychological ideas through PSHE, mental health awareness, and their own everyday observations of how people behave. Recognising the skills Psychology builds helps students see it as more than another GCSE option, and sets them up for choices in the spring.

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Learning objectives

• Students will understand that Psychology builds a broad range of transferable skills.
• Students will be able to name 2-3 skills they're already starting to build and give examples.

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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 real-world examples for each one - drawn from PSHE topics, mental health awareness, classic experiments students may have heard of, or behaviour they'll recognise from school and home.

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During the lesson

1. What behaviour have you noticed? (5 mins)

• Ask students to call out behaviours they've noticed and wondered about - why people conform in a group, why memory lets us down, why early experience seems to matter, why some advice helps and some doesn't.
• Write the suggestions on the board. These are the kinds of questions psychologists ask - and Year 9 students already have intuitions about most of them.

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 how that skill might apply to one of the behaviours on the board.
  • Share your own examples if students are stuck - from PSHE, classic experiments, or familiar everyday situations.

3. Making it personal (10 mins)

• Ask students to pick 2-3 skills from the list they feel they're already starting to build - in school, at home, or in activities outside school.
• Go round the class, asking each student to name one skill and give an example of when they used it.
• Close by reminding students that these are valuable skills for work and life, not just for exams - and that Psychology at GCSE is one way to develop them deliberately.

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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 09 - Skills you learn from Psychology
  • Activity type: Linking curriculum learning to careers
• Read the follow-on lesson plan:
  • Why study GCSE Psychology? (Year 9)