October 2024 Psychology subject update
23 October 2024
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Welcome to your Pearson Edexcel Psychology October 2024 subject update.
Hello colleagues,
This update contains links to access training materials for our recent live Exam Insights training events for A Level and GCSE psychology, and to access pre-recorded Exam Insights training for International A Level psychology. There is also news of our new Edexcel Facebook page, Qualifications Support Portal and some general training on pre- and post-exam services for teachers.
For updates on the qualificaiton(s) you deliver, please see the relevant section below.
Best wishes,
Tim Lawrence
Psychology Subject Advisor
If you have any questions, then please do contact me:
☎ Call: 0344 463 2535
✉ Email: teachingpsychology@pearson.com
💻 Book a Teams meeting with me: https://bit.ly/4bBZjpB
This update includes:
- New Pearson Edexcel Facebook page: keep up to date with important qualification news.
- Qualifications Support Portal: information on our updated portal for accessing support with all Edexcel qualifications.
- Pre-exam and post-exam qualification support events: free training for teachers to help you make the most of support available each exam season.
- AS and A Level: download materials from our recent Exam Insights training including a record of the marks awarded for the example responses used.
- GCSE: download materials from our recent Exam Insights training.
- International A Level: access pre-recorded Exam Insights training, specification and textbook news.
We’re excited to announce the launch of our new Pearson Edexcel Facebook page, designed to help and support you with the teaching and delivery of our UK and International qualifications. We’ll be sharing the latest news, updates and information about our support services across subjects. From our own news to updates from Ofqual and JCQ, follow us on @PearsonEdexcel on Facebook to stay up to date.
We’re excited to introduce our enhanced Qualifications Support Portal, designed to make getting help quicker and easier than ever.
A new contact-us journey enables you to connect quickly with our support teams in the way that suits you; via live-chat for real-time assistance, or webform, as well as traditional phone or email routes. You can use your Pearson Portal (Edexcel Online) credentials to access secure personalised support even faster, and view your existing cases.
Our comprehensive support article library has also been restructured with sections specific to teachers, as well as stronger search functions, to resolve your own queries quickly and easily.
Read our getting started support article here: Customer Support Portal: Getting Started, and remember to bookmark the portal in Chrome, Edge, Safari or other web browser for quick access.
We’re delighted to share that we’re hosting two new webinars on our Professional Development Academy focusing specifically on pre-exam support and post-exam support.
Whether you’re a seasoned teacher, new to teaching, new to teaching Pearson Edexcel, or a recent switcher to one of our qualifications, these webinars are for you. We'll cover our full range of support, products, and services available to enhance your teaching journey and better support you and your students.
Just like our Spotlight on Assessment series for Senior Leaders, these sessions zoom in on the resources and guidance you need for effective teaching and continuous professional development (CPD). Don’t miss this opportunity to learn about all the support available to you, engage directly with us, and share your ideas on how we can better support you.
Book your place today:
A new Pearson Edexcel Facebook page for UK academic qualifications will be officially launched on Monday 16th September. If you use Facebook, following this will be a great way to stay up-to-date with key news that affects our qualifications and services in general. We will also be setting up new Facebook groups for individual subjects and qualifications, including psychology, soon.
Earlier in October we delivered our live Exam Insights training on the May/June 2024 exam series. Teachers who attended should now have access to a recording of this event, and this will also be made generally available to all teachers with Edexcel Online logins shortly. To protect details of the recent past papers for use as mock exams later this year we will share a link to an unlisted video in a padlocked resource on the qualifications website under 'past training content' on the 'teaching and learning materials' page.
The presentation slides and delegate pack are available to download now from this location, along with a pdf document that lists the mark awarded to each response used in the training.
As for A Level, earlier in October we delivered our live Exam Insights training on the May/June 2024 exam series for GCSE psychology. Teachers who attended should now have access to a recording of this event, and this will also be made generally available to all teachers with Edexcel Online logins shortly. To protect details of the recent past papers for use as mock exams later this year we will share a link to an unlisted video in a padlocked resource on the qualifications website under 'past training content' on the 'teaching and learning materials' page.
The presentation slides and delegate pack are available to download now from this location, and the marks awarded for each example response used in the training are given on the presentation slides.
Feedback on the May/June 2024 exam series for IAL psychology has recently been published on our YouTube channel. The video is now unlisted, to protect the contents of the recent papers so they can be used as unseen mock exams later in the year. We have updated a padlocked resource on the 'teaching and learning materials' page of our qualification website, so that teachers with an Edexcel Online account can access the video. This document also has links to pre-recorded exam feedback for units 1 and 2 from the January 2024 series (and we plan to add videos for units 3 and 4 soon) - follow the link below to find it - click on 'Past training content' and download the file 'International A Level Psychology Exam Feedback Videos',
Unfortunately the free 'Welcome to Pearson' events scheduled for October have been postponed due to trainer availability, but we plan to run these soon and will advertise new dates in a future update.
Pearson published textbooks for the IAL psychology course will be published in November (see link below), and teachers who have been accessing the free digital trial have queried the absence of two of the optional studies. There is no specification change planned in this respect and teachers can continue to teach the two studies not included in the textbooks. Here is a message from our publishing team:
The optional studies we have not included are:1.3.3 Yi Huang et al. (2014) Conformity to the opinions of other people lasts for no more than 3 days.2.3.4 Sacchi et al. (2007) Changing history: doctored photographs affect memory for past public events.
At the start of the course in Unit 1, we have chosen to examine one of the optional studies in depth in each topic, rather than cover a wider range in less depth. This is to provide students with the analytical skills and insight required to effectively engage with any study. We believe this approach will better equip students to excel and ultimately show a deeper understanding of the course material as they progress through AS-level and to A-level.
We are working on some minor specification changes in response to feedback from teachers. The aims of these are to a) provide greater clarity around the synoptic requirements of Units 3 and 4, and b) to provide teachers that need it with more flexibility around how they teach the psychodynamic approach, avoiding Freudian content that is sensitive in some regions. We hope to publish the details shortly, and they will not affect the preparation of students for exams in January or June 2025. They will also not require any significant change to the way that teachers need to teach the course.
Subject advisor
Tim Lawrence
Psychology and International Science
Email :
Phone :
+44 (0) 344 463 2535
(Teaching Services team | Mon - Fri, 8am - 5pm GMT)
