Assignment Brief and Marking guidelines for Problem Based Learning Coursework (approximately 2,000 words – comprises 100% of the module mark)
Problem based learning is about finding a solution to a real-world problem and as this is a Psychology module, your solution should be based on relevant psychological theory and research derived from published Journal articles. The problem to be focused on relates to the effects of Bullying and is detailed below:
The Problem
The Department for Education (DfE) needs you!
The DfE is a department of Her Majesty’s Government responsible for child protection, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England. The DfE is concerned that the country is failing to meet Government set standards in a range of academic subjects. They are also concerned about the increasing number of children and adolescents that are suffering from poor mental health. They believe that bullying may have a role to play in both of these things. It has decided to finance a special consultancy team (you!) to explore the extent to which bullying impacts upon children’s educational, emotional and social development and to then come up with an intervention that might support students’ development in the aforementioned areas.
Guidelines for completion of the report:
In preparing to complete your report for the DfE Please start by familiarising yourself with the bullying lecture (and associated reading) in Week 5 and then conduct your own literature searches using Libguides, LOCATE etc to find additional relevant Journal articles.
Please organise your report into the following two sections:
Section One: The ‘problem’ (approx 1000 words)
Outline the context under consideration and state the organization that has approached you. To identify the context you first need to decide on one developmental area to focus on e.g. children’s academic performance or mental health. You should also decide on a target audience e.g. you may wish to focus on pre-schoolers, primary, or secondary school students (or other learner groups).
Outline and evaluate psychological research evidence and theory to link the effects of bullying to your chosen developmental area and target audience. For example; theory and evidence that helps the reader to understand the negative effects of bullying upon mental health in primary school students.
If done effectively, this should introduce the naïve reader to the context, clarify the ‘problem’ that exists, and present a summary of the psychological research evidence and theory in relation to the problem.
Extended writing-up tips for the ‘problem’:
Once you’ve outlined the context (as explained above) briefly define what bullying is.
You may then wish to outline evidence for the impact of bullying on your developmental area, e.g. children’s academic performance or mental health.
For the remainder of the section describe and provide evidence for (psychological studies) for 1-2 theories of bullying to help the reader understand why bullying has such an impact on your chosen developmental area. Two would be the absolute maximum as you want to achieve some degree of depth. Theories that were presented in the week 5 bullying lecture could be discussed here.
In your discussion of the theories remember to be critically evaluative, i.e. consider their strengths and weaknesses. How good is the theory for helping us understand the impact of bullying in your chosen developmental area with the age of children you’re focusing on?
Section Two: The ‘solution’ (approx. 1000 words)
Describe and justify your chosen intervention(s) with reference to psychological research evidence and theory, acknowledge both strengths and limitations of your approach
If done effectively, the intervention should be informed by prior research evidence and theory and seem plausible to the naïve reader. It should link closely with the preceding coverage in Section One (theory/evidence outlines). The strongest answers will also show some critique and balance, with perhaps arguments for and against the intervention being proposed i.e. it need not be the case that the intervention is guaranteed to work, but it must be informed.
Extended writing-up tips:
In order to achieve the level of depth required please only discuss 1-2 interventions. Two as a maximum. You will need to discuss evidence for the interventions, i.e., studies that have tested how effective they are.
Also, attempt to show links between the theories you discussed in part 1 and the interventions you present in part 2. This will create a flowing narrative throughout the report. For example, if you discuss the ‘theory of mind’ perspective of a bully in the problem, you could present an intervention about empathy training in the solution.
Try and ensure that the studies you use as evidence to evaluate the intervention (and show the strengths and limitations) have been conducted with the age group that you’ve chosen to focus on and that they have reduced bullying rates.
Describe how you would evaluate/test whether this intervention has been successful and end with justification of why the proposed solution should be adopted by the organisation
If done effectively, the reader will be convinced that the evaluation proposed will genuinely provide insight regarding its effectiveness.
Extended write-up tips
In terms of suggesting how the effectiveness of your chosen intervention(s) could be tested, you’ll see from your reading that most intervention research uses a pre-test – intervention – post-test design.
Consider what measures you would give at pre and post-test in order to see whether the intervention has had an effect or not. Particularly think about what the important outcomes would be for your chosen area of development and target audience.
Other considerations could be how many schools/children to include, over what time period would the study be conducted etc. This is not an exhaustive list so you may come up with other aspects to discuss.
References:
List refs. following APA 7th Referencing guidelines (not included in word count)
Writing style of the report
Double-spaced
Leave a space between paragraphs
Font: Arial, Calibri or Times New Roman, Size 12
Title page is not required.
Please provide a title but no need to include the full case study description at the start of your report.
Arrange your report into two sub-headed sections ‘The problem’ and ‘The solution’. Each of the sections should be approx. 1000 words to give the total of approx. 2000 words overall.
Plus or minus 10% is permitted for the word count. Note: Penalties may be applied for exceeding any word limit set. Your tutor will let you know whether your writing within the word limit is part of the assessment. If the limit set is a maximum or a minimum, a penalty of 10% of the mark for that piece of work will be applied to submissions that exceed or are below the requirement by 10% or more.
Each section should reflect a flowing narrative of academic writing with all of the information you provide supported by evidence, i.e. one or more references, to show the reader the source of the information.
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