Using Bruner's spiral curriculum to teach A2 Psychology

When an A Level curriculum is organised into chunks to be worked through in a set order, there is always the risk that retention of early topics is compromised. This can mean that revision taking place at the end of the course is unproductive. It seems that what should be a time for extension ends up resembling re-teaching, as students have forgotten the topic they first studied. The spiral curriculum (as inspired by Bruner) is offered as a solution to this in the teaching of KS3 and 4 Maths - revisiting concepts and skills regularly building on previous learning. I propose that a mini spiral curriculum can overcome the difficulties facing students in retaining weighty topics in a subject like A Level Psychology. I plan to approach this in in 3 layers. Round 1 opens the students eyes to the concepts, key terms and the fundamental proposals of theorists of the topic in hand - hinting at research findings and issues to spark interest. Round 2 explores where this knowledge comes from by focusing on research design and the role of evidence in science. Round 3 gives students opportunity to apply their knowledge of approaches, issues and debates in Psychology and develop their analytical skills in both verbal and written form. In theory, memories of the concepts in the 3 topics studied will all be relatively more recent than in the traditional topic by topic delivery of this unit. This approach can be applied to any topic or unit of study in any subject area. Watch this space to find out how it goes!