Making A Level Psychology teaching easier with digital resources

Since psychology teachers first saw the 2015 specification, there were concerns about the volume of content. Additionally, psychology exams seem to be early within the series. AQA's specification for teaching from September 2025 onwards addresses some of these concerns and has reduced the content in many areas, as well as updating others. There is no change to the assessment objectives or the style of questions, and this inevitably leads to the question of what the most effective use of this extra time might be.

In designing additional teaching resources for the revised Year 1 Digital resources, this was very much central, along with valued teacher feedback, to what I had in mind. I very much wanted to make psychology teachers’ lives easier!

Opportunity to build skills

It was sad to say goodbye to some of the resources that were no longer relevant, but we recognised an opportunity. We could look again at how to support students and teachers in building skills, giving practical experience of research methods and giving confidence in extended answer writing as early in the course as possible – so that it would start to become second nature. We have added new resources to every chapter and some of these are specifically focused on building skills – for example to better equip students to answer the ‘design a study’ questions.

Focus on research methods

Having used the digital resources in my own classroom, I often felt I didn’t have time to expose students to research through the practical ideas from the student book and the additional ones in the teacher resources. The refresh offers the chance to do just this and to link it more directly with research methods – which teachers know is so important, but which often fails to capture the imagination of students.

When teaching, I also happily printed off the handouts but often neglected the ‘Ideas’ in many chapters which was a shame as they often link with real-world experiences and/or provide valuable stretch-and-challenge opportunities – I would definitely be incorporating those into my new scheme of work.

More model answers

A common theme in feedback was that teachers wanted us to give more model answers. We have responded by adding two new resources to every chapter, putting the students in the role of the examiner. The aim of this is to give them confidence and more clarity on what is expected and regular opportunities to improve example answers.

Teachers are given commentary in the notes to consolidate the explanations so that they can confidently explain common mistakes and ways of improving answers. One of the resources for each chapter focuses on shorter questions and one is on longer questions, including some application examples – again, a direct response to teacher feedback.

We have enjoyed the opportunity to revisit the resources given what we have learned from 10 years of the current specification and are excited to continue these developments into Year 2. We wish you all the best for the new academic year and hope you enjoy using your refreshed and renewed resources.

More information on all of the resources available for the revised AQA A-level Psychology specification can be found on our green-and-pink-hair series page, or by selecting individual products below.

Look out for future blogs on AQA A-level Psychology over the coming weeks.