Psychology - OU Community Online

Through a taster session run by the OU’s community partnership scheme, at Castle Green Children’s Centre where Kerry was volunteering, she found out about Openings courses and how she could get financial assistance to study with the OU.
 
Discovering Openings Courses
At the taster session I met Gaynor Gardner (OU Community Partnerships Manager) and she highlighted the pros and cons of Open University study to me. We discussed my current situation, that I was studying level 2 counselling skills at my local FE College in the evenings and how I could not afford the fees for the diploma study. I found out the OU helps to support people like me and that my Openings courses would be fully funded by the OU.

Flexible study fits in with family life
My discussion with Gaynor opened my eyes to studying from home. It would mean I could fit my study in around my son who was barely two at the time and being sent to my parents while I attended college one night per week. I no longer had to alter his routine, I could work from home and attend a weekly study group with other students where I learnt study skills which built a foundation for me when writing my assignments. It was so helpful having a study group of other mature students who, like me, had slumps in study motivation. They were always there to encourage me and I was elated when I received a distinction on the Openings module Y183 Starting with Psychology.

Taking studies to the next level
Following the Openings course I am now studying towards a BSc (Honours) Psychology and have done several modules towards this degree.

An increased confidence and new opportunities
I have increased confidence in my abilities and feel happy to promote OU study wherever I go. I have been lucky enough to speak about my OU experience at the NIACE conference 2012 and at a recent Vice-Chancellor’s Lunch and publicly thank Gaynor and the OU for the support, guidance and structure they have given to my studies and my life.

I chair my local Children’s Centre Parent Forum and the Barking and Dagenham borough-wide Parent Board. Through OU study I have realised that, as a parent and a student, I have a voice.

Setting goals
I had a goal 18 months ago to become a counsellor but because of my studies and the opportunities I’ve had, I now visit the weekly study group for new OU Openings students and speak with them about how they are finding their studies and encourage them to believe in themselves as students and their work.

As a result of this work I have a new goal. Once I have completed my degree I intend to study further and become a teacher/tutor for adult learners.

Volunteering and supporting new OU students
I have just been offered the opportunity to facilitate a short training course in conjunction with a local Children’s Centre where I will be teaching parents about internet safety and cyberbullying and I will continue my studies with OU whilst volunteering in my various roles, and I will be attending the weekly study groups at Castle Green Children’s Centre to speak with the new students and give them the encouragement and guidance that I received. My fellow students from Dagenham (where the children’s centre is based) have become an extended family and we are all there to support one another and this is what we like to encourage in all new students.

Support during your studies
My greatest challenge was earlier this year when my mum was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer She became very ill very quickly and passed away 12 weeks after diagnosis. Around this time I was completing two modules DSE141 and SDK125 and I was due to start D240. I had end of module assignments to submit and an exam date for SDK125. Student services gave me such wonderful support, deferring my exam so I was able to spend precious time with my parents and sibling in my mums final days. My biggest fear was that I would be in an exam room far away when she passed away and thanks to student support I was able to be with her and concentrate on making her comfortable instead of cramming for an examination. My tutors were brilliantly supportive granting me extensions on assignments, This is where I feel OU differs from other higher education establishments as I doubt I would have been able to continue studying elsewhere. I feel this was also my greatest success as I was able to complete all three modules.

Find out more:

• Openings Courses
• Community Partnerships Programme
   

Experimental psychologist Dr Nathalia Gjersoe, of the OU’s Faculty of Education and Language Studies (FELS), has carried out research into the developing brain to find out what might lead people to believe in God.

The research suggests there are natural instincts that allow very young children to develop a belief in a creator God, and Nathalia says this can also be found in atheists who turn back to God in times of crisis. She explains more in this Channel 4 4thought.tv broadcast on the theme of ‘Is belief in God a basic instinct?’

The next meeting of Psychology in the Pub is on Thursday 11 October 2012 at 7.30pm at The Showroom café/bar opposite Sheffield Train Station.
 
Dr Anna Weighall will be talking about The Bedtime Story Effect: The Role of Sleep in Memory and Language Learning...
 
For hundreds of years scientists have questioned the function of sleep. Evidence is now converging on the conclusion that sleep has an active role to play in memory consolidation, although this view is controversial. Anna will talk about the way in which sleep may affect our ability to lay down new information and to learn. She will talk specifically about the role of sleep in learning new vocabulary with reference to a series of experiments which investigated word learning in adults and young children. Findings suggest that memory for newly learned words improves after sleep in both adults and children. This finding has important implications for our conceptualisation of vocabulary development and for teaching and learning strategies. This talk will provide you with the perfect excuse for sending your children to bed early and perhaps even for a nap yourself!
 
Dr Anna Weighall is a principal lecturer in Psychology at Sheffield Hallam University where she lectures in a wide range of topics spanning cognitive and developmental psychology.  Her research interests are primarily concerned with language comprehension, learning and development. Her current research is funded by the Leverhulme Trust in collaboration with Professor Gareth Gaskell and Dr Lisa Henderson at the University of York.
 
 

Overwhelmed by the sheer number of blogs, wikis, social networking and information-sharing websites out there?

Help is at hand with a new Handbook of Social Media for researchers, developed by OU Computing academics Shailey Minocha and Marian Petre.

It provides a wide-ranging overview of social media sites and tools that are useful for research and includes the results of interviews with social media users.

The Handbook, funded through Vitae Innovate is aimed primarily at postgraduate and early career researchers and their supervisors.

Download the Handbook of Social Media free.