Psychology & Education
Themes by Supervisor
This list shows the broad topics for thesis supervision offered by the psychology team. If you have identified an area of interest that is not listed here, first try to locate someone in the list offering topics in the broad area, or email one of the team to see if we can provide supervision. Your Essay 2 focus should be related to your choice of thesis topic, and will be supervised by the same person, unless there is a change due to staff study leave. In Essay 2 you will be focusing on research methodologies applied within your area of interest (see online Handbook).
| Sara Baker | Early years Executive functions Social cognition Understanding of physics |
| Michelle Ellefson | Executive functions Causal reasoning Science reasoning/learning Early literacy |
| Julia Flutter | Metacognition Play and early development Linguistic development Children/young people's perspectives on teaching & learning Influence of the learning environment |
| Linda Hargreaves | Theory of mind Children's friendships and learning Transfer and transition in schooling Psychology of music |
| Christine Howe | Children's language and communication skills Peer influences - in and out of school (incl. collaborative learning) Reasoning skills in middle childhood and adolescence |
| Ruth Kershner | Learning difficulties Sociocultural aspects of classroom learning and teaching Learning with ICT Psychology of inclusion |
| Ros McLellan | Motivation Creativity Gender: achievement |
| Neil Mercer | Language and communication Teaching and learning processes Social interaction in the classroom Collaborative learning The development of reasoning |
| David Whitebread | Metacognition/self-regulation, executive function in young children The development of memory Play and learning |
| Liz Winter | Stereotype Threat effects in adolescence Social, sporting or other types of group identity Widening participation in the study of Psychology and/or HE adult education |
Neuroscience topics:
It is no longer possible to do projects using EEG / ERP, EMG, or fMRI equipment as part of the MPhil in Psychology and Education because the technical facilities and training as part of the Centre for Neuroscience in Education have been moved to the Department of Experimental Psychology. However, we continue to offer projects using other types of specialized equipment, including eye tracking, computerized stimulus presentation programs (e.g., E-Prime), and video data collection and analysis. Further, our library and members of the P&E team hold a number of standardized tests of neuropsychological and cognitive functioning that might be utilized. If you are interested in these topics please contact Dr Ellefson.