Project Leads: Yu Shaung Gan, Ian Fairholm and Richard Hamshaw, Department of Psychology.

This project aimed to develop an innovative learning package to enhance critical thinking, creativity, and essay-writing skills among first-year undergraduate psychology students. Critical thinking and its effective application are core learning outcomes in psychology, yet many first-year students struggle to move beyond description, develop coherent arguments, and structure essays effectively. The learning package will build on the existing first-year unit Controversies in Psychology, with a specific focus on supporting students’ final essay on happiness research in psychology. It will provide structured guidance on deeper forms of critical thinking, highlighting that criticality encompasses not only evaluation, but also analysis, contextualisation, synthesis, and argumentation, which is in line with the new faculty marking criteria.

Students will be supported to integrate evidence creatively, evaluate competing perspectives, and construct more nuanced arguments. A key component of the package will also focus on developing a clear essay narrative, helping students plan and structure their work in a focused and coherent way. By strengthening students’ ability to organise ideas, develop arguments, and write with clarity, the learning package is expected to improve (i) confidence and understanding in tackling assessments, (ii) ability to engage in high quality thinking and writing, and (iii) overall academic performance.

Project was complete in August 2026, read the full evaluation report here. The workshops were well received by students, with the evaluation showing positive outcomes across a number of areas. Students reported improvements in their understanding of the essay topic, critical thinking and writing skills, as well as their confidence in preparing for and approaching the assessment. In particular, students rated the workshops highly for their usefulness, insightfulness, and ease of following. Several students commented that the workshops helped make the essay feel less daunting and gave them greater confidence in developing their arguments and approaching the assessment creatively.

It was particularly encouraging that students expressed a strong interest in having similar workshops continue in the future, including suggestions for extending the initiative to students in later years of the Psychology degree. This suggests that there is good potential to build on the project and develop similar learning opportunities in the future.