Assignment Brief
As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Contemporary Developmental Psychology assignment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing the module, you should be able to:
1. Demonstrate critical consideration of a range of perspectives describing developmental outcomes and processes in the context of cognitive and social development
2. Apply psychological knowledge to practical contexts within developmental psychology
3. Employ sophisticated evidence-based reasoning in dealing with theoretical and methodological issues raised by research into developmental psychology
4. Communicate effectively in writing
5. Effective communication
All learning outcomes must be met to pass the module.
Guidance
Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the module name, the submission deadline and the exact word count of your submitted document; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list (see referencing section for more information).You should address all the elements of the assignment task listed below. Please note that tutors will use the assessment criteria set out below in assessing your work.
You must not include your name in your submission because Arden University operates anonymous marking, which means that markers should not be aware of the identity of the student. However, please do not forget to include your STU number.
Maximum word count: 1000-word poster and 15-minute presentation narration
Please refer to the full word count policy which can be found in the Student Policies section here: Arden University | Regulatory Framework
Please note the following:
Students are required to indicate the exact word count on the title page of the assessment.
The word count includes everything in the main body of the assessment (including in text citations and references). The word count excludes numerical data in tables, figures, diagrams, footnotes, reference list and appendices. ALL other printed words ARE included in the word count.
Please note that exceeding the word count by over 10% will result in a 10-percentage point deduction.
Assignment Task
Prepare a 15-minute narrated poster on the following:
Compare and contrast two theories of moral development. Critically evaluate the theories in relation to relevant contemporary research studies.
The narrated PowerPoint presentation should be 15 minutes in duration. The PowerPoint presentation should include a reference list on a separate slide.
Please note that exceeding the narration duration will result in a reduction in grade proportionate to the amount of time exceeded.
Guidance
The poster must include the following three parts:
a) Introduction
• Introduce and define the key concepts.
• Provide a concise overview of what you would be presenting in your poster.
b) Main body of the presentation
• Discuss, compare and contrast while providing a critical evaluation of your two theories of moral development, i,e., provide more than a description of the theories but instead demonstrate your understanding of these theories by critically reflecting on their strengths, limitations and how effectively each theory describes, explains and predicts the extent to which it influences our developing understanding of moral development.
c) Conclusion
• You could explain the importance of and significance of your chosen theories to our overall knowledge and understanding of moral development with developmental psychology.
• Your conclusion should address the key concepts referred to in the introduction.
Poster guidance:
Your task is to produce a poster in PowerPoint based on the above assignment task. The submission should be made as a PowerPoint file. Under the My Assessment tab on iLearn, there is a choice of two PowerPoint templates (portrait and landscape) which are already set to the correct slide size for you. Please select one of these templates depending on the orientation you would like for your poster.
In your PowerPoint file, you should have three separate slides. The first slide will be a cover sheet, including your student number, module name, submission deadline and word count. The second slide should be your poster, you will notice that you can zoom in and out of the poster to facilitate your formatting and content writing. The third slide will be your list of references. The templates on iLearn already have these three slides set up for you.
If you experience any issues with the templates, you should manually edit the size of your slides by going to the ‘Design’ tab, then going to ‘Slide Size’ and selecting the ‘Custom slide size’ option. You can present the slides either landscape (120cm width x 80cm height) or portrait (80cm width x 120cm height).
The text size needs to be at least 32 and the font needs to be simple and clear, such as New Times Roman or Arial.
On the poster slide, you should split up the information into distinct sections and use bullet-points, diagrams, tables and pictures to present the content where appropriate. Please avoid using large blocks of text on the poster. In the first section, you should introduce the theoretical concept of moral development. In the next section, you should provide a critical evaluation of at least two theories of moral development.
Your critical evaluation should include the strengths and limitations of the theories in order to provide evidence to support your overall argument. Your critical evaluation should be supported by research studies from peer reviewed journals with accompanying citations. These key research articles should be explored in depth (i.e., providing a concise summary of their aims, methods, findings and conclusions). You should use the lessons on iLearn to establish an initial understanding of the topic area but, to obtain the highest marks, evidence of wider reading is required.
You should highlight the strengths and limitation of the key studies you discuss with reference to their methodological approach and how this might affect the validity and reliability of the findings. To obtain the highest marks, you should also incorporate contemporary issues/ topics. In the final section, you should present a conclusion based upon the critical evaluation you have made throughout your poster.
Poster (1000 words)
(50 marks)
Narration guidance:
A good poster will include key points and then the narration will expand and elaborate upon these points. As part of the assessment, you should produce a 15- minute narration of your poster. This should take the form of an audio-recording included as an embedded narration on the poster slide (i.e., slide 2).
You must narrate your poster by recording your voice (as an audio-recording in PowerPoint) and embedding this narration within the PowerPoint file on the poster slide. Your narration should not simply repeat the information presented on the poster slide.
Instead, it should both explain and expand upon the information presented on the poster slide. This narration has a 15-minute time limit. Guidance on how to record and embed a narration can be found in the My Assessment tab on iLearn.
Also, you are required to record your narrated poster and submit this as a Narrated PowerPoint file. If you are using Microsoft Office PowerPoint software to create your presentation, we recommend that you record your audio narration using the Microsoft Office PowerPoint built-in Audio Narration function. When creating your poster, you will need to make sure that you have a version of “Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2000” or above Installed. Your narration must then be submitted in the separate Turnitin submission portal on iLearn. Further details and guidance can be found on iLearn.
Additional guidance can be found on iLearn.
Narration (15 minutes)
(50 marks)
(LOs: 1, 2, 3 & 4)
This module is marked using the Arden University Categorical Marking Criteria
Formative Feedback
Formative feedback is provided through ongoing lecturer support and formative assessment tasks such as set briefs, in-module activities, self-initiated briefs, and discussion with lecturers and peers (in online forums/debates). The level of formative feedback provided varies depending on the level of assessment.
This module provides formative feedback via in-module activities and discussion with lecturers and peers. Please ensure you engage in these activities and discussions, as doing so will help you to further develop your knowledge, skills and abilities, as well as others’.
