‘I have found ways to supercharge learning’

The British Psychological Society's Division for Academics, Researchers and Teachers in Psychology's Pre-tertiary Education Psychology Teacher of the Year (PEPTOTY) award recognises and celebrates exceptional psychology teachers in UK schools and FE colleges. The prizes are £1000, a year of free membership to DARTP and free registration for the 2025 DARTP conference. 

Harriet, Nick, thank you for doing this interview. Congratulations for winning the award, Harriet, and congratulations for being a finalist, Nick!

What made you decide to go for the award?

Harriet: A number of reasons. When I looked at the application criteria, I thought 'ooh, I could probably win that', as I could see how I met them. Also, the introduction of PEPTOTY is something that the late, great Helen Kitching had been working towards. Now that the concept of PEPTOTY had come into being, I thought that I should support the award process, by becoming part of it. 

Finally, I wanted to try to win it because my mum has often been insufficiently recognised for her amazing work in academia and her local community. I hoped that winning an accolade would cheer her – I hope it has!

Nick: My entry was suggested to me by a few teachers who use my resources. After looking into the criteria, I thought that I had a reasonable chance of winning, so I put together an application, which was a fairly painless process, and then I rolled the dice!

What did you have to do to be nominated?

Harriet: We had to fill in an application form under the following headings: 1. Demonstrable commitment to improving the student experience. 2. Use of evidence and professional development activities to support effective teaching practice. 3. Dissemination of best practice and support for teaching excellence. 

Nick: After that, we had to write up our case studies.

Harriet: Following that, we had to present our case study to an online audience and the panel of judges during the Sharing Good Practice: Case studies from the Higher and Pre-tertiary teacher of the year finalists 2024-25 webinar.

Nick: Then we had a final interview with the judging panel. 

Harriet: Both of these happened for me during inspection week! Would you believe it? 

What was your case study?

Harriet: My case study was titled – "Will this be on the exam?" – teaching what really matters. Accelerating A-Level learning by combining high-impact strategies – mastery learning and metacognition – to make time for student enrichment and development. I have found ways to supercharge learning because I am aiming to make space in the packed curriculum for independent student research, in-depth discussions of interest to students and other enrichment activities. 

Nick: My case study was a detailed examination of the impact of my Psych Boost project over the last seven years. I first created Psych Boost in my second year of teaching as a flipped resource for my own students who were finding it challenging to access and meaningfully engage with content delivery when taught using traditional classroom teaching methods. However, suitable resources for psychology that were free, accessible, and high-quality were unavailable. I developed Psych Boost to fill this gap.

Which research did you use to design the new pedagogical approach in your school, Harriet?

Harriet: Primarily, I used the robust meta-analytical work done by the Education Endowment Foundation. Key findings show that Mastery learning gives students a five-month advantage, relative to a business as usual teaching and learning model; effective metacognition training will have an even greater seven-month effect size. 

Which research did you use to inform your design of the Psych Boost course, Nick? 

Nick: I used the concepts that I read about in David Didau's book 'What If Everything You Knew About Teaching Was Wrong?'… in particular, spaced retrieval (Ebbinghaus, 1885), which recognises the importance of revisiting material over time to improve long-term retention, and multimedia learning theory (Mayer, 2001), which highlights the principles of coherence and dual-channel processing when communicating with students, ensuring maximum engagement and retention.

What was the experience of the process like?

Harriet: Overall, applying was a mixed-feelings kind of experience. It makes you feel vulnerable to open yourself up to something where the best outcome will involve blowing your own trumpet and feeling weird about that and the alternative is getting invested only to be disappointed. You have to look at it positively as a journey not a destination. I hope that ultimately, I will be able to do something good with the work I have done for the award – beyond the award itself. Already EFPTA have been promoting the value of psychology in schools in a webinar involving attendees from 26 countries, and PEPTOTY gives my contribution a little more clout.

Nick: It was good… although I admit that I found it a little strange to nominate myself for an award, as I initially assumed that the entrants were nominated by their peers. Writing my application was a difficult task as I find it a little awkward to big myself up. I also was not quite expecting the multiple stage process. It was certainly rigorous!

How did you feel when you found out that you were finalists?

Harriet: Delighted! Until I found out that the amazing Nick Serifin was my opponent. He is a dear friend, one of the coolest people I know and an awesome contributor to the psychology teaching community. I thought I was definitely going to come second – there were just the two of us on the shortlist and I did not like the idea of beating him. I think we should have both won. 

Nick: Very happy! It is great recognition to even get to be a finalist. Unfortunately, my old ATP friend Harriet was also the other finalist. I have known her since my first conference, so I knew that I was in for a challenging contest.

What would you say to other teachers who may be thinking about going for the award next year?

Harriet: Go for it! It is a rewarding process and it helps you to collate your professional successes. I hope that it will give further impetus to bring people together to champion psychology. 

Nick: I do recommend it. Even if you do not win, the process is a great opportunity to reflect on your own practice!

-       For more information about Harriet and Nick's work, go to:

The BPS Teachers' Toolkit section of the DART-P website for Harriet's Implementing Mastery Learning & Metacognition Training for Students into your Teaching guide: 

Nick's Psych Boost website (which also includes links to his YouTube videos, Psych Boost app, and accompanying workbook).

For more information about the HEPTOTY and PEPTOTY awards, go to the awards section of the Division of Academics, Researchers and Teachers in Psychology website.

*The original version of this article will be published in the June 2025 issue of the ATP Today magazine.