I think, firstly, it was super awesome to have people who really chose to engage in the topics at a meaningful and insightful approach to psychological sciences regarding developing adolescents and children. It made me believe well that there were a lot of really smart and positive individuals during the lectures who wanted to wrestle with really tough topics in psychological sciences (but I feel that our lecturers might find it easy to answer these questions because they are awesome at expert opinions and their research fields!). In regards to: Lectures: These were really seriously eye-opening to begin with! The first set of lectures by Sarah Tashijan were mind-opening and really cool as presented with tonnes and tonnes of data and graphs which made it easier to learn alongside what was being taught verbally by her! It gave me a different perspective on how each and every lecturer has their own take on their own individual lectures and Sarah Tashijan kept it well-informed and awesomely backed with a studious amount of scientific data. It was well meaningful and I loved learning cool new concepts which never felt like a waste of time to do! The second set of lectures by Katherine Johnson were highly up-to-date in my opinion and introduced to me topics on ADHD and Autism that were profound. I found that sitting and writing in the lecture theatre and focusing on what I needed to do with the information presented by Katherine Johnson a delightful and thought-provoking activity. This was all good! Plus, I really appreciated how she was focused on presenting the signs and symptoms of each disorder in a clear and admirable way in that it was encouraged for all to remain empathetic and really mature when we discussed sensitive topics. The third set of lectures by Sarah Knight I'm still in the process of completing but I can say that they are very positive and scientifically grounded which I can attest is super unique and cool to see a neuropsychologist discuss and explain how we've been so far up-to-date with the emergence of new fields such as neuropsychology! As always, I find this subject awesome to see the connections between topics and link them back together and Sarah Knight's final series of lectures really gives us a grounding on thought-provoking (it's good!) factual accounts of how psychology and developmental science of children and adolescents really work hand-in-hand! Labs/Tutorials: The Labs and Tutorials were conduced by Alsa Wu and she was awesome to have as a tutor in essence because she kept the mood very fun, friendly, and good-humoured which made listening and learning great! In terms of the content, I liked how we were instructed clearly how to stimulate the kind of jobs that researchers, psychologists, neuropsychologists, and people working in mental health do, then we were then encouraged to promote our learning in front of our peers and explain to them concepts which, I think, strengthened the neural connections between my brain even more and helped me consolidate learning with an enlightened mood! I liked the lab tutorials because they were awesome and really invigorating and helped me help others discuss and feel motivated more! Assessments: The assessments allowed a good deal of freedom of choice between what one could choose between topics and really recommended us to form a neat and presentable argument or opinion per assessment. I liked the assessments because the first one was about connecting between theories and models of development and doing general science skills of making a digital poster and presenting it (so if you like that I suppose it would help taking this subject!). The second assessment really honed in the skills that I had acquired and honed in during my lab classes, which is writing and presenting in the stance of an clinician and I really liked both assessments overall because each were indicative of how psychological sciences are researched, conducted, and achieved.Nothing else! I think this subject has been well-run and really good to feel good about! It motivated me and I felt productive and well with the meaningful experiences and assessments I've completed thus far! Thanks!

Pretty appalling and made me question whether continuing to study psychology at Melbourne is even worth it. (For reference, my subject mark was a high H1 so none of my criticisms come from not doing well, the subject was just crap!). Some really outdated and harmful stuff taught in this subject which is very concerning as this is the 'new generation' of mental health physicians you're teaching, many of whom will presume that what they're being taught is true - if you're neurodivergent then be prepared to feel awful about yourself. I was disappointed that I didn't learn more - particularly the ADHD and Autism lectures were very basic and contained lots of harmful and outdated content. Lecturer also became quite rude when some other students asked for clarification on these topics. First assignment was an absolute mess - assignment outline and criteria didn't at all match what they actually graded us on - subject staff were also very unresponsive to feedback, when a whole heap of students provided feedback that was clear they basically just made a video saying eh seems like you're all getting a bit emotional and didn't at all address the valid concerns. Students also provided a link to a reddit discussion where lots of students currently enrolled had engaged in a productive and informative discussion about the assignment, asking the staff to read through it because it summarised student concerns really well and could be helpful for revising the subject next year, but the head of the subject flat out said nah not going to read through that, that's your space to complain I don't want to intrude (even though many students had said please read it). If you take this subject PLEASE be critical about what you're being taught (particularly when it comes to autism and ADHD) and take the time to look into those with lived experience to actually learn and recognise which parts of the subject are actively harmful.

I enjoyed the lecture content, however, the subject is poorly run. Subject coordinator and lecturers turn their backs on student concerns and criticisms. Assignments are poorly explained and the marking team appear to require information that isn’t specified on the rubrics or in the instructions. This subject has no exams and our entire grade is based on the assignments, so this is a big issue. Tutorials are too short (1.5 hours and only 5 tutorials) and usually there is not enough time to go through all the slides and ask questions as well, which sucks because this is the only time to ask tutors about assignments. Content is not uploaded to Canvas in a timely manner so we are left waiting, which is another issue for assignments. My tutor was lovely and always keen to help us, provided a lot of additional support in class and in her own time, and fought for our concerns to be heard. I believe I would be performing even worse without that help, however, I’ve heard from other students that some tutors have no idea what is going on either. I know that the subject is under new management so perhaps that’s why things are so unorganised right now. Hopefully, things improve in the future because while I enjoyed the lectures and think this is an interesting subject, I cannot recommend it in it’s current state. - M

Content of this subject is interesting. However, tutor is not well prepared and not helpful. If you prefer assignments rather than exams then this subject is for you.

I enjoyed the content of this subject very much. Assessments were relevant and provided good insight into realistic tasks/responsibilities for those working in the Developmental Psychology field.

I found the structure and teaching of this subject to be appalling. There were no rubrics provided for the assignments, and the marking seemed to depend completely on who your tutor was - I had friends in different classes who turned in assignments with near-identical content and who received wildly different marks than me. I think a lot of people take this subject thinking it will be easy because it's all assignments, but it's the worst subject of my degree.

This will be a biased review in some sense since I have been tutoring this subject for a number of years. It has 3 streams of content, for which there is an assignment in each stream. There is no exam component which may be ideal for students who prefer assignments over exams. It can be a very enjoyable subject but it is generally more suitable for students with some background knowledge in psychology and psychological writing.