Coming in 2017: APA Summit on High School Psychology Education

Plans are under way for the first-ever APA Summit on High School Psychology Education, to be held in July 2017 at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. The summit, as mentioned in the December 2015 PTN newsletter (PDF, 1.2MB), will bring together high school psychology teachers, college faculty members and other stakeholders to consider and discuss important questions and issues related to the teaching of high school psychology, aiming to create the best possible future for high school psychology education. The steering committee charged with planning the summit expects summit outcomes to have a significant and lasting impact on the discipline. Members of the steering committee are Randy Ernst, EdD, Amy Fineburg, PhD, Charlie Blair-Broeker, MAT, Regan Gurung, PhD, Ladonna Lewis, PhD, Yadira Sanchez, PsyD, Daria Schaffeld, MA, Kenneth Weaver, PhD, and Kristin Whitlock, MEd.

The steering committee, chaired by Randy Ernst, EdD, and Amy Fineburg, PhD, has determined the following main topics, or strands, for the summit. Working groups will be formed around these strands; each working group will be charged with developing a product to be broadly disseminated for maximum impact. We welcome input or feedback from the APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) members on these topics. Are there topics or themes you would wish to see covered at the summit that are missing from the strands outlined below? Do you have feedback or comments the steering committee might consider on how any of the identified strands relate to the teaching of high school psychology? Please feel free to send feedback to APA staff via email by July 1, 2016. We welcome your input.

Summit Strands

Strand 1: The case for high school psychology as a science
Questions to be considered include: What are the scientific literacy outcomes of learning about psychology that we want students to gain? How does psychology fit into the STEM paradigm? Should psychology be offered for social studies and/or science credit? 

Strand 2: The benefits of psychology education
Questions to be considered include: How does psychology promote college and career readiness? How does psychology promote soft skills? What are the essential habits of working and learning (e.g., academic mindsets, character traits) that learning psychology provides? What skills do psychology students gain from psychology courses that lead to greater well-being?

Strand 3: The National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula
Questions to be considered include: What content and skills should be included in a high school psychology course? What should the next iteration of the National Standards look like? How can the National Standards be broadly disseminated, used and adopted?

Strand 4: Assessment of knowledge in psychology
Questions to be considered include: What is good assessment, and are we doing it in our classrooms? How do we know what students know about psychology when they've completed the course? How do we successfully use formative feedback to inform instruction?

Strand 5: Initial certification
Questions to be considered include: How do we ensure all high school psychology teachers demonstrate the content knowledge to teach the psychology course according to the National Standards? What recommendations should APA make for certification to teach psychology in high schools?

Strand 6: Ongoing professional development
Questions to be considered include: What does ongoing professional development look like for high school psychology teachers? What currently exists in terms of professional development for high school psychology teachers? What are evidence-based practices for professional learning related to the teaching of high school psychology? What are the different modalities for delivering professional development, and which provide the richest learning experiences for teachers? Which available teaching resources are the best resources for teachers?

Strand 7: Diversity and access
Questions to be considered include: What are diversity and access implications for the teaching of high school psychology? How should teachers teach about diversity? How do we encourage diversity in the classroom and in teacher preparation?

Strand 8: Technology and online learning
Questions to be considered include: What are the best practices for using technology to support learning? How can we use technology to promote better learning in psychology? What is the impact of using technology to teach psychology? How do we know technology is meeting the needs of our students? How can we anticipate the future of technology in the psychology classroom?

In anticipation of the 2017 summit, we will feature a series of articles in the next several PTN issues related to the summit strands. A call for participants will be released this fall. This summit promises to be an extraordinary opportunity to positively shape the direction of psychology education for at least the next decade. We hope you will consider joining us.

About the Authors

Amy C. Fineburg, PhD, is a curriculum specialist with Alabaster City Schools, a suburban school district near Birmingham, Alabama. In addition to supervising the development of curriculum and professional learning, she directs the district AP program and is the acting director for Career Technical Education. Amy also teaches general and educational psychology courses at Samford University and the University of Alabama. Amy taught AP psychology for 14 years and is the author of teaching resources for AP and regular psychology textbooks. During her professional career, she has served as the chair of TOPSS, as a table leader for the AP psychology reading, and as a member of the Board of Educational Affairs with the APA. Her professional interests include growth mindset and the scholarship of teaching and learning. She and Randy Ernst co-chair the Steering Committee for the Summit on High School Psychology Education, planned for July 2017 in Ogden, Utah. 

Randy Ernst, EdD, is an educator, author and a bit of a pioneer in the teaching of high school psychology. As an educator, he has worked for the Lincoln (Nebraska) Public Schools for over 25 years, and is currently the social studies curriculum specialist for this district of 40,000+ students. As an author, Randy has written or edited psychology textbooks, teacher’s guides and activity books, and has authored or co-authored articles in The Oxford Review of Education, The American Psychologist and The Teaching of Psychology. As a pioneer, Randy was a member of the committee that founded TOPSS, and was on the original AP psychology test development committee. More recently, he has facilitated workshops in several states (and countries) that foster the skills of well-being (e.g., resilience, gratitude, grit) in teachers and administrators. He is a co-chair of the Steering Committee for the Summit on High School Psychology Education.

Emily Leary Chesnes, MBA, is the assistant director of Precollege and Undergraduate Education with the American Psychological Association. She holds a BA in psychology from Furman University and an MBA from George Mason University. She has worked at APA since 2003, and serves as the staff liaison to the APA Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools and the APA Steering Committee for the APA Summit on High School Psychology Education.