Plymouth High School Teacher Earns APA Award for Excellence

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 8, 2019
Contact: Emily Leary Chesnes (202-572-3013)

Casey Swanson, MA, a psychology teacher at Plymouth High School in Canton, Mich., has been named a winner of the 2019 APA TOPSS Charles T. Blair-Broeker Excellence in Teaching Award by the American Psychological Association's Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS).

"Casey focuses his classroom on psychology as a science," said Allison Shaver, MA, chair of APA's TOPSS Committee. "His students understand this and use it in their future studies."

Learning about how to use different research methods to describe, predict, and explain behavior has shaped Swanson's students beyond high school, according to former student Connor Flanigan. As a student at The University of Michigan, Flanigan was accepted for a research position and credited this to his strong research-focused critical thinking skills related to research thinking skills that he learned in Swanson's class.

"Mr. Swanson's teaching is the reason I continue to thrive in PhD-level research as a freshman," said Flanigan.

Swanson constantly instills his passion for research methodology into his students, according to Plymouth High School teacher Becky Kraft. He instructs students to dissect research and incorporates video clips, web searches and scientific journals in his teaching.

Moving Plymouth High's psychology curriculum from theory to practice is one of his greatest educational contributions, according to Swanson. He uses the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major 2.0 (PDF, 458KB)opens in new window   and the APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula opens in new window as guides to teach students and teachers.

Among other leadership experiences, Swanson has led professional development for building leaders and teachers from all areas, emphasizing empirical research.

Swanson will receive a framed certificate, an engraved award, $500 and a complimentary TOPSS membership renewal for 2020. Additionally, Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers is providing him with a $500 credit and a copy of the High School Psychology Video Anthology.

The award is named for retired psychology teacher Charles T. Blair-Broeker, MAT, who taught for 39 years at Cedar Falls High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

Now in its 27th year, TOPSS is the voice of high school psychology teachers within APA. Through APA’s Education Directorate, TOPSS offers teaching materials, professional development, the Psychology Teacher Network quarterly newsletter and programs for high school psychology teachers and students. There are approximately 2,000 APA high school teacher affiliates in APA. Psychology continues to be a popular high school course, with nearly 312,000 students taking the Advanced Placement (AP) psychology exam in 2018, an increase of more than 9,000 over the previous year. In 2018 there were nearly 22,000 students worldwide who took the International Baccalaureate (IB) psychology exam. On-level and other psychology courses are also taught at the high school level.

TOPSS’s mission is to promote the highest standards in the teaching of psychology as a science and discipline; promote professional development and other means for lifelong learning for high school teachers of psychology; facilitate networking among teachers from all teaching levels of psychology; encourage recruitment and retention of students in the field of psychology; enhance the visibility and legitimacy of high school psychology; and recommend the appropriate advocacy, education policy and certification issues that impact the quality or visibility of teaching of high school psychology. Learn more about TOPSS here and on its Facebookopens in new window page.