A core part of our mission statement for Division 2: The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) is to provide “resources and services, access to a global collaborative community, and opportunities for professional development.” To that end, we have both expanded our programming and grants and adapted to the changing needs of our members. We host our division conference every October, the Annual Conference on Teaching (ACT), which also includes our business meetings and award presentations. Starting in 2017, we moved this conference to rotating U.S. cities to draw attendees from different geographic regions. ACT is our flagship conference, and one of our biggest member benefits. To that end, we are actively working on making it accessible to all. In 2025, we are piloting new travel grants (e.g., childcare grant) for travel to ACT.
During the pandemic, our 2020 conference was moved to an online-only format. As the popularity of the online conference grew, we realized that there is a distinct need for online programming to reach a group of our members that even when travel resumed, were not able to attend our in-person conference for a whole host of reasons, such as family obligations or lack of professional development funding. We now host a separate online conference, which includes access to recorded sessions from the in-person conferences, in addition to synchronous sessions. The online conference is held every February. We had our largest attendance to date this year, with 145 attendees who registered for the online conference.
In addition to the online ACT, which we hope has a greater reach to our global community, we have sponsored multiple international conferences, with support from our Director of International Programming. Some of these conferences include ESPLAT, AusPLAT, AsiaPLAT, and International Conference for Psychology Educators (ICOPE). To increase global accessibility, we also offer reduced membership dues for members who reside in countries that are not classified as "High Income Economies" by the World Bank.
Another benefit of Division 2 membership and form of community is our Facebook group. In 2024, we moved our Facebook group to a members-only group. This move was a result of the unrestricted group growing to over 25,000 members. Even though it was a moderated group, the comments and discussion were at times not reflective of our mission. The members-only Facebook group has 650 members. While it requires confirmation of current membership, in this first year, we have gained over 100 new members. We often have new people join the division specifically so they can join this Facebook group.
As we recognize the change in the landscape and heightened vulnerability of higher education, it is even more important to advocate for our teachers. STP strives to do so in part by our mission-driven initiatives to support our diverse membership.
If you have questions, please contact me.