In July 2017, teachers and scholars from high schools, colleges and professional organizations will gather at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, to discuss and plan ways to strengthen the value, delivery, assessment and reach of high school psychology. Psychology is one of the most popular elective courses in high schools today. With all of this natural interest in psychology, those who teach it need to be sure that what they teach is of the highest quality. For the last year and a half, the Summit Steering Committee has worked to create the vision and game plan for the summit, and we are excited to share some of our planning with you.
The summit is organized around eight key strands spanning diverse areas related to high school psychology. In this piece, we focus on four key strands building on Ernst and Whitlock's (2016) discussion of the first two strands ("Psychology as Science" and "Skills that Promote Flourishing and Well-being"). Our strands focus on delivery and assessment in high school psychology, and cover a lot of ground, from the National Standards to assessment to certification to professional learning.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the important issues each of these strands is seeking to address:
Strand 3: Revising the National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula (APA, 2011)
Co-leaders: Amy Fineburg and Tina Athanasopoulos
Standards have evolved significantly over the last 25 years. Current trends in standards favor skills development and overarching ideas rather than recipe-like listings of content to be covered. As psychology evolves as a discipline, the National Standards need to evolve as well. This working group will study standards frameworks from science and social studies to come up with a new structure for the APA’s National Standards. A Working Group will be formed by APA in the next couple of years to revise APA’s standards using the framework developed at the summit. Much of the work of this working group will involve collaborating with other groups to develop an innovative and relevant framework that high school psychology teachers can use in the coming years to advance psychological science and continue to attract students to this vibrant and important discipline.
Strand 4: Assessing Student Knowledge and Skills in Psychology
Co-Leaders: Regan Areesesh Raj Gurung, PhD and Rob McEntarffer
How do we know what students who have completed a psychology course have learned? Strand 4 focuses on this critical question. Assessment is of tantamount importance in education. Without the use of valid and robust assessment practices, it is difficult, if not impossible, to know what students have gained. There are a number of significant challenges to achieving assessment goals. High school teachers often lack the time, the training, or the proper incentives to conduct robust assessment of student learning outcomes. Furthermore, although the field of psychology took a giant step forward with the establishment of the National Standards, there is no consistent way or guidance to assess the attainment of the standards. Given the dearth of existing tools and information about assessment, there are some significant goals for this strand. This group will create a set of recommendations relating to:
- Best practices in assessment.
- Ways to enhance a teacher’s ability to evaluate the data they have gathered.
- A guide for high school teachers to develop assessments.
- The promotion of scholarship of teaching and learning among high school teachers as a means for evaluating student learning.
Strand 5: Credentialing and Identifying the High School Psychology Teacher
Co-Leaders: Ken Weaver and Debra Park
What does it take to be a high school psychology teacher? This is a central question for this strand. Most high school psychology teachers are trained as social studies (history) teachers, and they “get” to teach psychology often with little formal training or background in psychology. The heroic efforts of many these teachers to learn the content and teach it well speak to the passion for learning many teachers have. But what can we do to strengthen teacher-training programs so teachers can come in to the field prepared? How do we keep track of who is teaching psychology? This working group will promote models for teacher preparation that strengthen current teachers’ knowledge and skills and prepare new teachers of psychology who are ready to teach from day one. This working group also hopes to develop a database of teachers to foster networking and professional learning.
Strand 6: Ongoing Professional Development
Co-leaders: Daria Schaffeld and Steve Turner
So, you find yourself teaching psychology — now what? Often, schools and districts will not provide professional learning for the few high school psychology teachers in the school or district, so teachers are left to find it on their own. Where do you find quality professional learning to teach high school psychology? And what kind of professional learning do you really need? This working group will tackle these questions and more as they develop plans for high quality professional learning models and promote ways in which psychology teachers can learn from each other. This working group hopes to not only provide direction for how to develop quality professional learning but also give teachers resources for getting the kind of professional learning they need.
One summit cannot answer all of the questions or solve all of the issues teachers face as they seek to provide quality psychological education to their students. But it can be the spark we all need to inspire creative thinking, ideas and actions that will make high school psychology one of the most valued courses for students, schools and communities. We look forward to sharing with you the ideas and plans developed at the summit — and we will need your help to make those ideas and plans come to fruition.
Reference
American Psychological Association. (2011). National standards for high school psychology curricula. Washington, D.C.: Author. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/education/k12/national-standards.
About the authors
Amy C. Fineburg, PhD, is the advanced programs specialist for Jefferson County Schools, a district serving over 35,000 students in 56 schools in metropolitan Birmingham, Ala. She is the Summit Steering Committee co-chair with Randy Ernst, and she has previously served as chair of APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS), a member of the APA’s Board of Educational Affairs and an AP Psychology Exam table leader. She led the revision efforts for the most recent edition of the National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula and is the author of textbook ancillary materials for standard-level and AP-level psychology books. She is the vice president for awards and recognitions for the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Div. 2) and serves on the Southern Regional Council for the College Board.
Regan Areesesh Raj Gurung, PhD, is the Ben J. and Joyce Rosenberg professor of psychology and human development at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. He is currently a member of APA’s Committee on Associate and Baccalaureate Education, has served as faculty representative to TOPSS, and is a past-president of the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA’s Div. 2). He recently helped host the APA Summit on the National Assessment of Psychology. He is author, co-author, editor or co-editor of 14 books, has published over 125 articles and book chapters, and has presented on teaching and learning nationally and internationally. His teaching awards include the CASE Wisconsin Professor of the Year and the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents Teaching Excellence Award.