Maybe geography is destiny when it comes to hosting the APA Summit on High School Psychology Education. Where better to host the summit than on a mountain? Weber State University (WSU) is a regional comprehensive, open enrollment university built on the western slope of Mount Ogden in Ogden, Utah. We were excited to host the 72 high school teachers and undergraduate faculty who came to Ogden in the same tradition that Snowbasin Ski Resort, on the eastern slope, hosted the world at the downhill events at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
In reality, the story is less geographic and more interpersonal. It began with an email from Kristin Whitlock in May 2015 to Eric Amsel about the possibility of hosting the Summit at Weber State. At the time, Kristin, a longtime friend of the psychology department at Weber State, had just begun to serve on the summit steering committee. She is a well-known psychology teacher at a high school in our feeder district. When we survey new majors about their interest in psychology, almost half mention their high school psychology class and many even refer to Kristin by name.
The Weber State Psychology Department has always fostered and cultivated relationships with students enrolled in high school psychology. To this end, many of the WSU psychology faculty have presented in high school psychology classes, or at psychology interest groups. Additionally, there have been initiatives for high school psychology students to earn college credit for psychology classes that were developed by college faculty and high school teachers, and then delivered electronically to students with the aid of high school faculty. This started as part of a statewide initiative to create dual credit (we call them concurrent enrollment) courses. In fact, some WSU faculty members have taught concurrent enrollment high school psychology classes, and we regularly approve the concurrent enrollment classes taught by master’s degree high-school teachers. Other ways local high school students can earn college credit in psychology is through classes on the main or satellite campus, in a program we call early college.
Working as closely as we do with high school psychology teachers creates a pipeline for students interested in the discipline. That pipeline ensures continued strong enrollments in our classes and a growing group of majors, and by extension, professionals. Preparing students early with a strong understanding of the discipline saves them time and money in college. In recent analyses, we have discovered that there is a substantial student turnover in our majors. Almost 40 percent of psychology majors are either coming into or leaving the department each year. Some of these students leave because they graduate or dropout of school, and some enter as new, transfer or returning students. However, most students who make up the turnover are those who transfer in from or move to another major on campus. As one may expect, the programs they left to become psychology majors or entered into after being psychology majors are very similar and include social work, child and family studies, and criminal justice, to name a few. To us that suggests students did not accurately understand the discipline before initially choosing their major.
Presenting the study of psychology in high school as a scientifically grounded and applied discipline should lessen the turnover in departments because of confusion about the nature of the discipline, and allow students the opportunity to make an informed choice of a major earlier in their college career. However, more than the academic benefits, psychologically informed high school students should be better able to handle the transition to college or work after high school.
With this background and our values, the department felt compelled to accept Kristin’s suggestion and offered a proposal to host the summit. Over two years later with a good deal of planning and engagement by psychology faculty, staff and students, we pulled it off. Indeed, one of the students who worked at the summit best expressed the value of the experience from a student perspective. In a journal she is keeping for her capstone experience course (on being psychologically literate), she made the following comment:
"I had the opportunity to volunteer at the APA Summit during the summer, and I found it interesting that the purpose of the McGovern et al. (2010) chapter was so similar to the APA Summit purpose. McGovern et al. wanted to answer the question "Why should we rethink how we educate undergraduate students?" (p. 19)... When I was in high school, twenty years ago, my professor only focused on Sigmund Freud, so I thought psychology was a ridiculous subject and it left me with no respect or faith in psychologists. Now that I have had a balanced education in most of the different forms of psychological theory, I feel like I can really help people."
The summit was a success, but its impact will continue for our students, the participants and hopefully for the discipline.
References
McGovern, T.V., Corey, L., Cranney, J., Dixon, W.E., Jr., Holmes, J.D., Kuebli, J.E., Ritchey, K.A., Smith, R.A., & Walker, S.J. (2010). Psychologically literate citizens. In D.F. Halpern (Ed.). Undergraduate education in psychology: A blueprint for the future of the discipline (pp. 9-27). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
About the authors
Eric Amsel, PhD, joined the Weber State University Psychology Department in 1996, became chair in 2006, and associate provost in 2016. His training as a psychologist with a focus on adolescent cognitive (in science and math) and social (identity and regulation) development has been helpful in his role as associate provost in promoting Gen Ed revitalization, designing a co-requisite remediation program, and exploring new ways to support student success in quantitative literacy. As associate provost, Amsel provides oversight for the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and is responsible for assessment, program review and regional accreditation.
Aaron Ashley, PhD, is professor and chair of psychology at Weber State University. He received his PhD from the University of Memphis in 2004 in experimental psychology with concentration of cognitive and social processes. His research interests focus on the influence of embodiment on cognitive processing. However, he spends the vast majority of his time assisting students with their varied projects.
Tiffany Page is a graduating senior at Weber State University. Her major is psychology with a minor in child and family studies. Following graduation she plans on using the skills she has acquired to work with at-risk children as a case worker, as a way to get some hands-on experience working with children who are struggling. Following a few years of this, she intends to go to graduate school and get her master’s degree in counseling, which she will use to further help children and families who are struggling.
