The mission of the APA Education Directorate is to advance education in psychology and the application of psychology to education. We do this through supporting lifelong learning in psychology from the K-12 level through continuing education, enhancing the quality of teaching and learning outcomes, and meeting the demands of the changing demographics in a multicultural society through education. The high school summit this past summer fits perfectly with the mission of the directorate and that of APA — to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives. Creating the best future for high school psychology means providing teachers with the training, resources and professional development opportunities to teach psychology as a science and to share the applicability of psychology to students’ lives. When you consider the challenges rooted in behavior that our schools and nation face — bullying, gun violence, political polarization, discrimination, cultural insensitivities and the opioid epidemic, to name a few — it becomes apparent that teaching teenagers the science of behavior is of critical importance.
However, the summit was important to education beyond just the high school level. Undergraduate faculty were among the summit participants, demonstrating that the summit’s reach is beyond high school classrooms. Strengthening the pipeline from high school to higher education promises greater coordination and consistency between educational levels and, in turn, stronger cohorts of students entering two and four-year colleges. You, our psychology teacher network, are encouraged to join us in ensuring the summit mission is achieved and the summit deliverables are widely disseminated. Why not reach out to the high school psychology teachers in your town to tell them about APA’s support of teachers and the deliverables coming out of the summit? Or, if you are an undergraduate teacher at a community college or university, you may want to consider contacting local teachers to support a regional teaching network, hosted by your department. Or you might want to talk to your institution’s school of education or education department to consider starting a teacher preparation program for high school psychology teachers (see APA, 2012 or Weaver, 2012 for details). Just as a house without a solid foundation is more likely to have structural problems, higher education in psychology can only be strengthened by a stronger foundation of psychology education at the high school level.
Moreover, the impact goes beyond higher education as well — graduate students, psychologists and the public all benefit when students accurately learn about psychological science in high school. It’s hard to imagine a single graduate student or psychologist who did not attend high school, and I suspect we all know those who were first exposed to psychology in a high school course. Imagine the benefit to society if all citizens have taken an introductory course where they learn about individual differences between people, how memory and the brain work, the applicability of lifespan development, the connections between the mind and body, the sociocultural context of the world in which we live, and the excitement of scientific inquiry. Each of these areas is a domain within APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula.
I participated in the entire summit and was inspired by the creativity, passion and commitment of the teachers in attendance. The spirit of collaboration, excitement and good-will was palpable and the directorate and APA are committed to supporting and carrying out the work that started in Utah. Here’s to advancing education in psychology at the start of the pipeline, and to the hundreds of thousands of students who will benefit from the hard work this past summer.
References
American Psychological Association. (2012). Guidelines for preparing high school psychology teachers: Course-based and standards-based approaches. Washington, D.C.: Author. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/education/k12/teaching-guidelines.
Weaver, K.A. (2012, Spring). Guidelines for preparing high school psychology teachers: Course-based and standards-based approaches. Psychology Teacher Network, 22(1), 5-6. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/ptn/2012/03/issue.pdf.
About the author
Jaime “Jim” Diaz-Granados, PhD, is executive director for Education at the American Psychological Association. He joined APA in September 2014 after serving as chair and professor of psychology, neuroscience and biomedical studies in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor University. He received his PhD in psychology (behavioral neuroscience concentration) from The University of Texas at Austin. Prior to Baylor, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Medical University of South Carolina. His research focused on the developmental, behavioral and neurochemical aspects of alcohol abuse and addiction. He worked with animal models of fetal alcohol syndrome and adolescent alcohol abuse. His work has been funded by the NIH and the Department of Defense. He is past president of the Council of Graduate Departments of Psychology and a member of the Commission on Accreditation where he served as chair of the Research Work Group and Panel Review co-chair.
