A new APA initiative, proposed by Jessica Henderson Daniel, PhD, APA president, is the Citizen Psychologist (CP). “Citizen Psychologists serve as leaders in their various communities who, through prolonged engagement in significant activities, contribute to improving the lives of all” (APA, 2018). The initiative included a survey, an educational component and acknowledgment of CPs. From the survey, we learned that CPs became involved in the community at an early age and psychological training impacted their citizenship (APA, 2018). The educational component consisted of developing and disseminating learning outcomes to prepare CPs at all levels of learning: from high school; undergraduate; graduate; to life-long learning. In this article we provide ideas and activities for high school and undergraduate students to increase engagement in their communities.
High school
As young people begin to explore psychological principles in high school in general, AP and IB coursework, there are several opportunities to infuse school and local community engagement into the curriculum. Four competencies were identified from the National Standards for High School Psychology Curriculaopens in new window (PDF, 815KB) (APA, 2011): application of knowledge; community awareness; community engagement and advocacy. For each of these competencies, activities, assessments and resources are provided that can be directly translated into the high school classroom.
In the first competency, application of psychological knowledge, students apply scientific methods and critical thinking to news reports in their community. After reading articles in the local paper and/or watching news reports from local stations, students evaluate the news using the CRAAP test (Blakeslee, 2004) (Nolan, 2017). This tool allows students to more easily remember key elements to evaluating news: currency; relevance; authority; accuracy and purpose. After assessing the materials, students may share with the school community (student announcements video, school paper) and with the local community (letter to the editor, online comments section response) their analyses.
Activities are also available in the three other competencies of the high school module. These include “How Psychology Benefits Society” video activity, a service learning activity, and noise pollution research and advocacy in the local community. Further details on these lessons, including links and sample materials, are available on the Citizen Psychologist page.
In addition to specific lessons, numerous resources are available in the Citizen Psychologist Curriculum. These include suggested content areas that connect with citizen psychologist objectives, classroom exercises, online service learning assessment tools, lists of volunteer and/or extracurricular opportunities, and a variety of assessment options. This allows educators to tailor these activities and lessons to the needs of their community within the time constraints of their courses.
Undergraduate
To facilitate the preparation of CPs, in the undergraduate module we highlighted four competencies (community awareness, engagement, advocacy and leadership) related to the "APA Guidelines for Undergraduate Psychology Major"opens in new window (PDF, 448KB) (APA, 2013) learning outcomes. For each competency, the module provides examples of activities, assessment and resources. Several of the activities proposed involve service learning.
One activity proposed to support student engagement comprises of having students interact with members of a community agency, based on identified needs. For instance, students may tutor individuals or interact with diverse populations in a service setting (shelter, hospital). This direct service learning project works for several psychology courses. In the introductory psychology course, the concepts emphasized could be: conditioning, learning, memory, developmental stages, personality theories, obedience, to mention a few. In a developmental course, the students may be assigned to work with people of different ages. This activity would also work well for courses such as social psychology, personality, cognition, learning and multicultural.
Before starting the service, the students need training regarding their roles and responsibilities (for details see Chapdelaine, Ruiz, Warchal & Well, 2005). For service learning projects to succeed, the students prepare reflections. For the reflection, we used a framework proposed by Bringle, Reeb, Brown and Ruiz (2016) which consists of three parts: description of the activity, examination of learning and articulation of learning. For description, ask students to describe the program, activities performed, people in attendance, something they found interesting about the service experience, etc. The examination part is based on course outcomes and Bloom’s taxonomy. Some suggestions for prompts could be: identify a course concept relevant to understanding the interactions between you and the participants of the program (knowledge); define, in your own words, the concept identified (comprehension); and, explain how the concept is relevant to what you did at the placement (application). The third part of the reflection is the articulation of learning. Ask students to fill in the blanks, "As a result of completing this reflection… I learned that… I learned this when… This learning matters because…" "In light of this learning, in the future I will…"
Finally, the assessment should include the students as well as the community partners. For the students, the reflection may be used as assessment measure of the learning outcomes. However, any of the content covered in the course and experienced in the service could be included in tests or exams. For the community partner, a survey could ask about goals achieved, positive outcomes, issues that need to be changed and the overall quality of the activity.
In the words of Daniel, “Psychology is every day in every way.” We hope these ideas will be inspirational and support the creation of projects that will develop and support students’ citizenship. For a look at some models, go to Standout Citizen Psychologists.
References
American Psychological Association. (2013). APA guidelines for the undergraduate psychology major: Version 2.0 . Retrieved from http: //www.apa.org/ed/precollege/undergrad/index .
American Psychological Association. (2011). National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/education/k12/psychology-curricula.pdfopens in new window (PDF, 815KB).
Blakeslee, S. (2004). The CRAAP test. LOEX Quarterly, 31(3), 6-7.
Bringle, R.G., Reeb, R.N., Brown, M.A. & Ruiz, A.I. (2016). Service Learning in Psychology: Enhancing Undergraduate Education for the Public Good. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. doi.org/10.1037/14803-001.
Chapdelaine, A., Ruiz, A., Warchal, J. & Wells, C. (2005). Service-Learning Code of Ethics. Boston: Anker Publishing Co.
Nolan, S.A. (2017). Critical thinking and information fluency: Fake news in the classroom. Psychology Teacher Network, 27(2). Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/ptn/2017/05/fake-news.
About the authors
Lara Bruner is a teacher of psychology at Desert Vista High School in Phoenix. She runs the Arizona Teaching of Psychology Conference for high school and postsecondary instructors and contributed to the APA Summit on High School Psychology Education. Lara serves on state level government committees related to assessment and meeting the needs of students with disabilities. Connecting psychological research to professional development, recruitment and retention of educators is a new area in which she is currently serving.
Ana I. Ruiz is a professor of psychology at Alvernia University, Reading, Pennsylvania. As a member of the Citizen Psychologist Working Group, she contributed to the development of educational materials for the undergraduate module. Her publications include the books “Service Learning in Psychology: Enhancing Undergraduate Education for the Public Good” and “Service-Learning Code of Ethics,” and chapters and articles on teaching ethics to undergraduate psychology students, ethical issues on both international service learning and research on international service learning, and the impact of service on alumni career development. She is the co-creator of the online resource Teaching Ethics to Undergraduate Psychology Students. She received a BS from Catholic University of Pernambuco, Brazil; an MA, cognitive development, from Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil and a PhD, developmental psychology, from Cornell University. She also participated in the Wye Faculty Seminar, Aspen Institute. She teaches introductory, development and diversity courses in psychology.
