Why should you join The Society for the Teaching of Psychologyopens in new window (STP; APA Div. 2)? That’s a good question. After all, in my previous columns you learned about all of the free resources that The Society for the Teaching of Psychology can give you, as well as all the programming you’ll find when attending conferences. So why should you actually become a member?
Because the members of STP get a lot more. In this column, let’s look at some of the most popular resources and opportunities that our members enjoy.
Opportunities for professional development and support
The STP Professional Development Mentoring Serviceopens in new window provides career-related assistance to help you improve your performance and enhance your career. We’ve built the program around the needs and interests of each individual. They’re matched with qualified mentors based on these interests. The program is international, although most participants are in the continental United States. Because it’s unlikely that mentors and mentees will be geographically close to one another, communication usually takes place through phone, internet (e.g., Skype or Zoom) and email.
I serve as a mentor for two early career psychologists. Our conversations sometimes cover mundane issues, such as classroom management, research plans or course design. Sometimes they get into deeper territory, such as philosophies of teaching, long-term career trajectories and balancing the demands of work while living a full life. The best part for me (beside being really helpful to others) is that I learn as much from my mentees as they learn from me, and we’ve become friends as well as colleagues.
Although this program was originally designed to support early career psychologists teaching at colleges and universities, it’s now expanding to support mid- and late-career members, as well as now including high school teachers. We’re also adding a special mentoring category for members who want help with research and writing in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). And we continue to add new resources all the time, such as webinars and special face-to-face meetings at conventions.
The STP Early Career Psychologists Committeeopens in new window (ECP) gives new faculty members a community that can assist with professional development. The ECP focuses on education, training and networking and represents ECP interests in STP matters. They also help ECPs connect with other divisions in APA. Some of the excellent resources provided for ECPs include:
- eBooks specifically designed to help ECPs, including:
○ "A Compendium of Scales for Use in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning"
○ "So you landed a job – What’s next: Advice for early career psychologists from early career psychologists"
○ "Introductory Psychology Teaching Primer: A Guide for New Teachers of Psyc 101"
- Online presentations on ECP-related topics, including:
○ Advice for Early Career Faculty: Job Market
○ Advice for Early Career Faculty Members and Graduate Students on SoTL
○ Assessing the Value of Diversity Statements in Course Syllabi
○ Navigating the Research and Publication Process as a New Faculty Member
- Teaching awards & funding especially for ECPs, such as:
○ Jane S. Halonen Teaching Excellence Award (Early Career)
○ Faculty Development Small Grants Program
○ Sage Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Award
○ STP Early Career Psychologist Travel Grant Program
○ American Psychological Foundation – Early Career Funding
○ NSF Early Career Development Grant (CAREER)
○ NIH funding information for New and Early Career Investigators
○ ECP Committee SoTL Poster Award at ACT
Graduate students who are members of STP are automatically members of the STP Graduate Student Teaching Associationopens in new window (GSTA), a community of teaching-focused colleagues. They offer excellent resources to help graduate students complete their degrees, enhance their teaching effectiveness and enter the professoriate. Graduate student members receive a reduced membership fee and access to many additional services. For instance, the GSTA listserv allows them to pose questions and discuss issues pertaining to the teaching of psychology. The GSTA website contains an ever growing list of resources. GSTA also has its own programming at the APA convention.
Finally, at the department level, STP’s Department Consulting Service, a joint service of the APA Education Directorate and STP, has a dedicated group of qualified consultants who assist psychology departments with academic program reviews, curriculum revisions, program renewal, grant writing, professional development, research facilities design, assessment and other needs.
Publications and communication
STP’s journal Teaching of Psychologyopens in new window brings you new ideas to help you spice up your existing courses, get started with a new class or facilitate your students’ educational outcomes. Dedicated to improving the learning and teaching process at all educational levels, ToP is a leading source of information and inspiration for all who teach psychology. Journal coverage includes empirical research on teaching and learning; studies of teacher or student characteristics; subject matter or content reviews for class use; investigations of student, course or teacher assessment; professional problems; essays on teaching; innovative course descriptions and evaluations; curriculum designs; bibliographic material; demonstrations and laboratory projects and news items.
TOPNEWS-Onlineopens in new window is STP’s monthly newsletter. It keeps members informed of new resources, upcoming conferences, grants and awards, and opportunities to get more involved in STP. Members can also post or find job opportunities related to the teaching of psychology in the STP Job Postings Forumopens in new window.
Awards and recognition
STP gives away thousands of dollars each year in awards and grants. Members can apply for funds to develop teaching-related resources, bring in speakers, travel to conferences, partner with colleagues at other institutions for special projects, and do research in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Grant opportunities through STP include:
- Instructional Resource Awardsopens in new window to develop new teaching resources that can be shared through the STP website or published in an appropriate venue.
- Partnership Grantsopens in new window to promote colleagues from different institutions working together on projects related to the teaching of psychology.
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grantsopens in new window to fund research projects in any stage of development, from design through publication.
- Conference Speaker Grantsopens in new window to help conference organizers defray the travel costs of guest speakers.
- Travel Awards:
○ The SAGE Teaching Innovations & Professional Development Awardopens in new window
○ International Travel Awardsopens in new window
○ Early Career Travel Grantsopens in new window
○ High School Teacher Travel Grantsopens in new window
STP also awards outstanding psychology teachingopens in new window in eight categories:
- High school: Mary Margaret Moffett Memorial Teaching Excellence Award
- Two-year colleges: Wayne Weiten Teaching Excellence Award
- Four-year colleges: Robert S. Daniel Teaching Excellence Award
- Graduate student: Wilbert J. McKeachie Teaching Excellence Award
- Early career: Jane S. Halonen Teaching Excellence Award
- Adjunct faculty Teaching Excellence Award
- STP Mentorship of Teachers Award
- STP Civic Engagement Award
Join us
I invite you to get all of these benefits and more, by joining The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (APA Div. 2)opens in new window. In addition to all the benefits we looked at in this column and my previous three, there are so many more. And now, membership in STP includes online access to the journal Psychology of Women Quarterly (thanks to a reciprocal agreement with the Society for the Psychology of Women, APA Div. 35). The cost of membership is just $25 per year for faculty, and only $15 for students, and you don’t need to be a member of APA to join us. Learn more about joining STP on our websiteopens in new window.
About the author
William S. Altman, PhD, is a professor in the psychology and human services department at SUNY Broome Community College. He earned PhD and MS degrees in educational psychology and measurement, and an MPS in communication arts from Cornell University, as well as a BA in history from the University of Pennsylvania. He studies effective teaching and learning strategies. The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) honored him with the Wayne Weiten Teaching Excellence Award in 2018.
Altman currently serves as STP’s vice president for resources. He’s been a consulting editor and reviewer for "Teaching of Psychology," coordinator of STP Programming for the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology, co-editor for "E-xcellence in Teaching" essay series, a contributor to the Teaching of Psychology Idea Exchange (ToPIX) and has written and edited a number of academic and nonscholarly publications. He also spent over a decade on local radio, was a professional photographer, and performed in theater and as a standup comic (ostensibly to work on classroom presentation skills, but mostly because it's fun).
He’s driven by a wide and unpredictable curiosity, an almost pathological and sometimes annoying need to solve problems of nearly any sort, and a sense that it all ought to be fun.
