Ten Recommendations for High School Psychology Teachers Who Want to Help Their Students Develop the Skills They Will Need to Flourish in College and the Workplace

The subject matter taught by high school psychology teachers puts them in a unique position to help their students flourish not only in high school, but also in their future academic and professional lives. For example, research supported by ETS (Burrus, Jackson, Xi, & Steinberg, 2013) confirmed that psychological knowledge — defined by the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) as an understanding of “human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders”—was ranked as the sixth most important knowledge domain for success in the occupations contained in O*NET that require at least a vocational or associate's degree and the fourth most important knowledge domain for the occupations that require a degree beyond the bachelor’s. 

Burrus, et al. (2013) also reported that the skills and personal characteristics that can be developed and strengthened in the high school classroom — and then put to good use on-the-job — are even more important than knowledge for occupational success. These skills and characteristics, which are known by a variety of names (e.g., transferable, metacognitive and emotional skills) include responsibility, attention to detail, critical thinking, social perceptiveness, integrity, cooperation, time management, adaptability and stress tolerance. Appleby (2016a), Appleby (2016b), Holmes (2014), and Shoenberg (2008) have also reported that many of these characteristics are the same as those needed by college students to make a successful transition from secondary to higher education.

The take home message from this research is that high school psychology teachers are in a unique position to help their students to prepare for, adapt to, and succeed in college and the workplace because they can provide them with both the knowledge and the skills they will need to succeed. By providing them with accurate psychological knowledge, high school psychology teachers are already doing a good job of providing their students with the appropriate psychological knowledge they will need to succeed in the future. But what they may be lacking is a set of strategies to enable their students to develop the skills that are equally, if not more, important for success in college and the workforce. The recommendations below provide high school psychology teachers with a set of aspirational recommendations that can guide them through a sequence of suggested actions to help their students flourish.

Ten Recommendations for High School Psychology Teachers Who Want to Help Their Students Develop the Skills They Will Need to Flourish in College and the Workplace

1. Be aware of and understand the most important transferable, metacognitive, and emotional skills your students will need to flourish in higher education, the workplace and their personal lives. 

2. Share this information with your students in a manner that will motivate them to develop and strengthen these skills by helping them to understand the value of these skills for their future educational and occupational success.

3. Inform your administrators and the parents of your students about the nature and value of these skills so they will support your methods to help your students acquire them.

4. Identify and emphasize course content that will help your students understand, value and develop these skills.

5. Create and utilize diversity-sensitive activities and assignments that will enable your students to acquire, practice and strengthen these skills.

6. Model these skills for your students in your classroom.

7. Provide opportunities for your students to articulate the skills they have developed in a clear, compelling and confident manner. 

8. Provide your students with examples of how to market the skills they have developed to achieve their educational, professional and personal goals.

9. Assess your students’ ability to demonstrate these skills.

10. Use the results of your assessments to improve your future students’ ability to demonstrate these skills.

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