The College Board, which runs the high school Advanced Placement (AP) Program, has moved AP psychology from a portfolio that included history, government, and politics to a science portfolio that includes biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental science. An APA group is also proposing revisions to the national standards for high school psychology curricula that emphasize the subject’s status as a science.
These moves aim to expose a huge segment of the public to that message. Almost a third of graduating high school students in the United States have taken psychology, according to past data from the National Center for Education Statistics. When it comes to AP psychology courses, growth has been exponential, with the number of students taking the exam jumping from 151,006 students in 2009 to 311,215 in 2019. (Growth among female students has been even more impressive, with the number of female students taking AP psychology courses during that period increasing by 114%, outpacing the overall 106% growth.) The exam now attracts the fifth-highest number of students of the 38 AP subjects offered and is the most popular of the science tests, according to the College Board’s 2021 Program Summary.
But despite psychology’s popularity, students sometimes don’t realize it’s a science, said Julie Gowans, who teaches AP psychology at Utah’s Payson High School. For example, some students come in to her AP class convinced that people only use 10% of their brains or that ESP is real.
“I’m constantly saying that just because you saw it on TikTok or read it on a meme doesn’t make it true,” said Gowans. “I remind them that psychology is a science and that findings need to be backed up by science.”
Departmental structure can also diminish psychology’s status as a science. In most high schools, psychology is housed within the social studies or social sciences departments.
“Not everyone teaching psychology in our country is even credentialed in psychology,” said Gowans, explaining that some teachers are simply asked to take on psychology along with other classes they are teaching, such as geography or social studies. “They don’t have a background in psychology or really know what it is, how to teach it, or the difference between real science and pseudoscience.”
The numbers back up the credentialing issue, said Susan Orsillo, PhD, senior director of psychology education and training at APA. Sixty-nine percent of high school psychology teachers who responded to a recent APA Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools (TOPSS) survey reported that they had a state credential in social studies or social science, with only 42% having a state credential in psychology.
But psychology’s popularity among high school and undergraduate students makes it especially important to take advantage of this opportunity to get across the fact that psychology is a science, said Orsillo.
“Imagine if you could place an ad that would reach 300,000 people, an ad that goes on for an entire semester or a year,” she said, noting that for many students, this introductory high school class will be their only formal exposure to psychology. “This is an unbelievable opportunity to teach the value of psychology.”
High school psychology can help students achieve scientific literacy and acquire the skills they need to assess information—and misinformation—about the pandemic, climate change, or other topics affecting their lives, Orsillo explained. By showing how psychological science can address such key societal issues as racism or bias against gender and sexual minorities, high school psychology can get students excited and help attract greater diversity to the profession. The class can also help students lead healthier lives, understand themselves better, appreciate the importance of mental health, and reduce stigma around mental illness.
New national standards
APA and other education organizations are making it easier for high school psychology teachers to teach psychology as the science it is, no matter what department offers it. An APA working group has proposed revised national standards for high school psychology curricula, which were approved by APA’s Council of Representatives in late February to make them official APA policy. The revised standards build on past efforts.
In 2017, the APA Summit on High School Psychology Education made the case that psychology is a science and should be part of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (stem) programs in high schools. Supported by the work of other summit working groups, the report that the Working Group on Psychology as Science produced not only explains why psychology is a science but also offers resources for teachers who want to become advocates.
“Most introductory psychology classes are housed in the social studies department, and teachers are trained in teaching social studies, not the science of psychology,” said Kristin Whitlock, a psychology teacher at Davis High School in Kaysville, Utah, who cochaired the working group. “We wanted to give teachers information they could use as they advocate within their own states for why psychology should be moved out of social studies or why students should at least earn science credits for taking the class.”
One theme that emerged from the summit’s research was the need to emphasize the how of psychological science as well as the what, said Whitlock. As the group examined national standards for other high school science classes, she said, “what stood out was that in psychology, students learn the concept of psychology but don’t really do psychology.”
That emphasis on doing science underpins APA’s revised National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula, said Tina Athanasopoulos, who chaired APA’s National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula Working Group.
Think of the revised standards like the Parthenon, said Athanasopoulos, who also heads the Division of Social Science and World Language at Prospect High School in Mount Prospect, Illinois. In the revised standards, scientific inquiry and research methods make up the building’s floor. There are five pillars representing the major content domains: biology, cognition, development and learning, social and personality psychology, and physical and mental health. The roof is made up of themes to be integrated throughout courses, such as diversity, equity, inclusion in pursuit of a more just society, and the idea that applying psychological principles can improve lives, organizations, and communities.
“We’ve moved research and scientific methods from a content pillar and made it the foundation,” said Athanasopoulos. “It’s not like one unit; research should be ingrained in every unit you’re covering with students.”
The pillar model and the integrative themes draw on the work of APA’s Introductory Psychology Initiative (IPI), which focused on undergraduate psychology. APA’s Council of Representatives approved IPI’s recommended set of student learning outcomes for the introductory psychology course in October 2021.
A revised AP course
The IPI also prompted changes at the College Board, with AP psychology now housed within the science portfolio.
“The College Board is not the arbiter of whether something is classified as a science, social studies, or what have you,” said psychologist Amy Fineburg, PhD, director of AP Psychology Curriculum at the College Board and a past president of APA’s Division 2 (Society for the Teaching of Psychology). “We follow guidance from professionals in the field and professional organizations like APA.”
The College Board has also overhauled its AP psychology framework so that it aligns with the revised guidelines and the desired student learning outcomes the IPI identified. “What we’re trying to do is make sure students have the best possible chance of earning college credit through the AP course and exam,” said Fineburg. “And the best way to do that is to align them with recommendations from professionals in the field.”
In the past, Fineburg explained, the section on scientific methods was a separate unit in the AP psychology course. In the new version, research methods and data interpretation are not just the foundation of the course but are integrated into every other unit of study. “We feel that this approach really helps to solidify the notion that research methods are the basis for drawing conclusions as a psychologist, whether you’re in practice or in an academic, research-oriented subfield of psychology.”
The College Board released the proposed frameworkopens in new window for public comment in December 2021 and plans to offer training and resources for teachers to begin implementing it in the 2023–24 school year.
Support for teachers
All these changes may be daunting for some teachers, admitted Terri Lindenberg, chair-elect of TOPSS and a psychology teacher at Lake Park High School in Roselle, Illinois.
“A lot of psychology teachers don’t have a background in psychology and are often just given a psychology class to teach,” said Lindenberg. “That can be a little intimidating.”
And while moving psychology classes into science departments would help students by letting them earn needed science credits and would open up scholarships and other opportunities available in the stem disciplines, teachers may fear that move, added Whitlock. Many teachers, especially those trained in teaching social studies, worry they won’t be allowed to teach psychology if it moves into the science department, she explained. States will need to grapple with whether to allow current psychology teachers to teach the course no matter where it ends up. They will also need to consider how psychology teachers are trained and credentialed, she said.
APA and TOPSS are aware of the concerns of current psychology teachers, said Emily Leary Chesnes, associate director of precollege and undergraduate education at APA. “We are considering how to promote psychology as a science at the high school level without disenfranchising current teachers who enjoy and excel at teaching the course,” she said, adding that changes aren’t likely to happen in most schools soon.
Currently, only 13 states require a psychology teaching credential to teach high school psychology, according to APA’s Advocacy Toolkit for the Psychology Teaching Credential, and more than 30 states have no psychology curriculum standards. Encouraging state boards of education to adopt APA’s proposed curriculum standards is a key goal, said Leary Chesnes. TOPSS will also continue to talk with states about credentialing or recertification, said TOPSS Chair Dana Melone, a psychology teacher at Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Those aren’t the only goals for TOPSS, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year and welcomes as members all high school psychology teachers regardless of their background and training. The committee will also promote the revised standards among high school psychology teachers, promote TOPSS’s existing resources for teachers (see Resources below), and develop new professional development opportunities for teachers.
Said Melone, “The more we can get the word out to schools about the standards and TOPSS’s resources, the better off teachers will be.”
