WASHINGTON — Tiffany Karns, a psychology teacher at Rowlett High School in Rowlett, Texas, has been named a winner of the 2017 APA TOPSS Charles T. Blair-Broeker Excellence in Teaching Award by the American Psychological Association’s Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools.
“Tiffany is the ultimate all-around teacher — dynamic and creative,” said Kristin Whitlock, MEd, chair of APA’s Committee of Teachers of Psychology in Secondary Schools. “She genuinely loves the subject, the school and believes in all of her students.”
Through Karns’s love of psychology and her ability to build strong relationships with students, the psychology program at Rowlett High has grown to where she currently teaches five sections of Advanced Placement psychology as her only course. During the prior 19 years, Karns taught mostly regular psychology courses.
Additionally, Karns made a broader impact on psychology education through the AP Psychology Reading with the College Board, the organization that produces the exam. This annual grading event has had a positive impact on her teaching and student learning, according to Whitlock, and has earned her a promotion to question leader, responsible for creating the rubric to grade one of the free response questions on the exam.
Karns teaches at a school with a diverse and economically challenged student population, many of whom have never taken an AP course.
“Sometimes, minority students and economically disadvantaged students are underserved in academics and the path to college,” said Karns. “I encourage those students to take a risk and try a course like AP Psychology. The work that we do in class, and the relationship that I develop with my students tends to attract more students to sign up.”
Her colleagues say that Karns’s urging the students to challenge themselves has created a dynamic and positive learning environment. “Tiffany engages students in a way that captivates them, motivates them and excites them about learning psychology,” said J.R. Hughes, assistant principal at Naaman Forest High School in Garland, Texas.
Former students credit Karns as a major influence in identifying their own career ambitions.
“I had no idea that Mrs. Karns’ AP Psychology class would be the precise launching pad which propelled me to where I am today: a first year graduate student in an APA-accredited clinical psychology doctoral program,” said Amber Morrow, a former Karns student. “I have no doubt that Mrs. Karns is one of the main reasons I continued in the field of psychology, not only through my psychology major in undergraduate studies, but now as a graduate student, and later on when I obtain my PhD and become a psychologist.”
Karns’s commitment to teaching extends to her colleagues also. In 2016, Karns helped create the Rowlett Way Ambassadors, a group of veteran teachers that helps keep positive morale alive among staff members.
Karns will receive a framed certificate, an engraved award, $500 and a complimentary TOPSS membership renewal for 2018. Additionally, Worth Publishers is providing her with a $500 credit to Bedford Freeman & Worth Publishers and a copy of the High School Psychology Video Anthology DVD.
The award is named for retired psychology teacher Charles T. Blair-Broeker, MAT, who taught for 39 years at Cedar Falls High School in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
In 2017, TOPSS marks its 25th anniversary as the voice of high school psychology teachers within APA. Through APA’s Education Directorate, TOPSS offers teaching materials, professional development, the Psychology Teacher Network quarterly newsletter and programs for high school psychology teachers and students. There are approximately 2,000 APA high school teacher affiliates in APA. Psychology continues to be one of the most popular high school AP courses, with over 293,000 students taking the AP exam in 2016, an increase of more than 16,000 over the previous year. International Baccalaureate psychology courses are also popular, with more than 19,500 students worldwide taking the IB psychology exam in 2016. Introductory psychology courses (non-AP/IB) are also taught in high schools.
In recognition of the importance of high school psychology courses in the pipeline into the discipline, the first-ever APA Summit on High School Psychology Education will be held July 9-14, at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. The goal of the summit is to promote the value, delivery, assessment and reach of psychological science through the teaching of high school psychology.
TOPSS’s mission is to promote the highest standards in the teaching of psychology as a science and discipline; promote professional development and other means for lifelong learning for high school teachers of psychology; facilitate networking among teachers from all teaching levels of psychology; encourage recruitment and retention of students in the field of psychology; enhance the visibility and legitimacy of high school psychology; and recommend the appropriate advocacy, education policy and certification issues that impact the quality or visibility of teaching of high school psychology. Learn more about TOPSS on the webpage and on its Facebookopens in new window page.
The American Psychological Association, in Washington, D.C., is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States. APA's membership includes nearly 115,700 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 54 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance the creation, communication and application of psychological knowledge to benefit society and improve people's lives.