APA strengthens standards for high school psychology courses

The way high school students learn psychology will soon change, thanks to new standards outlined by the American Psychological Association. For the second time in 12 years, the National Standards For High School Psychology Curricula has been revised to give educators and related professionals a baseline for the type of materials students should be taught when it comes to psychology courses at the high school level. Some of the major changes to the standards this time around include the expansion to seven topical domains of learning: scientific inquiry, biopsychology, development and learning, sociocultural context, cognition, individual variations, and applications of psychological science. Other additional new standard areas of learning will cover socialcultural diversity, social interactions, and health and vocational applications.

“The revisions emphasize overarching themes that strongly contribute to psychological science,” said National Standards Working Group Chair Amy Fineburg, PhD, who also works at Oak Mountain High School in Birmingham, Ala. “For example, diversity issues are part of every domain in psychological education.”

The revised standards also suggest that educators incorporate “overarching themes as the foundation for developing their courses.” Those recommended themes include:

• The development of scientific attitudes and skills, including critical thinking, problem solving and an appreciation for scientific methodology
• A recognition of the diversity of individuals who advance the field
• A multicultural and global perspective that recognizes how diversity is important to understanding psychology
• An awareness that psychological knowledge, like all scientific knowledge, evolves rapidly as new discoveries are made
• An acknowledgement that psychology explores behavior and mental processes of both human and non-human animals
• An appreciation for ethical standards that regulate scientific research and professional practice
• An understanding that different content areas within psychological science are interconnected
• An ability to relate psychological knowledge to everyday life
• A knowledge of the variety of careers available to those who study psychology
• An appreciation that psychological science and knowledge can be useful in addressing a wide array of issues, from individual to global levels
• An awareness of the importance of drawing evidence-based conclusions about psychological phenomena

According to the APA, more than 16,000 students took the International Baccalaureate (IB) Psychology test in 2011. That same year, some 199,000 students took the Advanced Placement (AP) exam in psychology — up from a mere 3,900 back when the test first became available in 1992. These numbers indicate the growing popularity of psychology among the nation’s students, making the stronger standards for high school courses understandable.

“Psychology is one of the fastest growing electives in high school,” Fineburg said. “These standards not only strengthen psychology as an elective, but as a core science course.”

The standards also outlined several special recommendations that should be considered when embarking upon the task of teaching a high school psychology course or creating a curriculum for secondary schools. Those suggested considerations include the use of active learning, the inclusion of issues surrounding diversity, the incorporation of multiple resources when creating lesson plans, and ensuring the representation of the global nature of psychology.