So, you've been asked to teach a psychology course and have no idea where to start? At a workshop or meeting of psychology teachers, you are puzzled when someone asks if you follow the domains? When your school administrators ask you to submit a formal curriculum complete with content standards for your high school level psychology class, do you wish someone in the country had one posted online?
Believe it or not, since 1999 TOPSS (Teacher of Psychology in Secondary Schools) has published national standards for a high school psychology course (non-AP). The document has gone through a number of different names, but it is now referred to as "National Standards for High School Psychology Curricula".
The Standards have been endorsed by the National Council of Social Studies (NCSS) and would make an ideal framework for any state's educational standards.
The standards can be found online in a PDF format at http://www.apa.org/ed/natlstandards.html or from the "Links of Interest" section of this blog. The document can be downloaded by sections or as one complete file.
The National psych standards are revolutionary in several ways. The only national standards (as far as I know) that retain teacher autonomy by allowing teachers to pick specific chapters from the domains. I wish more standards documents followed this example.
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