APA Psychology Summit Days 5 & 6

Hi All,

This is Chuck again posting the final concurrent blog post on the APA Psychology Summit in Ogden, Utah at Weber (Wee-burr) State University. These represent my reflections and perceptions and not those of the event organizers.

As I write this, I am in a hotel room in Park City, Utah, east of Salt Lake City. It was the location of the 2002 Winter Olympics as well as the Sundance film festival. I mention this to emphasize that when you have conferences/meetings you attend, see if you can find out if you can add a day or more to the time in the area to take in the local sites. My plan is to go hiking in the Wasatch Mountains tomorrow morning to see how well I can handle the altitude. I live near sea level in California. I've already walked part of the city and had dinner. As I was driving here, my lack of sleep caught up with me and once I got to the hotel room, I crashed.

Thursday events

Last push with our presentations--editing and practice--each group had only ten minutes and each could easily have been an hour. The time constraints really made us focus. We had so much we accomplished within each group and there was so much to share. A common theme of participants was that we wanted more time to present and to listen to the other groups. We had to get creative.

Each strand had recommendations to the APA on what they would like to see in order to accomplish their goals. I cannot emphasize this enough--this will take a few months for some and years or even decades for others. This week was already one dream come true. There are many others that will take time, effort, and advocacy to occur. The younger teachers in the first ten years of their careers will need to take up the mantle and carry out the recommendations on how to improve high school psychology that we came up with and adapt them to the changing conditions of the future.

After hearing the wonderful work that the strand groups completed, we debriefed and went back to the dorms to change clothes. There was a reception at the Alumni House prior to the talk by Dr. David Myers of introductory psychology and social psychology textbooks. He had been with us throughout the day exchanging stories with anyone who spoke with him. He is an incredibly kind and receptive man.

Prior to dinner, we moved to the Dumkey room where we were treated to Dr. Myers talk titled, "Teaching Psychological Science in a Post-Truth Age." As a good scientist, every time he made an assertion, he backed it up with data and logical support. He also had a nice collection of relevant cartoons to illustrate his points.

Dinner came next with lots of socializing and connecting there at the alumni house. We made our way back to the dorm where there were at least three different lounges and kitchens where conversations took place. Though we worked during our day sessions, we got to know each other as fellow humans outside the world of psychology and got to know some of each others' stories. The week left me so amped and stoked, I did not want to go back to my room and to sleep. I stayed out talking with my new and old friends until about 12:30 am. I got less than six hours of sleep going into Friday morning. Just like in college, it was worth it.

Friday wrap-up

In the morning, most of us were up later than usual and speedily packing for our return flights home. Even after staying up late the night before, Tomee Pace led her group in one last yoga session at 6:30 am.  During breakfast, we shared the microphones and thought about our next steps as individuals. The APA will be taking the recommendations to the Education Directorate and the Board of Educational Affairs.

We finished with last goodbyes, hugs, tears, and a variety of feelings that were warm and fuzzy. Suitcases were lugged, keys and cards were turned in and transitions back to "real life" begun. It was a life-changing experience for me.

There will be more to come regarding the conclusions, the recommendations, and the next steps that we will be taking in our part of the field of psychology.

Once I get home and settled next week, I will post some pictures.

Charles Schallhorn (L) and Dr. David Myers (R)

Conclusions and Reflections

I left the week some incredibly motivated, energized, and inspired. In talking with several people, none had ever had a professional experience as powerful like this. My experience includes a month at the National Science Foundation at Eastern Illinois where I met Kent Korek of APSI and THSP blog fame, and two weeks at Nebraska Wesleyan where I met Randy Ernst, Charlie Blair-Broeker, Rob MacEntarffer, Alan Feldman, and many others. A large number of us remain friends to this day. Others had been at the St. Marys Conferences, others at the P3 conference, and other attempts to advance the level and quality of high school psychology.

The first word of the conference was "Science"
The last word of the conference was "Champion"
Talk to participants to see what each of those words means to them.


posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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APA Psychology Summit Day 3

Today's post will be quite a bit shorter than the last two. Today was work and more work. We had no special speakers or illustrious guests outside of the outstanding group of people who are here. As I write this, it is 10:45 pm local time. After dinner, we have had shuttle buses taking us back to the campus. After several hours of work with our groups, most of us are knackered. Despite our sleepiness, even many of us who were up early continued so many important conversations.

I cannot emphasize how important these conversations are. Imagine you are passionate about some topic. Now fill a room with 70+ people who are just as passionate about your topic. Then give all of them experiences worth sharing to other individuals and groups. There is no real "down time" for most of us here. We get up, begin talking with others about something psych or summit-related. Then we have breakfast, talk some more, and move to our strand groups to work on our goals, our deliverables, and our recommendations to the APA regarding our topics. As a reminder, here are our strands:

1. Psychology as Science
2. Skills that Improve Flourishing and Well-Being
3. National Standards for High School Psychology Education
4. Assessing Skills and Content in Psychology
5. Identifying and Credentialing High School Psychology Teachers
6. Ongoing Professional Development
7. Diversity and Access
8. Technology and Online Learning

As you can imagine, each strand bleeds over into another. Of course, you realize that if you are talking about psychology as a science, you need to discuss what the standards are going to look like. If you are on assessing skills and content, that connects to not only the standards but which skills? How do those skills relate to the other sciences and the skills they develop? If we are going to add the teaching of skills to an introductory psychology course, how will we help teachers learn what the skills are and how to teach them--oh, we need to talk with the professional development strand. One question gets asked often in psychology is, "why are sp many of the people we are studying dead, white men?" So let's talk to the diversity and access strand about their research and recommendations about what diversity is, how diverse the fields of  teaching and psychology are, and how to increase diversity both in research (researchers and research subjects) and in teaching (why do we not have people of color in the American teaching profession? What can we do to change that?) What can/should we do to have teaching and psychology look more like the face of our citizenry?

Now take those questions, multiply them by at least 50 for each strand and things start to get quite complex. Most or all of the strands have subdivided in order to cover more ground and create a more substantive set of recommendations. Each group has its own rationale. Each group needs to talk with and work with other groups to find out directions and decisions being made. It's a human spiderweb of interactions.

Did I mention that there was a freshman orientation on campus this morning? Or how the mountains are looking so inviting? Suffice it to say there are many distractions being in this beautiful party of the country, but passion is overcoming distraction for nearly all of us (I will never be definitive when it comes to human behavior--there are always exceptions to generalizations). It was said during the week that we are really running eight different conferences this week-one for each strand. Other contend that the number is really greater than that with the subgroups. Other say there are even more because of all the sharing of ideas and experiences. Perhaps we are having eight primary conferences and hundreds of tertiary conferences. In any case, cognitive load is taking its toll and we are tired. I'm going to upload a few pictures, post this link to social media, and go to bed. Good night all!

25th St, Downtown Ogden before dinner

Zucca Tratoria Italian Restaurant for Dinner

Sunset Over Ogden (pic credit Schallhorn)

Sunset over Ogden (picture credit Schaffield)

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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APA Psychology Summit Day 2

Day two of the APA Psychology Summit began with a leadership meeting in the morning, shortly after Tomee led a group of teachers in yoga. After breakfast (we are being fed quite well), Dr. Eric Amsel, Associate Provost of Weber State, Dr. Aaron Ashley, Psychology Department Chair, and Dr. Charles Wright, President of Weber State all greeted and welcomed us officially for our first day of work.

Next came Dr. Yaira Sánchez, from Academia Marie Reina in Puerto Rico, who introduced Dr. Tammy Hughes of Duquesne University. She valiantly stepped in for the ailing Dr. Frank Worrel for today's keynote speech. She had to take Dr. Worrel's work and presentation on diversity research and make it her own. If we had not known that it was not her presentation and that she had only a week to prepare, we would not have known she was the pinch hitter. She shared many important pieces of research on identity, connection to dominant groups, academic achievement, and connections among these and other variables.

After a brief break, we began to work in our strands.

1. Psychology as Science
2. Skills that Improve Flourishing and Well-Being
3. National Standards for High School Psychology Education
4. Assessing Skills and Content in Psychology
5. Identifying and Credentialing High School Psychology Teachers
6. Ongoing Professional Development
7. Diversity and Access
8. Technology and Online Learning

Each working group has two co-chairs and at least six other people to complete the work. There is more to come on the details of what each group will be coming up with and recommending. A big part of this summit is to lay the groundwork and framework for work that will be completed by groups to come later. Some will be within TOPSS such as reworking the national standards and working with the education directorate to obtain funding for more week-long professional development opportunities for psychology teachers as well as taking the resources already in existence and reorganize them and create video demonstrations for teachers to learn how to show a concept in class. So as you can see with both this and with the additional ideas above, there will be work that will be years in progress for this group to begin and for others to continue and/or finish.

During lunch, we viewed a video of students from Maria Vita's classes and Kristin Whitlock's classes about what psychology meant to them. We were already sitting with our teams in our respective strands. We discussed as a group our takeaways from the video and then shared out as a large group from each table. 

After lunch, we returned to our work rooms and spent the afternoon progressing in our various strands. Work was intense and beneficial. The pure joy so many of us felt at working with others who are just as passionate about psychology is so incredibly energizing. Friendships have been both created and continued today.

Dinner was a barbecue of steak or chicken. Excellent food again Weber State!

For some pictures, check out the Facebook page for the NCSS Psychology Group if you are a member. If not, contact Daria Schaffield to become a lifetime member. I have Daria to thanks for most of the pictures posted below. She and friends went on a walk after dinner and saw spectacular views. 

KEn Weaver leading the lunch discussion--Brad Wray and Rob MacEntarffer with the Microphone
Yes, we threw it around the room to speak.  

Our Weber State hosts pose with Tony Puente, APA President

This is the entire summit group of participants at lunch today. Thank you to Emily Chesnes for this photo.

posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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APA Psychology Summit Day 1

After hours of travel, we gathered on the campus of Weber State University at the foot of the Wasatch Mountains. Some arrived for meetings on the 8th. Most of us arrived today traveling from Connecticut, Puerto Rico, Arizona, Michigan, California, Florida, and other far-flung locales from around the US. Why are we here? Take a look at the details of the Psychology Summit at this link.

Several different groups had lunch at a local pizza place called the Pie Pizzeria. For the math aficionado among us, all the staff had a large 𝝅 on their shirts.

The heat and the altitude combined with a long day of travel created many thirsty travelers. The campus gave us a water bottle in our welcome bag and there are refill stations around campus near every drinking fountain. Great use of resources! Nearly everyone commented on the beauty of the mountains. Some even went for hikes before the events of the late afternoon.

In the morning before everyone else arrived, the steering committee made final decisions about what approaches each of the eight strands were to take. From 2 to 4, there was another leadership meeting that included the current TOPSS board. At 4 pm, all 70 of us or so gathered for refreshments and had a big getting to know you set of conversations as well as some reunions. We were reminded that during all of our work this week, we needed to keep our mission in mind: "to create the best future for high school psychology education." Further solidified later in the talks was the message that there are many people who have taught psychology in some form in secondary schools going back almost 200 years. We are building on their work and the work we are doing is not some final product. We are only beginning this process for others to build on. The is a start point, not an endpoint. There will be many opportunities for people around the country to become involved in what we begin this week.

Dr. Randy Ernst and Dr. Amy Fineberg, steering committee co-chairs, introduced the evening and prepared us for the week to come. CEO of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Arthur Evans send a pre-recorded message to our group. Dr. Jaime Diaz-Granados, Executive Director of the APA Education Directorate share some wisdom. Dr. Tony Puente, President of the APA shared a history of teaching high school psychology showing us where it has been. At the end of his speech, Dr. Puente gave Randy Ernst an award for which no one was aware ahead of time recognizing Randy's contributions over the past 35 years to the teaching of high school psychology.

Randy Ernst and Tony Puente pose after the night's dinner

Kristin Whitlock, TOPSS Chair, introduced Charlie Blair-Broeker, a 38-year veteran of high school psychology. Charlie gave a humorous look at the history of teaching psychology during his lifetime, from the old reel-to-reel projectors to electric typewriters and more. The younger in the audience looked upon some of the tools of education with either bewilderment or horror as they appeared to not be aware of technology before computers. Just saying.

Charlie Blair-Broeker

Tony Puente

The evening was ultimately filled with one of hope and forthcoming effort recognizing that each of us has a part to play in the next steps of what happens in the history of high school psychology. Stay tuned for more.



posted by Chuck Schallhorn

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