Society for the Teaching of Psychology

History

The STP was founded as Division 2 of APA in 1945, and past presidents include notable key figures in the field of psychology, such as Wilbert J. McKeachie and John Dashiell. In its early years, STP struggled to increase membership and clarify its professional identity and purpose. In 1947, Division 2 had only 184 registered members, lagging behind other divisions. In 1950, the STP created the Teaching of Psychology Newsletter. In 1951, the STP's 6th president Claude E. Buxton surveyed the membership to find out more about the current composition and possible future direction of the STP. Buxton found that the STP membership mainly consisted of educators interested in undergraduate liberal arts education, and lacked graduate-level instructors. Finding that most survey respondents saw a need to continue and improve the STP, Buxton worked on increasing membership, and a proposal requiring membership in another APA division before joining Division 2 was not adopted, as it seemed to subordinate the STP to other APA divisions. By the end of the 1950s, Division 2 had gained greater prestige, and included members of various disciplines in psychology (especially social, experimental, and clinical psychology) from both small and large institutions of higher education. In the early 1960s, Wilbert J. McKeachie gave the Teaching of Psychology newsletter a more polished image. Between 1960 and 1974, the STP saw a marked increase in membership, and the organization increased services to help teachers of psychology, and formulated more rigorous standards in the scholarship of teaching psychology.

In the early 1960s, STP president Robert S. Daniel was instrumental in making sure that teaching tips and sample psychology course syllabi were available to instructors. The STP also took a leading role in developing educational television during this period. During his leadership the STP also provided supports and equipment to aid departments operating on a limited budget. Daniel also lobbied the American Psychological Foundation to establish an annual award for outstanding teachers. In 1974, Daniel was also responsible for turning the Teaching of Psychology Newsletter into what is currently known as the Teaching of Psychology Journal. By 1965, membership in Division 2 was higher than that of all other APA division, except divisions 8, 12, and 15. The establishment of the Teaching of Psychology journal (ToP) by a group of editors around Robert S. Daniel in 1974 was a major step forward for STP. This journal became widely respected within the discipline by 1981. During the 1950s, efforts to begin a journal had been defeated by those arguing that a journal giving teachers an identity apart from other areas of specialization would actually diminish the prestige of Division 2.

Between 1975 and 1987, leaders of the STP worked to recruit new members, in order to offset declining enrollment in Division 2 and across many APA divisions. During this period, STP leadership developed awards that recognized exceptional teachers. In the early 1990s, the STP aimed at increasing its outreach to academics at the regional level through the Council of Teachers of Undergraduate Psychology (CTUR). During this period, former STP president Patricia Keith-Spiegel developed the Office of Teaching Resources in Psychology (OTRP) to achieve these outreach-related aims and to provide academics and teachers of Psychology with centralized and accessible resources, an initiative that the STP maintains to this day. The STP also worked on developing exchange systems for course syllabi and activities. During the mid 1990s, under the presidency of Margaret A. Lloyd, the STP developed the Long-Range Planning Committee to help Division 2 enter the 21st century with increased visibility and influence. The STP adapted to rapid changes in technology by making all resources computerized, and focused on maintaining the high quality and integrity of the Teaching of Psychology Journal.

Conferences

The Society is active in conference programming at the regional, national, and international level.

Annual Conference on Teaching (ACT)

STP runs its own flagship conference, the Annual Conference on Teaching (ACT) in October of each year. ACT serves to disseminate effective teaching practices and share research on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The ACT conference attracts hundreds of attendees, including graduate students and new instructors as well as seasoned professors of psychology. Attendees are able to engage in professional development through participation in a SoTL workshop (see above under resources) that pairs instructors with mentors to develop research strategies to evaluate the effectiveness of different approaches and method of teaching.

ACT began in 2003 as the STP Best Practices Conference that was an outgrowth of the deliberations of the Assessment Group at the Psychology Partnership Program (P3) that was sponsored by APA and hosted by James Madison University in 1999. The first BP Conference was in Atlanta and dealt with assessment. The conference was such a success that the Society made it an annual event. Each of the BPs were themed conferences offering best practice presentations on limited topics until 2014 when the event was renamed The Annual Conference on Teaching and the program was opened to accept posters and symposia on all areas dealing with the teaching of psychology. Since 2003, the conference has been held in or around Atlanta. With the change in focus of the conference and the decision to conduct the STP Annual Business Meeting and Awards Ceremonies at ACT, the Society decided to begin moving ACT around the country. The first such move will take the conference to San Antonio, TX, in October 2017.

American Psychological Association (APA)

As a part of the annual APA Convention, STP sponsors, in conjunction with the APA, three major invited addresses that deal with the teaching of psychology, the G. Stanley Hall Lectures and the Harry Kirke Wolfe Lecture. The Hall lectures are designed to advance the teaching of introductory psychology, whereas the Wolfe lectures cover a broader range of topics in relation to teaching.

Association for Psychological Science Teaching Institute (APS/STP)

The Society collaborates with the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in sponsoring the APS/STP Teaching Institute that precedes the APS Annual Convention. The Director of STP Programming at APS plans and manages the Institute and arranges a selection of additional sessions on teaching that are scheduled during the Convention. The Director accepts submissions for symposia and posters and heads a committee to determine acceptance.

Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP)

The STP conducts a preconference on teaching held at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP).

National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (NITOP)

STP annually sponsors a pre-conference workshop for educators in psychology at the National Institute on the Teaching of Psychology (NITOP).

Regional Conferences

Through its Director of Regional Conference Programming, the Society advertises and facilitates programs dealing with teaching at the seven APA-affiliated regionals conventions. In addition to supporting travel to three of these conferences by a Hall/Wolfe lecturer, the Society also provides funds to the remaining four regionals to support the expenses of a speaker on the teaching of psychology chosen by those regionals.

STP programming promotes effective teaching and learning at regional meetings of the Eastern Psychological Association, the Midwestern Psychological Association, the New England Psychological Association, the Rocky Mountain Psychological Association, the Southeastern Psychological Association, the Southwestern Psychological Association, and the Western Psychological Association.

International Conferences

STP’s Director of International Programming collaborates with organizations that conduct international psychology conferences to encourage and facilitate teaching programming at these events. The Society co-sponsors at least one of these conferences each year and facilitates Society presence and several international events.

Leadership

STP governance consists of an executive committee, comprising the president, past-president, and president-elect, and vice presidents for resources, programming, membership, recognitions and awards, and diversity and international relations. The following table includes the current members of the executive committee for the STP.

Publications

The STP has published the journal Teaching of Psychology (ToP) quarterly since 1974. ToP serves as a resource for educators that includes empirical teaching tools, methods, and innovative approaches, more generally, for coursework in psychology. Guidelines for authors are provided at the journal website [1], with topic coverage including: