This past week, APA and James Madison University sponsored a national
forum on psychology partnerships. Approximately 117 educators, including
graduate students, graduate and undergraduate faculty, and secondary school
teachers, attended. The forum has been three years in the offing and came
about primarily because of the persistence of Ginnie Mathie (former Division
2 President), Randy Ernst and Charlie Blair-Broeker, high school teachers
from Nebraska and Iowa respectively, and Jill Reich, APA's Education
Directorate's Executive Director.
Participants met in mixed academic level groups for 6 days and developed
plans to improve the teaching of psychology at all levels by partnering with
other academics. For inclusion on Psychnews and TIPS, I solicited
information from the 11 groups into which participants were placed. The
ongoing partnership groups are: advising, curriculum, diversity, faculty
development, partnerships, research, service learning, technology, project
process, advising, and assessment. Rather than attempt to summarize each
group's work and intended direction, I will give you an example of the
information which I received from one group (assessment), some information
about what my own group, faculty development, did and is planning to do, and
2 web addresses where you can go to find out what all the groups did and are
doing and to become involved in the project:
1. Assessment- To members of Psychnews and TIPS:
One of the activities that is being developed as a result of the P3
conference is some scholarship on the best assessment practices in
psychology classes. The Assessment "All-Stars" led by Rob McEntarffer found
it very helpful to explore what their own personal best and worst
experiences were with assessment. The discussion we had was quite rich. It
included assessing students' knowledge and skills, evaluating courses and
programs, working with "standards," and even the dreaded teacher evaluation
process. We have extracted some important good practice principles from
those discussions but we wanted to broaden the scope of our stories. We
invite you to be a partner in establishing good practice in assessment but
(sic) (by) sending short scenarios of your best and worst assessment
experiences in any of the above categories to Jane Halonen at James Madison
University ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). She has promised to summarize what the
trends are and post to both listserves as part of the mission of the P3
All-Stars. (Ed. note- Jane's e-mail address was listed on the note I got
from the assessment team without the second "n". I have added it assuming
that it was a typo).
2. Faculty Development
We are in the process of developing a working handbook which will enable
faculty to understand how partnerships can improve their teaching
experiences and types of partnerships that have been successful. We intend
to publicize the information at regional and national meetings, state
conventions, and locally in venues such as faculty meetings.
3. Web Addresses
Presentations- http://cep.jmu.edu/p3/Presentations.htm
Home Page- http://cep.jmu.edu/p3/
Patrick Mattimore. South San Francisco High School. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
