National Psychology Summit on campus this week

UW-Green Bay Professor. Regan A. R. Gurung (Psychology, Human Development) is joined by college psychology faculty from across the U.S. for the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Summit on National Assessment of Psychology (SNAP) this week (June 21-24), on the UW‑Green Bay campus. “Given the growing mental health needs of the region, better psychological training starting at the undergrad level is the first step toward ensuring better trained individuals to serve these growing needs,” Gurung said. Gurung says that there are national guidelines for psychology, but no easy ways to measure if students are learning them. “This summit is designed to create ways to help college instructors all over the nation and the world to better teach psychology… Better assessment and national guidelines help raise the bar for teaching everywhere.

The importance of a national summit — the first ever for the APA — was brought to the attention of the Committee on Associated and Bachelorette Education (CABE), on which Professor Gurung serves. Once it was determined there was a need for this summit, Gurung — who previously organized a very successful APA training for high school psychology teachers in the past — worked to convince committee members that UW‑Green Bay and the Green Bay community would be a great host.

About 50 psychology professionals will be attending the conference sponsored by the APA, the National Science Foundation, and UW‑Green Bay. The summit provides a showcase for both the university and the city; attendees will tour Lambeau Field and Badger State Brewing Company even brewed a special beer for SNAP.

The goal of the summit is for the group of scholars to work in tandem to provide a database of both digital and print resources necessary for the assessment of psychology programs at the associate and baccalaureate level worldwide. Attendees will be sharing best practices for assessing educational assessment and developing evidence-based tools to measure student-learning outcomes at the course and program levels.

Representing UW‑Green Bay along with Gurung are professors Kristin Vespia and Georjeanna Wilson-Doenges (Psychology, Human Development). Distinguished scholars and professors from across the country will join them. Green Bay Mayor, Jim Schmitt will also be on hand to kick off the event. The summit is also providing an excellent opportunity for UW‑Green Bay psychology students to meet psychologists from around the county.

Go to http://www.apa.org/news/events/2016/national-assessment-psychology.aspx for more information.

 

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