UW-Green Bay hosts National Psychology Summit
University of Wisconsin-Green Bay Professor Regan A. R. Gurung (Psychology, Human Development) will be joined by college psychology faculty from across the United States for the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Summit on National Assessment of Psychology (SNAP), 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 towards 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 psychology teaches awareness of key issues influencing human behavior — prejudice, mental illness, etc. 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 Baccalaureate Education (CABE), on which Prof. 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.
Gurung was named the Wisconsin Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Association (2009) and the University of Wisconsin’s top teacher (2011). His work was published recently in American Psychologist®, the official peer-reviewed scholarly journal of the American Psychological Association (APA) and one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed journals in the field of psychology. The article, “Strengthening introductory psychology: A new model for teaching the introductory course,” is published in the February-March 2016 issue of the journal.
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.
The event begins the evening of June 21, 2016. Go to http://www.apa.org/news/events/2016/national-assessment-psychology.aspx for more information.
Please contact Prof. Regan Gurung for further information and media inquiries.
Office: (920) 465 2316; gurungr@uwgb.edu.
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