Victorian Teachers of Psychology survey: Psychology is a science? Most definitely!

Psychology is one of the most popular Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) studies studied by approximately 70% of females and a science subject. Despite this, psychology is not recognised within the Victorian F-10 and Australian (F-10 and Senior) science curricula. Do teachers of psychology view psychology as a science? In what ways do they view science? Do they think they are teaching psychology in ‘science’ ways? This paper discusses results from an online ‘teaching of psychology’ survey. A total of 87 VCE Psychology teachers responded representing a range years in teaching of psychology along with other learning areas. Psychology is placed in the science department in all of the teachers’ schools, and over half of the sample of teachers had taught psychology at Years 7 to 10. All but 2 teachers viewed psychology as a science, and reported that they often/ always teach psychology as a science. Interestingly, responses suggested that psychology teachers hold a range of views of science and ways of teaching psychology as a science. Implications for the teaching of psychology and psychology’s place in the curriculum are also discussed.