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Certificate for Teaching Psychology

New Jersey offers a standard certificate to teach Psychology courses in public schools (endorsement code 2350). In addition to meeting GPA requirements and completing an appropriate degree in Education, you must complete 30 credits (i.e., about 8 TCNJ courses) in a “coherent sequence” of Psychology to be eligible for this certificate, with at least 12 of those credits at the junior or senior level of the curriculum. We recommend the course sequence below because it would result in the conferral of a minor in Psychology to matriculated students and maximizes coverage of the heavily-emphasized areas of Psychology on the AP exam. However, the State offers flexibility in what courses you choose, so you can make different choices as needed if particular courses aren’t available. See our course descriptions for additional information, including necessary prerequisites.

  • PSY101, General Psychology
  • PSY121, Methods & Tools of Psychology
  • Pick one of PSY213, Learning and Memory, or PSY 214, Cognitive Psychology
  • PSY217, Psychological Disorders
  • PSY220, Developmental Psychology
  • Any three, 300-level courses, especially if available:
    • PSY311, Sensation & Perception
    • PSY321, Child Social & Personality Development
    • PSY323, School Psychology
    • PSY336, Sexual and Gender Minority Mental Health
    • PSY346, Cognitive Neuroscience
    • PSY355, Psychology of Power, Oppression, and Privilege
    • PSY370, Developmental Seminar

Please note that some of our upper-level courses, including PSY203 (Design & Analysis), PSY299 (Research Seminar), and all 400-level senior capstones, are restricted to Psychology majors. We have very limited capacity in these courses and can’t grant entry to students seeking teaching certificates, so please focus on the course options above, which are open to all students regardless of major.

 

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