Just Starting Out: Challenges and Wins in an Emerging Professional Development School

• In Event: 32.070 - Learning From Professional Development School Models: Lessons and Innovations in School-University Partnership Work

Abstract

The professional development school (PDS) model of teacher education is viewed by many as an improvement over the traditional college classroom-based teacher preparation program. In a PDS, college courses are taught at a public school campus, and university students and faculty participate more genuinely in the everyday experiences had by middle grades students and their teachers. Our institution has utilized a more traditional program of study to date, but recently began shifting toward the PDS. The purpose of this paper is to document the experiences had by participants from both the university and two middle schools in the context of the “Nine Essentials” advanced by the National Association for Professional Development Schools.

Authors

• Laura Rychly, Augusta University

• Stacie Kae Pettit, Augusta University

• Megan Buning, Augusta University