Using a “Designed Setting” in a Professional Development School to Improve Teacher Preparation

• In Event: Roundtable Session 103
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring the Impact of Professional Development School Partnerships

Abstract

This study investigated the success of a pedagogical innovation, the Supported Collaborative Teaching Model (SCTM). This model makes use of opportunities inherent in a Professional Development School (PDS) partnership and was designed to improve teacher preparation by addressing many of the common challenges faced by teacher educators today, with special emphasis on the “theory-practice divide.” Analysis of student reflections and student interview data indicates that the SCTM was helpful in addressing these challenges and suggest that it is possible to begin to close the “theory-practice divide” through the implementation of a 'designed setting' within a PDS context. The SCTM provides an important example of how programs of teacher preparation might be improved and eventually, reformed

Authors

• Janna Dresden, University of Georgia

• Julie Kittleson, University of Georgia

• Julianne A. Wenner, University of Georgia