Joint Professional Development of Teacher Candidates and Mentoring Teachers in Using Project-Based Learning for 21st Century Learning Outcomes

Program Overview

The program is an integrated five-year, dual-degree program in which students simultaneously pursue a Bachelor’s degree in a content specialization and a Master of Arts in Education. In years 1 and 2 undergraduates volunteer to spend 60 hours in an approved educational setting and experience schools. Students enter the program in year 3 of their undergraduate program and begin six sequenced clinical experiences known as practica. Year 3 students spend 2 hours per week in a PDS. Year 4 students spend 5 hours per week in the fall semester and 14 hours per week in the spring semester. Year 5 students spend their entire fall semester engaged in full-time teaching responsibilities in a PDS. During their final spring semester, these fifth year students spend 135 hours engaged in their own professional development and assist in the professional development of their school’s faculties. All decision-making rests primarily with the participants of the program; namely, the joint involvement of public school teachers and administrators, and university faculty. Localized PDS site-specific decision-making is key to the success of the development of teacher candidates and experienced teachers. The key to making a PDS model work well is a continual re-examination of program goals and features, a working principle in PDS work known as simultaneous renewal (Dempsey, Dempsey, Steel, & Shambaugh, 2007). The joint involvement of all stakeholders enables people to consider issues and subsequent decisions. To apply this philosophical orientation, a supporting organizational structure is necessary.