Prospective teachers in the College of Education are afforded the opportunity to apply for and participate in the Professional Development School (PDS) program in conjunction with the State College Area School District.
Students selected are either elementary education or secondary English majors, and they teach alongside their State College mentors for the entire August-to-June academic year.
The PDS program is an inquiry-based program built around students’ inquiries in their own classroom with their own students and making their own students’ experience better. In addition to providing a yearlong training program for teachers-in-training, the program aims to educate and support current teachers who have an inquiry-oriented stance toward their practice, consistently looking to examine their practice and its impact through classroom-based research.
“If you need to have a syllabus that tells you what to read and what to write on these dates, then this program is not for you,’’ said Jamie Myers, who heads the secondary English part of the program. “This is one in which you have to take charge of your own learning, you have to notice things in your classroom, you have to take risks.’’
PDS follows a 4-E’s format: Enhance (the education experiences of all children); Ensure (high-quality inductions of new teachers into our professions); Engage (in furthering our own professional growth as teacher and teacher educators of all children); and Educate (the next generation of teacher educators).
The program is in its 18th year and each year a teacher inquiry conference is held to provide an opportunity to share inquiry investigations among the program’s interns, celebrate accomplishments and generate a community of reflective practitioners. This year’s conference is April 23 at Mount Nittany Middle School.
Secondary education students interested in participating in the PDS program may visit http://ed.psu.edu/c-and-i/undergrad/secondary-education; elementary education majors may visit http://ed.psu.edu/c-and-i/undergrad/ceaed for information.