Pennsylvania State University

CPED-Influenced Program

Educating the Next Generation of Teacher Educators

School/Department where the Program is Housed

School: College of Education Department: Curriculum & Instruction

Program Description

The doctoral program typically is completed in 3-6 years and is geared towards someone with at least three years of teaching experience with intention to return to the public schools or teach in higher education. The residency requirement is one year.

Philosophy and Mission

A primary aspiration of the new doctoral program at Penn State is to promote the development of an inquiry orientation toward teaching that will eventually result in the development of adaptive as oppossed to routine expertise (Darling-Hammond and Bransford, 2005). A signature pedagogy within the doctoral program is the inquiry stance. Educators who assume an inquiry orientation towards their practice are problem finders and problem solvers. They continually ask questions about their practice and its impact on students. They collect and analyze data systematically to study the impact of their practice. They learn from colleagues as well as from the professional literature, and they share what they learn from their own systematic inquiry with their colleagues. They are knowledge generators as well as knowledge users.

Admissions Requirements

Curriculum & Instruction Admission Process GRE or MAT Scores Writing Sample Graduate Transcripts for Masters Level Work Letters of Recommendation

Description of each year of the Program — number of courses, credits, time frame; core, specializations, dissertation/capstone

An Example:

Plan of Study for Educational Leadership

Scholarship: Habits of Mind

4. Thesis Research – As Needed.

5. Dissemination

a. Presentations

i. National Conferences

1. National Association of Professional Development Schools (Co-Presented 2008, Lead Presented 2009)

2. Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education (Co-Presented 2008)

3. American Education Research Association (Attended only)

ii. State Conferences

1. Pennsylvania Association of College Teacher Educators (Co-Presented 2007, Lead Presented 2008)

iii. Local Conferences

1. Teaching and Learning Symposium (Attended 2008, Co-Presented 2009)

b. Publications

i. Journal for the Catalyst for Change

ii. PDS Partners Newsletter January 2010 (Collaborative Article with an Intern)

6. Study Groups (Dewey)

Rotations: Habits of Hand and Heart

1. Habits of Hand

a. Research

i. The Journey Back: Examining the Re-enculturation of a Hybrid Educator (EDLDR 596 Fall 08)

ii. Supervision Study with Jim Nolan (EDLDR 596 Spring 09)

iii. Core 4

iv. Survey Data Analysis (Summer 2008)

v. Transcribed and Closed Captioned Video

b. Supervision

i. Professional Development Associate 2007 – Present

c. Teaching

i. CLE 405: Classroom Learning Environments (Co-Instructor, Fall 2007)

ii. SCIED 458: Teaching Science in the Elementary PDS (Instructor, Fall 2008)

iii. Seminar Co-Instructor (Spring 2008, Spring 2009)

iv. Co-designing syllabi for potential summer courses

d. Grant Writing

i. Department of Environmental Protection (Received $15,000 to support professional development program for PFE’s Schoolyard Project Academic Year 2008-09)

ii. Department of Environmental Protection (Final Stages)

iii. Pennsylvania Department of Education (Received $5000 to support professional development program for PFE’s Schoolyard Project Academic Year 2008-09)

iv. ING Unsung Heroes Grant (Applied for $25,000 to support professional development experience)

e. Collaboration

i. PDA Weekly Meetings

ii. SLICE Group Monthly Meetings

iii. Seminar Planning Weekly Meetings

iv. Weekly Intern Meetings v. Monthly Mentor Meetings

vi. Teachers As Writers Group

vii. Middle School Experience

viii. PDA Retreats

f. Apprenticeships with

i. Dr. Bernard Badiali

ii. Dr. James Nolan

iii. Dr. Jacqueline Edmonson

iv. Dr. Carla Zembal Saul

v. Donnan Stoicovy, Principal Park Forest Elementary

vi. PDAs (Former and Current – consisting of faculty, classroom teachers, and other doctoral students)

vii. CSTs for GWF

g. Professional Development

i. Turning Learning Inside Out (Co-designed and Co-implemented a self-directed, individualized professional development experience for PFE teachers)

ii. Professional Development Co-Consultant for Clearfield County School District

h. Advising

i. First year Testing Counseling Advising Program (FTCAP) Advisor

2. Habits of Heart – Service

a. Conference Planning (PACTE, Summer PSU PDS Conference)

b. Conference Attendance (AERA, NAPDS, PACTE, TLT)

c. Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate

d. Faculty Council

e. Kindergarten SYP

f. Read Alouds in 2nd Grade Classroom (Former Intern)

g. Tech Café

h. NAPDS Award Document Collaborator

i. Interviewing faculty candidates

j. Hosting visitors to PDS

Milestones Employed in the Program — comprehensive/qualifying exams, papers, or products necessary for graduation

After admission, doctoral students must pass a candidacy examination in order to proceed. Coursework continues followed by both written and oral comprehensive examinations. A dissertation proposal follows and a dissertation defense as a culminating experience.

Program's Support Structure

Forthcoming

Signature Pedagogy

Inquiry serves as a signature pedagogy within our community of practice. Shulman devised the term signature pedagogy to describe “characteristic forms of teaching and learning…that organize the fundamental ways in which future practitioners are educated for their new professions (2005, p. 52 as cited in Walker, Golde, Jones, Bueschel, & Hutchings, 2008, p. 117).” They are considered powerful vehicles for gaining insight into the culture of a community because they both uncover and operationalize underlying assumptions of the profession. Teacher inquiry is a core practice of our Professional Development School (PDS) partnership between Penn State University and State College Area School District. Interns and their mentor teachers study teacher inquiry and engage in classroom-based investigations supported by teacher educators. The processes and findings of these inquiries are presented publically at the PDS Inquiry Conference each spring. In the case of our PDS, teacher inquiry as signature pedagogy conveys our strong commitment to teachers as knowledge producers, continuous professional growth, collaborative problem solving for the purpose of improving schooling, and making our work public. Participating in teacher inquiry is a cultural practice of the PDS community and one important approach to contributing to the larger goal of promoting an inquiry stance. Our doctoral students learn about and engage in inquiry through teaching inquiry.

Laboratories of Practice

Penn State University has a long-standing collaborative partnership with State College Area School District. The PDS is the ideal laboratory of practice for bringing together and scrutinizing the visions of teaching and learning. The PDS provides a living laboratory where the tensions and debates surrounding best practices are enacted day-to-day and moment-to-moment. The PDS is a setting that enables respectful and productive relationships to form around the pursuit of answers to the persistent questions and complex problems of schooling. Shared inquiry is the engine that drives our learning community. In the PDS, doctoral students engage in rotations around teaching, supervision, and research.

Inquiry Courses

Four courses total:

• Qualitative Research
• Quantitative Research
• Advanced Research Methods
• Research Rotation (minimum of one)

Capstone

Dissertation:

Our dissertations are typically qualitative in nature. Most have been phenomenological studies. The kinds of questions asked lend themselves towards qualitative methodology.

Syllabi

• Methods of Coaching and Supervision

Key Contact Person

Jacqueline Edmonson, Associate Dean
Bernard Badiali, Associate Professor

Cost Structure

FTEs
PDS Cost Centers

Program Handbook

Forthcoming

Program Link

Forthcoming