College of Education > PDS

Partnerships

PDS Partnerships

Collaboration between the UHM COE and P-12 schools foster a shared learning environment where university faculty, graduate students, teacher candidates, practicing teachers, and visiting scholars can collaborate on research, scholarship, teaching practices, and curriculum development.

Partnership Information

Goodlad Professional Development (PDS) Model

The Goodlad Professional Development School (PDS) model emphasizes a collaborative partnership between universities and schools to achieve “simultaneous renewal” in both teacher education and P-12 settings. This model, pioneered by John Goodlad, aims to improve teacher preparation, enhance professional development for practicing teachers, and ultimately improve student learning by fostering a mutually beneficial relationship where schools and universities learn and grow together. 

Author of the highly influential book, A Place Called School (1984), Goodlad documented the now classic eight-year study of 38 schools in 13 communities, which laid the foundation for his PDS partnership model. He asserted that “an ethic of collaboration and collaborative inquiry and action, more than anything else, [should] characterize the processes that go on in a school-university partnership” (1994, p. 110). He believed that this spirit of collaboration needs to be “modeled every step of the way” (p. 110), and famously stated that in order to create better teachers, we need better schools. Two decades after conducting this and other influential studies of public schools and the education of educators, Dr. Goodlad initiated a national effort to support educational quality and renewal. 

Unlike other reform initiatives that looked more narrowly at academic standards and test scores, Dr. Goodlad’s focus was on the essential role of education in sustaining the social and institutional underpinnings of democratic life, as reflected in a four-part mission for schools: (a) providing equal access to quality, school-based learning for the young; (b) promoting responsible stewardship of schools and universities; (c) improving teaching and learning through pedagogy that nurtures and challenges all learners; and (d) providing students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become fully engaged participants in a democratic society (John I. Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal, 2022).

It is John Goodlad’s PDS model that serves as the foundation for the formal partnerships that the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education (UHM COE) has with a number of P-20 schools across the state. Examples and descriptions of current UHM COE PDS partnerships are listed below.

University Laboratory School (ULS)

The University Laboratory School (ULS) has a dual interlocking mission to design and deliver the best possible education to its students and to serve as a seedbed for educational research and development.

In 1931, the Territory of Hawai‘i moved the school to the ‘ili of Pilipili and merged it with the University of Hawai‘i to create the new Teacher’s College (now College of Education). Since then, ULS has been COE’s historic and primary partner collaborating on a multitude of research projects, education programs, curriculum development, and teacher/educator training that has continuously supported education in Hawai’i for over 90 years.

History:

The University Laboratory School’s (ULS) roots go back to the creation of a teacher training school in 1896, called the Territorial Normal and Training School. In 1931, the Territory of Hawai‘i moved the school to the ‘ili of Pilipili and merged it with the University of Hawai‘i’s Teacher College (now College of Education).

From 1931 to 1947, ULS evolved from a teacher training institution to a K-8 elementary school merged with the COE. Since 1948, ULS has been a K-12 demonstration school and a laboratory school since 1966. 

ULS also collaborates with the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, local private and charter schools, other universities and education institutions in Hawaiʻi and abroad to provide observation and professional development support, as well as serve as an education research laboratory.

ULS Research and Development (ULS RAD)

The following areas of focus allow those interested to participate in this unique research and development program:

  1. Facilitating Education Research
    • External Research: ULS coordinates research partnerships and projects with various departments in the UH System, including UH Mānoa’s long time collaborator, the College of Education (COE); as well as local, national, and global community partnerships and projects. 
    • Internal Research: ULS RDP encourages, supports, and guides ULS students and faculty to lead and participate in research and passion projects. Faculty and staff pursuing advanced degrees can conduct research as part of their degree program requirements. 
  1. Supporting Teacher and Educator Training
    • Serving as a learning laboratory for education students has always been a primary function of ULS. We continue to support teacher and educator training with our primary partner, UH Mānoa’s COE, including pre-service elementary teachers, secondary teachers, P.E. teachers, athletic trainers, and school counselors.
  1. Enhancing our Comprehensive School Program
    • ULS’ current academic program is effective and innovative. At the basis of our school program is the expectation that all students, given the opportunity and support, can engage deeply in every discipline of knowledge, building disciplinary skill sets and habits of mind, but also overarching skills of collaboration, community, creativity and critical thinking. ULS RDP works on creating programs and initiatives that support these efforts.
  1. Professional Development
    • Professional Development ULS strives to ensure our administration, teaching faculty and staff are up to date on best practices in education. We support professional development opportunities and partner with institutions and organizations like UH Mānoa, UHM COE, Wayfinder, HIDOE, and others to ensure our educators produce quality instruction, information, and service.
  1. Community Collaboration
    • ULS has been part of the Mānoa and University community for almost 100 years. We value initiating partnerships with our neighbors and serving our local community. ULS also appreciates working with our national and global partners and upholds formal and informal partnerships in the U.S., Asia and beyond. 

To learn more and to contact our program please visit the link below:

University Laboratory School Research and Development Program

Hanahau‘oli School

The UHM COE PDS partnership with Hanahau‘oli School specializes in growing progressive education in Hawai‘i and beyond. In 2018, the COE entered into a Memorandum of Agreement “for their mutual benefit and the benefit of education in Hawaii. With a mutual desire to build a Professional Development School (PDS) that emphasizes progressive, interdisciplinary, and inquiry approaches to learning.” Dr. Amber Strong Makaiau, Specialist in the UHM COE School of Teaching, serves as a bridge between Hanahau‘oli School and the COE as Hanahau‘oli School’s Professional Development Center Director.

Current initiatives in the Hanahau‘oli School PDS partnership include:

  • Teacher Preparation: The Hanahau‘oli School PDS partnership supports a robust array of teacher preparation programming. For example, all students participating in STE 403E: Seminar in Educational Inquiry, Minor in Education visit Hanahau‘oli as a part of their introduction to teaching as a profession course. Additionally, Hanahauoli School tours and extended observation visits are designed specifically for UHM COE teacher candidates participating in coursework for their teacher preparation programs. UHM COE coursework is often held onsite so that teacher candidates can directly observe content being studied in social studies and science methods and other educational foundations courses. Finally, Hanahau‘oli School provides high-quality mentoring for UHM COE teacher candidates as they work to complete Observation and Participation coursework requirements. The school is also a site for Student Teaching during the culminating semester of candidates’ UHM COE STE teacher preparation programming.
  • The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s (UHM) MEd-CS Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy track. This 30-credit graduate program is designed for educators and scholars from diverse disciplines and contexts who aim to bring about meaningful social change. Grounded in Hawai‘i’s long and rich progressive education movement, the program is built upon the UHM COE’s partnership with Hanahau‘oli School and other local schools and organizations who are bringing the theories and practices of early progressive educators into the twenty-first century.
  • Teacher Professional Development: Offered both in-person and online, the partnership specializes in teacher professional development related to progressive philosophy and education; social justice; school culture & community; early childhood, child development & preserving childhood; inquiry-based, interdisciplinary, integrated and concept-based teaching and learning; the arts, music, physical world lab, world language, digital literacy, and physical education; multi-age and teaming classroom structures; and parent and community engagement. To see a full list of the current offerings, view the Hanahau‘oli PDC calendar page here.
  • Social Justice Education: The Hanahauʻoli School PDC–UH Mānoa College of Education joint initiative to advance social justice education. A collaboration with the nationally renowned Teaching Tolerance program, this now eight-year $250,000 Social Justice in Education project is aimed at growing local educators’ capacity for preparing children and youth to be active participants in a diverse democracy. It is made possible by the generosity and forward thinking of longtime Teaching Tolerance supporters and past Hanahau‘oli parents of Ari Wolff ‘03, Jana and Howard Wolff.
  • Research and Scholarship: The partnership facilitates research related to progressive education philosophy and pedagogy, inquiry, interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning, etc. This includes UHM COE undergraduate and graduate research, as well as opportunities for “scholars in residence,” who can spend longer durations of time on campus pursuing research and scholarship related to progressive education. View Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy: A Blog for Progressive Educators and the school visit website to learn more.

The UHM COE and Hanahau‘oli School PDS is a visionary partnership model that has proven successful and continues to increase the university and school’s prominence as a sought-after destination for children and families, progressive educators, researchers, scholars, and innovators.

Philosophy for Children (P4C) Model Schools

The Goodlad Professional Development School (PDS) model emphasizes a collaborative partnership between universities and schools to achieve “simultaneous renewal” in both teacher education and P-12 settings. This model, pioneered by John Goodlad, aims to improve teacher preparation, enhance professional development for practicing teachers, and ultimately improve student learning by fostering a mutually beneficial relationship where schools and universities learn and grow together. 

Author of the highly influential book, A Place Called School (1984), Goodlad documented the now classic eight-year study of 38 schools in 13 communities, which laid the foundation for his PDS partnership model. He asserted that “an ethic of collaboration and collaborative inquiry and action, more than anything else, [should] characterize the processes that go on in a school-university partnership” (1994, p. 110). He believed that this spirit of collaboration needs to be “modeled every step of the way” (p. 110), and famously stated that in order to create better teachers, we need better schools. Two decades after conducting this and other influential studies of public schools and the education of educators, Dr. Goodlad initiated a national effort to support educational quality and renewal. 

Unlike other reform initiatives that looked more narrowly at academic standards and test scores, Dr. Goodlad’s focus was on the essential role of education in sustaining the social and institutional underpinnings of democratic life, as reflected in a four-part mission for schools: (a) providing equal access to quality, school-based learning for the young; (b) promoting responsible stewardship of schools and universities; (c) improving teaching and learning through pedagogy that nurtures and challenges all learners; and (d) providing students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions to become fully engaged participants in a democratic society (John I. Goodlad Institute for Educational Renewal, 2022).

It is John Goodlad’s PDS model that serves as the foundation for the formal partnerships that the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa College of Education (UHM COE) has with a number of P-20 schools across the state. Examples and descriptions of current UHM COE PDS partnerships are listed below.

The Hawai‘i State Department of Education

With roots reaching deeply into American Pragmatism and the thought of philosophers such as John Dewey and William James, Philosophy for Children (P4C) is a widely respected international movement in education. Today, a number of P4C Centers exist worldwide, including the Uehiro Academy for Philosophy and Ethics in Education (Uehiro Academy) at UHM. Known as the home of philosophy for children Hawai‘i (p4cHI), the Uehiro Academy is a joint project of the UHM COE and CALL. 

Unique to p4cHI, the UHM Uehiro Academy helps to facilitate a number of PDS partnerships. This not only helps to grow p4cHI in local schools, but also provides field-based experiences for candidates in UHM programs who are working to develop their p4cHI practice. The partnerships also support cutting-edge research in the worldwide P4C movement for both UHM faculty and students, as well as visiting scholars and researchers from across the US and internationally. Referred to as “p4cHI Model Schools,” there are currently six Hawai‘i State Department of Education K-12 schools where there is a critical mass or growing cohort of teachers who practice p4cHI on campus. These p4cHI teachers are supported by a UHM Uehiro Academy “philosopher in residence” who assists teacher candidates and veteran K-12 teachers as they incorporate the activity of philosophy into their classroom practice. They also host UHM students enrolled in COE and CALL programs, as well as visiting practitioners and researchers. 

UHM COE programs that benefit from the Uehiro Academy p4cHI model school partnership include: 

  • School of Teacher Education (STE). Undergraduate students, students seeking teaching certificates, and Master of Education in Teaching candidates enrolled in UHM COE STE teacher preparation programs (e.g. Elementary and Secondary Bachelor of Education (BEd) tracks, Post-Baccalaureate Certificates, dual licensure programs, and the MEdT) can be placed at the model schools for their observation and student teaching semesters. 
  • MEd-CS Progressive Philosophy and Pedagogy track. Graduate students enrolled in this 30-credit graduate program spend time in Uehiro Academy model schools to observe how the theories and philosophy of progressive educators are translated into practice. They also engage in field-based courses to practice p4cHI alongside experienced teachers and students.
  • Graduate Certificate in philosophy for children Hawai‘i. The UHM COE Graduate Certificate in p4cHI program is facilitated through the Uehiro Academy model school partnership. This graduate certificate provides local, national, and international candidates with an institutional pathway for developing, verifying, and officially recognizing their abilities as a p4cHI practitioner. All UHM COE p4cHI Graduate Certificate completers are recognized on their diploma and transcript.
  • Graduate Research. Graduate students enrolled in Masterʻs and Doctoral programs across the UHM COE can be connected with Uehiro Academy model schools to conduct research.
  • Faculty Research and Visiting Scholars. The Uehiro Academy facilitates extensive opportunities for UHM faculty and visiting scholars to spend time at model schools where they are able to both practice and conduct research related to p4cHI. 

The UHM COE Uehiro Academy model schools are: Waikīkī Elementary, Kailua High School, Ka‘elepulu Elementary, Waimānalo Elementary and Intermediate School, Sunset Beach Elementary, and Nānāikapono Elementary School.