tan bar
Professional Development System



Photo of the Watson School of Education

PDS Partners

Valuing One Another's Talents and Strengths

In the initial phase of the Watson College's Professional Development System, it was critical that clearly outlined roles and responsibilities for school system teachers, administrators, university faculty, and interns be established. The collaborative frameworks that constitute PDS allow all partners to have a voice in defining and redefining these roles and responsibilities.

As PDS moves into a more advanced phase of its development, new roles and responsibilities will continue to emerge. Because UNCW’s Professional Development System is a complex and dynamic web of partnerships, refinements and additions will continue to be necessary in order to meet the changing needs of both the university and the public schools.

Partnership schools complete a PDS School Application providing them the opportunity to indicate interest areas for engagement in collaborative professional development.  This collaboration process engages dynamic relationships between the PDS School and the Watson College of Education through the development of collaborative, systematic research studies targeting a school improvement issue, content area, and/or targeted population.

University Partners

UNCW’s Watson College of Education faculty are committed to the simultaneous reform of public schools and the creation of a theoretically sound, yet structurally unique, approach to teacher education. The collaborative design and implementation of the Professional Development System University-School Partnership has set mutually beneficial goals deemed important by all partners. Policies and procedures for involvement of university faculty in schools have been established with explicit expectations and incentives designed to create authentic engagement in the field. All faculty are required to engage in research or supervision in public schools on a preestablished cycle.

Public School Partners

PDS school system partners are an integral part of this comprehensive university-school partnership and align efforts and resources for the improvement of education for students in southeastern North Carolina. Formal contractual agreements are signed every three years with the WCE Dean, UNCW Chancellor and Board of Trustees and the eleven school system superintendents and their board of education. Partnership teachers and administrators, along with university faculty, participate in required training designed to provide opportunities to gain new understandings and professional skills necessary to the accomplishment of PDS goals. School system partners engage in collaborative research and grant initiatives that relate to school performance and other education issues that address critical needs of North Carolina educators.

Persons in the role of partnership teacher should be chosen from a pool of master teachers.  There are certain prerequisites, knowledge, skills and dispositions that a partnership teacher should possess to be effective in this role.  For information on the Criteria for Identification of a PDS Partnership Teacher, click here.