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A Vygotskian Model
of Leveled Success
for Candidates
and Students
Dr. Patricia Pinciotti, Dr. Gina Scala & Dr. Alison Rutter
East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania
NAPDS National Conference, Friday, March 6, 2015
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Who We Are
East Stroudsburg University

Eastern Pennsylvania
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One of 14 State System Universities
Student Profile
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Many first generation college students
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Mid-career students and transfer from CC

Often need to work while going to school

Gaps from K-12 education
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Care about children

Belief they can become teachers
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Fieldwork Requirements in PA
Ahead of the Curve ~
Collaborative Response to Mandates ~

ELED & Integrated ELED/SPED PDS
 Established in 1999
 Full scale implementation by 2003
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New Program Requirements Pre K-4 and Pre K-4/SpEd Pre K-8:
 PreK-4 & PreK-4/SPED – 2012
 Inclusion of Pre K Experience
 Multiple Field Sites
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Current Leveled Model of PDS Fieldwork - 2013
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Vygotskian Model:
Zones of Proximal Development
ESU PDS model highlights ZPD aspects:
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An integrated theory of learning:
 meta-cognitive strategies,
 organized around motivations of the
learner,
 dependent on social interactions.
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Experiential, embodied, and holistic:
 ways of learning
 negotiating meaning.

Respect for individual interactions with
others contribute to their negotiation of
meaning.
 Negotiating meaning demands mutual
efforts.
Fredrickson, 2011
Becoming a Teacher
is a Creating
Activity.

PDS is a leading – learning –
environment involving
+ESU’s PDS offers an
environment where
meaning is shared and
socially constructed
with individuals
mutually influencing
each other’s processes
of understanding.
Zones: Within Settings
Fieldwork Experience
PDS Site
ESU University
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ESU Pre K-4/SpEd Pre K-8
Fieldwork Model
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Overlapping ZPD’s:
Engagement Within Fieldwork
Differentiated roles & responsibilities at each
Fieldwork level
• Advancing and layering Knowledge, Skills, and
Dispositions in the PDS/ESU contexts
•
Pre K: Head Start – Half day/wk - Project Approach
PDS Primary I – One day/wk - 10 weeks
PDS Primary II – Two days/wk - 12 weeks
Student Teaching – One Half of 15 weeks
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Overlapping ZPD’s:
Interaction and Support
Mediated Support at Each
Fieldwork/Cohort Level
Contexts, Challenges, Reflections
and Conversations
AT ESU and PDS Sites
Roles ~
Choices ~
Responsibilities ~
Collaboration ~
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•
Home - School Connections

PDS + ZPD
Learning,
Leading
Environment
1.
2.
3.
Freedom from
Knowing
Socially Imitative
Completion Activity

•
PDS Learning Community
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

•
Competence View of Learners
Advocacy for Students and
Families
Integrative, Differentiated
Teaching
Co-Teaching
Professionalism
Inquiry – Digging Deeper


Comprehensive Assessment
Model
Making Teaching and
Learning Visible
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Blurring the Lines Between Home
& School: Pre-K Semester
½
day/Week with ECE Teachers - Two weeks with
ESU Faculty and ECE Teachers
 Focus
on Typical and Atypical Development and
Learning
 Building
 Laying
Concepts of Family & Community
the foundation of Professionalism, Multiple
Literacies, Integration, Documentation, and Inquiry
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Becoming Part of PDS Community:
Primary 1 Semester
1
Day/Week in the Field with a Mentor Teacher &
Building Liaison with Supporting University Faculty
 Layering
Concepts of Community with a Wider
Social Conscience
 Multi-Literacy
Discoveries and Understanding:
 Becoming a Reader in School & at Home
 Infusing the Arts to Integrate Experience
 Managing
and Assessment in the Classroom
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Learning to Advocate in the
Primary II Semester
2
Days/Week with Mentor Teacher, Building
Liaison & University Liaison Supporting Faculty
 Professionalism:
School-Community Relations
 Honing
School Knowledge and Content in
Math, Science & Language Arts
 Including
and Differentiating for All Learners
 Advocating
Community
for Children and Families in a PDS
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Visible Meaning in Student
Teaching
 15
weeks with Co-operating Teacher, University
Supervision with Supporting Faculty
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2 Placements -- Return to Primary I/II placement
plus a new second site (Special Ed or Another
PDS/grade level)
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Co-Teacher: Planning Differentiated Teaching with
multiple Adults for student success
 Teacher
as Researcher Course – Advancing
Inquiry Skills to Support Student Learning
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Development based on
collaboration and
imitation is the source
of all specifically
human characteristics
of consciousness that
develop in an
individual (child).
Vygotsky, 1987, p. 210
PDS Relationships are creative
and transformational for ALL
#NAPDSinDC