Chapter 8: Studying Pre-Service Teachers Immersed in a Paideia-Focused Professional Development School Experience

In the early 1980s, Mortimer J. Adler and his colleagues published a book called The Paideia Proposal: An Educational Manifesto (1982) and followed it with The Paideia Program: An Educational Syllabus (1984). These books joined numerous calls for school reform at the end of the 20th century by offering ideas for transforming public schools in the United States. The word paideia is a Greek word that refers to the upbringing of the child. Adler and his colleagues chose this word because they believed that all children can learn and that all children deserve a quality education. This is the essence of the Paideia Proposal. The aims of the Paideia Proposal closely match the goals of the Professional Development School (PDS) movement, including the goals of teaching for understanding so that all students can be successful (Darling-Hammond, 1994; Holmes Group, 1990; Levine, 1992).