UMass Boston

Practitioner Scholars Program

Practitioner Scholars Program (PSP) Pilot

The PSP is a nine-month experimental pilot which seeks to transform the way higher education considers who holds knowledge and is seen as an expert in teaching and learning processes. Since 2018, the pilot has annually supported a cohort of four faculty and practitioner pairs who co-plan and redesign existing UMass Boston courses in the Fall and co-teach together in the Spring semester, engaging students in community impact projects as part of their course objectives. The program begins with the PSP Institute’s orientation workshops for all the co-teaching pairs to get to know each other and develop a shared understanding of the values and goals of this program. Following this, the co-teaching pairs meet in person or virtually to develop a curriculum and pedagogy with community-engaged teaching and project-based learning, keeping community needs in mind and with deliverables that will benefit the community that the practitioner works with. The cohort is supported through a “network of practice” which allows them to meet and discuss their practice with one another. Learn more about this program by watching this short video.

Meet the PSP Cohorts

PSP Cohort 2020-2021

PSP Cohort 3

 

PSP Cohort 2019-2020

PSP Cohort 2

 

PSP Cohort 2018-2019

PSP Cohort 2

 

PSP News Articles and Video Archives

PSP Learnings

The PSP pilot is assessed every year through a combination of surveys, focus groups, classroom observations and informal meetings to learn from each year’s co-teachers’ and students’ experiences and to incorporate the learnings for the next year’s cycle. The learnings from the first year of the PSP pilot are published in the Journal of Higher Education, Outreach and Engagement here.