The Arts and Sciences Design Teams were tasked with enhancing the content knowledge of teacher education students. They sought to redesign selected core college curriculum and academic majors courses in the arts and sciences by aligning content with national standards, infusing technology in education, and adopting appropriate pedagogical methods.

These design teams were made up of arts and science faculty, with representatives from each of the universities and colleges involved in PQE. A faculty member from the college of education also served on each team.

This project was particularly novel in the way that it brought together Education faculty with Arts and Sciences faculty to successfully redesign and then implement new courses in five academic areas: English, Math, History, Political Science, and Biology. In most cases of teacher education reform, university Arts and Sciences faculty remain peripheral to the project, but PQE gave them a central role. They did so by upgrading the quality of content courses across the arts and sciences, as well as bringing greater and more authentic content into the redesigned teacher education programs. As one of its goals, PQE aspired to break down traditional barriers that have separated the Arts and Sciences faculty from the Education faculty and, as a result, created a collaborative atmosphere that benefited both the arts and scienes, as well as the colleges of education.

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