OISE’s School University Partnership Projects with Renewal Components

“ School/University Partnerships: Research Into Practice is a unique research and practice initiative in OISE’s Initial Teacher Education program. Since its inception in the 2002-2003 academic year, it has focused on enhancing learning experiences and strengthening relationships between OISE’s field partners and the university….Through mutually enhancing the intersecting school-university communities, educators can better address complex challenges that are confronting schools—especially while they seek to deepen and improve student understanding and achievement.”

Rolheiser, C. (2008). School/university partnerships: Enriching and extending partnerships (Ed.), Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Articles

Moss, J. (2008). A partnership of reflective practitioners engages in Japanese lesson study
   for the enhancement of mathematics teaching. In C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/university
   partnerships: Enriching and extending partnerships (pp. 13-17). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT
   Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

Teacher development: To assess the effectiveness of lesson study as a support for teachers in gaining a deeper understanding of the mathematics topics in the elementary school curriculum, and to extend the school practice of Japanese lesson study to include specialty teachers

Masters student development: To develop and assess the effectiveness of new models for incorporating Japanese lesson study in courses for teacher candidates

Outreach: To experiment with finding effective ways of collaborating with district school boards in the use of Japanese lesson study.

Botelho, M.J., & Gibson-Gates, C. (2008). Posing questions together: Critical collaborative
   inquiry in initial teacher education. In C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/university
   partnerships: Enriching and extending partnerships (pp. 18-23). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT
   Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

To strengthen the critical inquiry practices of teachers working in the elementary Midtown cohort

To create a space to foster dialogue among Midtown teacher graduates, current teacher candidates, and associate teachers

To explore the possibilities and challenges of critical collaborative inquiry between teacher candidates and associate teachers

Inwood, H., & Stewart Rose, L. (2007). Advising the arts: Strengthening Arts-Based
Learning. In C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/university partnerships: Transformation of
teacher education (pp. 3-5). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

To build new partnerships and foster the sharing of expertise between OISE arts instructors and associate teachers in elementary schools

To expand the range of arts education learning opportunities for our teacher candidates by collaborating with our associate teachers to build an arts focus

Scott, K., & Root, J. (2007). Building teacher capacity to respond to child abuse. In C.
Rolheiser (Ed.), School/university partnerships: Transformation of teacher education
(pp. 15-17). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

To gain a better understanding of the learning needs of teachers around issues of child abuse and child abuse prevention in schools

To create four short professional development workshops for teachers that would enhance their ability to recognize and respond to child abuse and neglect

To offer workshops to teachers and gather feedback on their impact

To consider results of this project for improving initial teacher education

Kitchen, J., Smyth, E., Thompson, S., & Lemoire, J. (2007). Promoting equity, diversity and
   social justice school-wide. In C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/university partnerships:
   Transformation of teacher education (pp. 18-20). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher
   Education Program.

Objectives:

To heighten awareness of equity issues and develop social justice teaching skills through introductory workshops

To critically analyze classroom and school environments using research-based approaches to equity, diversity, and social justice

To foster collaboration between teachers and teacher candidates in developing curriculum and instruction informed by a heightened awareness of equity, diversity, and social justice

Ballagh, P., & Sheppard, K. (2004). Understanding today’s students: Tribes project. In C.
Rolheiser (Ed.), School/university partnerships: Research into practice (pp. 5-6).
Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

Train teachers in practical instructional strategies that improve students’ communication skills, build their sense of civic values, and increase their capacity for cooperation

Reduce the practice-theory disconnect for teacher candidates by partnering them with experienced teachers who have been trained in some of the same instructional strategies

3.3.7

Ballagh, P., & Sheppard, K. (2005). The Tribes project (year 2). In C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/University Partnerships: Innovations in teaching and learning (pp. 25-26). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

To train participants in Tribes/co-operative learning strategies, which impact students’ social skills and academic learning

To co-train associate teachers and teacher candidates to determine if practice teaching is enhanced by a common professional development experience and common language

Sheppard, K. (2006). The Tribes project—year 3: Building a total learning community. In
C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/university partnerships: Creative connections (pp. 12-14).
Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

To train participants in selected Tribes/co-operative learning strategies which impact student motivation and learning, particularly for applied courses

To create a two-day refresher training session for partner schools that shifts from building capacity to sustaining implementation of Tribes/co-operative learning strategies

To provide a co-training opportunity for associate teachers and teacher candidates that deepens the practicum experience

Eldridge, J., & Bennett, B. (2004). Instructional intelligence. In C. Rolheiser (Ed.),
School/university partnerships: Research into practice (pp. 9-10). Toronto, ON:
OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

Determine the impact of school/university partnerships on pre-service and in-service teachers

Explore how pre-service and in-service teachers can develop learning communities in order to become more “instructionally intelligent”

Lemieux, L., & Mazurek, J. (2005). Enhancing student learning in mathematics through the
     teaching/learning cycle. In C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/University Partnerships:
   Innovations in teaching and learning (pp. 17-18). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher
   Education Program.

Objectives:

To promote a supportive practicum experience for teacher candidates by fostering close working relationships with our school board partners

To support a small group of associate teachers in investigating the use of a research-based instructional design model to plan and teach sequences of lessons based on the Ontario elementary mathematics curriculum

Swartz, L. (2005). Inspecting class talk. In C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/University
Partnerships: Innovations in teaching and learning (pp. 7-8). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT
Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

To introduce and promote strategies that can be used to incorporate talk as a response to literature in a variety of curriculum areas

To have teacher candidates and associate teachers consider criteria for analyzing and assessing student talk

To promote an understanding of program organization issues as teacher candidates and associate teachers have students work in pairs, small groups, and in whole class contexts

Pelletier, J., Morley, E., & Reeve, R. (2005). Improving reading comprehension. In C.
Rolheiser (Ed.), School/University Partnerships: Innovations in teaching and learning
(pp. 9-10). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

To carry out collaborative school-wide research and instructional improvement innovation that had reading comprehension as its focus in the Institute of Child Study Laboratory School at OISE/UT

To define and assess reading comprehension at each grade and implement teaching interventions developed by teachers and their initial teacher education interns to improve reading comprehension in JK-Grade 6 students

Soren, B.J. (2005). Growing community in arts education: From teacher education to the
classroom. In C. Rolheiser (Ed.), School/University Partnerships: Innovations in
teaching and learning (pp. 29-30). Toronto, ON: OISE/UT Teacher Education Program.

Objectives:

To investigate how to build and sustain arts education in both elementary and secondary teacher education programs at a time of limited human and financial resources for arts education

To provide “best practice” case studies on how classroom teachers who have been through pre-service, in-service, and/or graduate work at OISE/UT have sustained their learnings about arts and are now giving back to teacher candidates