When students learn to learn, their future knows no boundaries

Earlier this fall, UTS welcomed 22 master of teaching candidates from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) to observe the teaching that takes place in real-life classrooms, as part of their journey to becoming full-fledged teachers. In November, the first cohort of six returned for a five-week placement, partnered with a UTS teacher in their area of expertise, with whom they will share teaching responsibilities. 

Hosting master of teaching candidates is a longstanding tradition at UTS, a decades-old University of Toronto partnership that began before OISE was OISE, and hails back to our origins in 1910, when the school was conceived as a training ground for teachers. Many great teachers have fond memories of UTS as the place where they had their first days at the front of a classroom (former principal Rosemary Evans was one of them!).

The learning flows both ways. This partnership benefits UTS just as much as it does the teaching candidates. When new teachers, who have just been trained in the latest methods, ideas and best practices, come into our classrooms and freely share their knowledge, students benefit from the influx of ideas and enthusiasm and teaching staff benefit as they learn fresh approaches from the master of teaching candidates.

As educators, we’re here for the lifelong learning. It really is a dream job! Education is always a fluid, evolving practice. I see it every day in this school, inside and outside the classroom – how our staff seize upon new ideas, revamp their teaching and work methods and build upon their knowledge.

Along with the master of teaching program, lifelong learning is another longstanding tradition fostered by UTS. Adopting a growth mindset, where we believe we can learn, change, evolve and grow, is a must-have in this world of accelerating progress. Teaching students to push past curiosity to bravely question underlying assumptions and time-honoured traditions is a skill UTS has always encouraged in our classrooms.

“Everyone loves to learn here!” is a common refrain among new students, thrilled to have found a group of peers who feel the same excitement they do about school. Many of our alumni praise UTS not just for the knowledge they acquired, but for the joy of learning it inspired in them and how it transformed them into lifelong learners. That might be why many of them are so successful. UTS students learn everything they need to know, but the most vital is that they also learn to learn, a skill that can take them anywhere and everywhere, and it does.

Research shows that learning can and does change the brain – neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to adapt and grow in response to its experiences. Our school serves as a foundation upon which to build a lifetime of experiences, opening up so many pathways to explore, because of the learning that started inside the classroom at UTS. This is just the next step in your child’s incredible journey as an inquirer for life. We hope that UTS equips them with the best possible tools to pursue the knowledge and ask the challenging questions that can make a difference for our world.

#fosteringbrilliance

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