CITE Story
Preparing Future Teachers for Success
LOYOLA CITE PARTNERSHIP IMMERSES STUDENTS IN LEARNING EXPERIENCES
The most beneficial way of learning is by experience. By engaging learners in direct experiences and focused reflections, Loyola University Chicago School of Education allows students to expand their knowledge and professional capacities, develop important skills, and clarify their educational values. Experience is a primary process in navigating life, this same process should be recognized as crucial in the context of learning.
Loyola prioritizes education that centers around students and puts their needs first. By weaving transformative, real-life experiences into learning curriculums, the School of Education provides unparalleled hands-on learning opportunities that promote a better understanding of course materials, creativity in the classroom, collaboration, and self-confidence in leadership as future educators.
"I enjoyed how the interactive experience in the classroom brought a bigger meaning to the specimen we were observing."
- Mia Finley
A Key Aspect of a Student-Centered Education
Through the School of Education’s Cultural Institutions in Teacher Education (CITE) partnership, students in the Teaching, Learning, and Leading with Schools & Communities (TLLSC) teacher preparation program are fortunate to partner with Adler Planetarium, the Chicago Children’s Museum, the Chicago History Museum, The Field Museum, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (PNNM), and Shedd Aquarium in efforts to provide experiential learning opportunities for their future students and classrooms.
The successful development of future teachers requires an all-hands-on-deck partnership approach. Through the School of Education’s CITE partnership program local schools, communities, and cultural institutions become sites for teacher candidate learning experiences as school professionals, museum educators, and community leaders share the responsibility of preparing teachers.
Local museums and other informal learning institutions provide learners with many beneficial opportunities to expand their knowledge and broaden their worldviews. By encompassing various program areas and engaging learners in ongoing research, experiential learning encourages students to fully immerse themselves in their education.
"The experience showed me that learning can be observed and modeled from different instructional practices. As a future teacher, testing out different methods of instruction can help find a good method that tailors to your students well rounded learning." Julia Maina
The Benefits of Experiential Learning
Experiential learning plays a key role in education. In learning by doing, students are encouraged to make mistakes as these mistakes often become valuable experiences. The development of professional knowledge as well as the skills and dispositions gained throughout these experiences go on to create a wide variety of positive impacts on future teachers, their students, and their communities.
Teacher candidates involved in the CITE partnership benefit in numerous ways. Opportunities provided through the partnership expand learners’ perspectives of where teaching and learning can occur. This expansion aids future teachers in properly utilizing cultural institutions and their educational resources in their future classrooms. The foundations laid in these experiential learning settings also help teacher candidates to develop professional collaborations with museum educators and other institutional staff, ultimately improving learning for all students.
Through the CITE partenership, students are given the opportunity to explore learning in exciting environments like Shedd Aquarium.
Teacher candidates are not alone in benefiting from this partnership. For PK-12 students and partnering schools, their increased collaboration with museums and museum educators bolsters awareness about and access to museum collections, spaces, and education materials. As teachers can integrate these useful materials into classroom instruction, students grow to value these uniquely engaging learning opportunities and the excitement they bring to current curriculums.
Experiential learning is a mutually beneficial tool for future teachers and the involved institutions. Developing relationships and networking with universities, administrations, future teachers, and other local cultural sites not only deepens relationships but also helps to refine educational materials and programs as feedback allows these institutions to stay informed of the current needs of schools and classroom teachers.
Centers and Partnerships
Loyola CITE Partnership
Local museums and other informal learning institutions – including their education staff, collections, programming and pedagogical approaches – have been integrated as mutually beneficial partners in the Teaching, Learning and Leading with Schools & Communities (TLLSC) initial teacher preparation program.
Learn MoreStory by Kate Roudebush
The most beneficial way of learning is by experience. By engaging learners in direct experiences and focused reflections, Loyola University Chicago School of Education allows students to expand their knowledge and professional capacities, develop important skills, and clarify their educational values. Experience is a primary process in navigating life, this same process should be recognized as crucial in the context of learning.
Loyola prioritizes education that centers around students and puts their needs first. By weaving transformative, real-life experiences into learning curriculums, the School of Education provides unparalleled hands-on learning opportunities that promote a better understanding of course materials, creativity in the classroom, collaboration, and self-confidence in leadership as future educators.
A Key Aspect of a Student-Centered Education
Through the School of Education’s Cultural Institutions in Teacher Education (CITE) partnership, students in the Teaching, Learning, and Leading with Schools & Communities (TLLSC) teacher preparation program are fortunate to partner with Adler Planetarium, the Chicago Children’s Museum, the Chicago History Museum, The Field Museum, the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum (PNNM), and Shedd Aquarium in efforts to provide experiential learning opportunities for their future students and classrooms.
The successful development of future teachers requires an all-hands-on-deck partnership approach. Through the School of Education’s CITE partnership program local schools, communities, and cultural institutions become sites for teacher candidate learning experiences as school professionals, museum educators, and community leaders share the responsibility of preparing teachers.
Local museums and other informal learning institutions provide learners with many beneficial opportunities to expand their knowledge and broaden their worldviews. By encompassing various program areas and engaging learners in ongoing research, experiential learning encourages students to fully immerse themselves in their education.
The Benefits of Experiential Learning
Experiential learning plays a key role in education. In learning by doing, students are encouraged to make mistakes as these mistakes often become valuable experiences. The development of professional knowledge as well as the skills and dispositions gained throughout these experiences go on to create a wide variety of positive impacts on future teachers, their students, and their communities.
Teacher candidates involved in the CITE partnership benefit in numerous ways. Opportunities provided through the partnership expand learners’ perspectives of where teaching and learning can occur. This expansion aids future teachers in properly utilizing cultural institutions and their educational resources in their future classrooms. The foundations laid in these experiential learning settings also help teacher candidates to develop professional collaborations with museum educators and other institutional staff, ultimately improving learning for all students.
Teacher candidates are not alone in benefiting from this partnership. For PK-12 students and partnering schools, their increased collaboration with museums and museum educators bolsters awareness about and access to museum collections, spaces, and education materials. As teachers can integrate these useful materials into classroom instruction, students grow to value these uniquely engaging learning opportunities and the excitement they bring to current curriculums.
Experiential learning is a mutually beneficial tool for future teachers and the involved institutions. Developing relationships and networking with universities, administrations, future teachers, and other local cultural sites not only deepens relationships but also helps to refine educational materials and programs as feedback allows these institutions to stay informed of the current needs of schools and classroom teachers.