TRAFALGAR-MCGILL CO-LAB | TRADITIONAL LAB SCHOOL | |
DEFINITION | An innovative school-university learning environment that challenges educators to collaboratively transform education to enable and empower its members in responding to local and global challenges | A school backed by a university department or an institution that trains teachers |
FOCUS | Builds a community-based approach to teaching and learning that draws on the diverse contexts, abilities, and strengths of Trafalgar teachers and McGill researchers. Collaborates with community members to share ideas that shape current and future directions through new research, knowledge and practices | Combines education, training and research. Develops and test new approaches. Models best practices |
PURPOSE | Promotes cutting edge innovative approaches to teaching and learning that include open access, multidirectional research clusters addressing local and global challenges | Proposes an evidence-based pedagogy. Emphasizes training and research that can be applied to public education. Creates a forum for teachers to further their knowledge |
STRUCTURE | Organizes around thematic, timely, and relevant issues like critically-engaged teaching and learning that lead to positive social change. Encourages open access to shared resources like teaching labs and learning commons that advance innovative pedagogy. Acts as a multidirectional hub that allows for a ‘learning together’ model driven by open access to best practices in educational leadership and pedagogy. | Operates in alignment with a university, college, or teacher education institution and used for the training of teachers, educational research, and professional development |
PARTICIPANTS | Positions all learners and educators – teachers, faculty, and students - in relation to others, to ideas, to society, to the environment, to local and global needs and issues, to places and their histories, and to oneself. Benefits novice and experienced educators equally by capitalizing on members’ situated knowledge, as well as the knowledge available through strong community connections. Fosters effective mentorship of novice educators as well to the continued professional development of established educators | Serves to invite and support children, teachers, parents, undergraduate and graduate students, and child study |
FEATURES | Responsive & Integrative Pedagogy. Critical Decision-making. Creative Problem solving. Best practices in pedagogy and curriculum development | Professional development. Classroom-based research and observation. Teacher Inquiry. Collaborative action research |