Page 10 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | Cooperative Education

THE IMPORTANCE OF COOPERATIVE EDUCATION
BENEFITS AND GOALS OF COOPERATIVE EDUCATION
Cooperative education provides secondary school students with a wide range of rigorous learning opportunities connected to communities outside the school. It is designed
to recognize and respond to the diversity of Ontario’s student population, and it can engage all students. In cooperative education, students learn in safe, culturally responsive environments in the community, and they are actively involved in determining what they learn, how they learn, when and where they learn, and how they demonstrate their learning. Participation in cooperative education can lead to transformational change, engaging students in unique experiences that they will remember throughout their lives.
Cooperative education promotes the acquisition and refinement of skills, knowledge, and habits of mind3 that support education and career/life planning and fosters positive attitudes towards learning that help students become independent, lifelong learners. Cooperative education contributes substantially to a comprehensive education and career/life planning culture by focusing on:
• helping students acquire skills and knowledge related to the community experience;
• providing opportunities for students to inquire and reflect on their experiences in order to gain a greater knowledge of themselves and their opportunities and a growing understanding of how they can shape their future;
• providing personalized experiences to meet students’ particular learning and motivational needs.
Goals of Cooperative Education
All students can benefit from participating in cooperative education . In their experiences in cooperative education, students will develop:
• a reflective habit of mind to derive meaning from their experiences;
• the ability to apply (e .g ., transfer) their learning to influence decisions and actions in various
aspects of their lives;
• the skills, knowledge, and habits of mind required to become competent and confident
education and career/life planners .
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3. The term “habits of mind” refers to ways of thinking, attitudes, and dispositions that have become habitual to the point of being second nature. In the context of this document, the term refers to a prevailing disposition to reflection, inquiry, and action.