Page 33 - THE ONTARIO CURRICULUM, GRADES 11 AND 12 | Cooperative Education

Students who would benefit from additional preparation for success in cooperative education should be encouraged to take courses such as:
• Discovering the Workplace (GLD2O)
• Designing Your Future (GWL3O)
• Navigating the Workplace (GLN4O)
• Exploring the World of Work (KGWA – non-credit-bearing)
These courses provide opportunities for students to develop the readiness to participate and the confidence and competence to succeed in cooperative education. Participation
in shorter-term experiential learning opportunities, such as job shadowing, job twinning, or work experience, which can be incorporated into any secondary school course (see Appendix B), is recommended for students who need additional preparation for cooperative education.
School boards should ensure that cooperative education courses are offered through a variety of delivery models (i.e., full-day, half-day, continuous intake, summer school, and night school) in order to meet the range of student needs within their local community (see Ontario Schools, Kindergarten to Grade 12: Policy and Program Requirements, 2016, section 8.1).
Adult learners must also have opportunities to participate in cooperative education. In designing these opportunities, teachers need to take into account the principles of adult learning theory.
DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSES
The development and implementation of cooperative education courses are guided by the following three stages:
• Stage 1: Planning the Opportunity
• Stage 2: Preparing for the Opportunity
• Stage 3: Supporting Student Learning and Well-Being
These stages provide guidance for teachers as they develop and implement safe and effective cooperative education programs. Throughout the stages, the importance of the essential processes for learning in cooperative education is emphasized. Students, teachers, community partners, and parents may have varying degrees of involvement, depending on the nature and scope of the opportunity and the student’s age and stage of development.
Stage 1: Planning the Opportunity
For cooperative education to be both a rich learning experience for students and rewarding for the community partner, particular attention must be paid to the process of matching a student’s interests, strengths, needs, and aspirations to opportunities that exist or that could be developed with the community partner. Planning for this opportunity must begin prior to the start of the course.
PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COOPERATIVE EDUCATION PROGRAM
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