ABSTRACT
Chicago is home to a wealth of world-class informal education and cultural institutions, including museums, aquariums, zoos, libraries, and cultural centers. As faculty designed the Teaching, Learning, and Leading With Schools and Communities program, it was deemed important to maintain the partnerships and expand upon the opportunities that all teacher candidates have to interact with these institutions, including their education departments and expansive programming and collections. Informal education outcomes typically extend beyond developing content knowledge to include physical and emotional engagement and personal growth. Researchers theorize that the interest and excitement generated through out-of-school learning experiences can then promote progress in other learning domains. A small working group formed in the Spring of 2013 when interested university faculty and cultural institution education staff came together over coffee and breakfast to discuss the joint pursuit of two goals: enhancing collaboration around initial teacher preparation and disseminating findings from studying our collaborative.
