Beginning in September 2007, Direct Entry to the ETP is no longer available, but Direct Entry to the Concurrent Teacher Education Program (CTEP) is available at UTSC. This is a direct replacement for the ETP, and provides a B.Sc. or B.A. degree and a B.Ed. degree and teacher certification in a 5 year integrated program.

CTEP Concurrent Teacher Education Program at UTSC

The ETP Required Activities

Once admitted to the ETP, the student will undertake two in-school placements of a minimum of 22 full contact days each, one at the end of the third year of their B.Sc. programme, and one at the end of the fourth year. ETP students will work with experienced teachers in both elementary and secondary schools to gain experience of the requirements of a teaching career. Students are thus better able to refine their choice of the profession, and the level and subjects in which they most want to participate.

The practical experience gained in the two ETP placements, combined with a careful admission process based on more than academic grades alone, result in the automatic admission of successful graduates of the ETP to OISE/UT B.Ed. programme, subject to the following conditions.

Successful completion of the Early Teacher Project requirements, together with the completion of the Specialist program or pair of Major programs approved by the ETP Coordinator with a 2.5 GPA standing in the best fifteen F.C.E.'s will guarantee admission to OISE/UT.

Completion of the Early Teacher Project requires the completion of PSCD01 or PHY341 (on the St. George campus) and one of PSCD02 or PHY342 (on the St. George campus) or CSCD03, irrespective of the particular programme requirements of the chosen programs. This may require choosing two of these three courses (or their equivalents) as electives in some programmes where they are not explicitly required otherwise. Note that the scheduling of these courses is sufficiently complicated to warrant checking with the ETP Coordinator for scheduling.

Beginning in 1999, the ETP was extended to allow specialist programme students from the Department of Physics and the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts and Science (on the St. George campus) to participate in the ETP. This arrangement reflects both the high demand for teachers with a strong physics background and the fact that the equivalent University of Toronto at Scarborough specialist programmes are now offered in cooperation with the St. George departments of Physics and Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Keeping in Contact

The Early Teacher Project is served by the Coordinator for the ETP, Prof. Charles Dyer. Our liason with OISE/UT is through Prof. Don Galbraith. We can be reached at the following telephone numbers and email addresses:

It is important that we have your correct email address. Please use only a U of T email address. If you use an email address outside the University of Toronto, there is a good chance that your email may not reach you at certain times. In addition, please watch your UTSC Intranet page for announcements. This your responsibility and failure to do so may result in you missing and ETP seminar!

Requirements for Teachable Subjects at OISE/UT

The B.Ed. program at OISE/UT requires that the student study two teachable subjects for the Intermediate/Senior teaching option and one teachable subject for the junior/intermediate teaching option. The number of university courses required as prerequisites for each teachable subject various depending on the choice of subject area.

NOTE -- These have changed very recently, in the summer of 2008. Please check these out and consult us with any problems that may arise.

The requirements are listed at the following OISE/UT web-pages:

Junior/Intermediate Teachable Subject Requirements

Intermediate/Senior Teachable Subject Requirements

Any student in the ETP who has any concerns about any aspects of this programme is encouraged to contact any of us to discuss them. The ETP is a small community within the larger community of students in the participating departments, but a very active and mutually supportive community. Our aim is to encourage and enable good students in the physical and mathematical sciences to join the teaching profession in Ontario to build the environment necessary for the best education of Ontario students. This aim is best accomplished through the development of a close-knit community within the ETP, similar to that among the teachers in a successful school.

ETP Evening Seminar/Workshop Series

Every ETP student must attend and participate in 8 ETP evening seminars to complete the ETP requirements. Four seminars are given in each of the ETP student's third and fourth years of the B.Sc. programme. These seminars are conducted by OISE/UT staff or other teaching professionals, with two seminars in the fall term and two in the spring term. Participation in these seminars is mandatory for ETP students, so that failure to attend any seminar should be cleared before the seminar with the ETP coordinator. Failure to attend a seminar will result in an additional assignment for that student, and then only if the reasons for failure to attend are acceptable.

Upcoming ETP Seminars

School Placement Policy

The ETP office will normally arrange placements in schools for the month of May (with some variations) but we also welcome initiatives by ETP students in suggesting possible placements for themselves. There is no guarantee that the suggested placement will be approved, since we have to consider all the implications of a particular placement. In particular, it is often inappropriate for an ETP student to undertake a placement within only a few years of leaving the high school from which they graduated. In many cases the proposed placement is sufficiently distant from the student's own experience in that school that we can allow such a placement. We urge ETP students to think seriously about the implications of the required placements with regard to other committments, such as part-time employment and summer jobs.

In the interest of allowing students the most general introduction to teaching, with the most freedom of choice of level of entry to the the school system, we encourage ETP students to take one of their placements in an elementary school and the other in a high school.

You are encouraged to seek your own placement in a school of your choice for this coming May. However, should you obtain your own placement you must follow these guidelines:

1. Obtain a commitment, in writing, (fax or email) from the Principal of the school to which you are going. This must clearly state that the school has agreed to allow you to do your praticuum with them for a total of 22 days. This should be sent to Prof. C. Dyer.

2. Permission must be obtained from Prof. Dyer before you accept the offer from the school.

3. Everyone arranging their own placements must have details completed no later than March 19.

4. Please be sure that I know you are going to arrange your own placement.

Scientists in Schools and the Early Teacher Project are now cooperating to provide some ETP students with the opportunity of doing one of the two required placements as a SinS presenter in elementary school classrooms. This replaces the second ETP classroom placement with the experience gained through developing and delivering half-day units on specific topics. Some units that represent some of the range covered by SinS are listed below.

The SinS placement begins in the third year, with the basic training required of a SinS presenter. The ETP student will begin their SinS training in that third year, and do the in-school regular placement in the month of May of the third year. If the SinS training period of about 12 half-days, typically acting as an apprentice with an experienced SinS presenter, goes well, the ETP student will be able to complete the second 12 half-days through their final year of the B.Sc. programme, typically in solo SinS presentations if all goes well. If the ETP student completes the whole SinS placement successfully, the student will not have to do the final ETP placement in a school in May of their final year before going to OISE/UT.

Total duration: 24 half-days, so 12 Full Day Equivalents

1. 6 half-days of training through seminar and observing SinS presenters, in early third year.

2. 6 half-days as apprentice presenter with active participation, later in third year.

3. 12 half-days as a SinS presenter, typically as solo presenter, if they meet the SinS standards, in which case each presentation will be paid at about $93 per half-day.

The expected schedule of involvement with SinS for an ETP placement is about 6 half-days per term. This may actually be concentrated in some parts of each term, to accommodate the needs of both the ETP student and SinS scheduling.

The grade levels for each unit are listed, though these are only approximate at this time.

1. Celestial Sleuths, Grade 2-5

2. Simple Machines, Grade 2-5

3. Energy, Grade 5

4. Kitchen Chemistry, Grade 1-3

5. Mysteries of Magnetism, Grade 3

6. Structures (buildings, bridges,...), Grade 1-3

7. Toys and Technology, Grade 1-3

If you are interested in doing your ETP placement through SinS, please send email to Prof. Dyer at dyer@astro.utoronto.ca as soon as possible. Please indicate your preference in choice of these units by indicating your first, second and third choice. We will select from those interested, and try to reflect the preferences and your academic training.