The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning

The Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning (CTTL) was created to support, share and deepen St. Andrew’s Episcopal School's understanding of and commitment to knowing how every student learns.

The Center evolved from the dedication to student-centered teaching that St. Andrew’s provides pre-school through twelfth grade students and advances the school’s mission: “To know and inspire each child in an inclusive environment dedicated to exceptional teaching, learning, and service.”

The Center is the research and development arm of St. Andrew's and applies the science of learning to practical applications in the classroom. At the forefront of twenty-first century teaching is understanding how each individual student’s mind works in order to maximize his or her potential. One-hundred percent of St. Andrew’s faculty made the commitment to become specialists in understanding the neurodevelopental demands of teaching and learning through their training in the All Kinds of Minds program. That initial training is deepened through the application of research from The Johns Hopkins University, Harvard, Stanford and the University of Virginia. See how research has transformed the instructional practices of St. Andrew's teachers by reading "Think Differently and Deeply."

The CTTL partners and associates with like-mind educational organizations and conducts workshops to transform pedagogical practice both within St. Andrew’s and the larger educational community. St. Andrew’s is proud that through its private/public partnerships with organizations such as Teach for America it is helping to improve instruction for its own students and also for students and teachers in dozens of public schools.

In the end, the target of the work of the CTTL are teachers but the true beneficiaries of its work will be students who deserve an education that reflects how much more we know about teaching and learning in the 21st century.


Principles of the CTTL:

  • Apply neuro-scientific research, observation and feedback to pedagogical practice
  • Measure the effectiveness of teaching and learning strategies
  • Empower students to understand their strengths and weaknesses as learners and develop strategies to improve both
  • Establish classrooms as laboratories for daily innovation
  • Develop faculty who see every student as an individual learner whose mind is ever-evolving
  • Value play as an educational method
  • Encourage collaboration between teachers, students, families and like-minded institutions as learning happens best in partnership
  • Ensure that 21st Century tools are equally available, and widely used, in teaching and learning
  • Provide students with real-life opportunities to apply their knowledge to the world in which they live, and opportunities for independent learning and self-reflection
  • Treat faculty professional growth as a professional responsibility
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