New education curriculum for a new century

By Sharon McLeay Times Contributor

Children are living in the 21st century, but the education curriculum hasn’t changed in the past 30 years.
Alberta Education wants to change the education curriculum to make it more applicable and inclusive to children’s daily lives.
“It’s clear that Albertans are passionate about making sure that students learn the skills they need to succeed in a fast-changing world,” said David Eggen, Alberta’s Minister of Education, in a news release earlier this year.
The move to change curriculum in Kindergarten to Grade 12 is costing over $64 million and the roll out for all grades will take about six years. The first phase, involving Kindergarten to Grade 4 students, was released in draft form this month. Surveys were done last spring with feedback from 9,692 individuals; the majority of respondents were teachers, educators and administrators. The second largest group was parents and guardians.
The new provincial curriculum focuses on language arts in English and French, mathematics, social studies, sciences, arts and wellness education. Some of the changes will include topics such as climate change, gender diversity and First Nations history from an aboriginal perspective.
Reading, writing and arithmetic are still part of the base learning, but those skills will be integrated through a different learning style that also incorporates effective communication, problem solving and technical learning for the digital age.
Work began in changing the curriculum in June of 2016, and Eggen said the priorities of Albertans were kept in mind throughout the development of content.
According to Bevan Daverne, superintendent of Golden Hills School Division (GHSD), complete details on the curriculum have not been released to Alberta school boards, but information indicates the changes reflect some of the things GHSD has been implementing for the last few years. For example, encouraging creativity, innovation, collaboration and citizenship.
“I would say some of the changes for Kindergarten to (Grade) 4 aren’t so much about what, but how,” said Daverne. “The how determines how some of these concepts are determined and how they are taught. It allows for a little different kind of thinking. Instead of looking at math as a standalone kind of subject area, it encourages thinking about what we can do in a bigger project that still includes the math we need, but applies it in a way that maybe has a social implication or science.”
Daverne said there are maybe more possibilities to reach students, engage them, and trigger some of the important conceptual learning and competencies by using critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration and creative skills.
“We don’t have all the information yet … this is sort of a first look,” he said. “We think it looks very good and checks all the boxes. We actually think this is exciting. There are some real opportunities for our classrooms and real opportunities for our students.”