The following blog post was published in the Lethbridge Herald on November 30, 2016.
Alberta Education is undergoing the aggressive task of updating the curriculum currently being taught in our schools. While it may seem that curriculum changes are always occurring, the truth is that Alberta’s curriculum actually ranges in age from eight to thirty years old. That fact in itself should answer the “why” for curriculum review, but there are many other reasons to make the change.
There always seems to be a fear of what will be lost when a curriculum is revised. I like to take the approach of what will be gained and use the new definitions of literacy and numeracy to illustrate. Alberta Education now defines literacy as the ability, confidence and willingness to engage in language to acquire, construct and communicate meaning in all aspects of daily life. Numeracy is defined as the ability, confidence and willingness to engage in quantitative or spatial information to make informed decisions in all aspects of daily life. These definitions far exceed what we use to call reading, writing and arithmetic. They do not just rest in language arts and math classes and place sole responsibility on those teachers, but instead crossover into all subjects and grades. Holy Spirit Catholic School Division recognizes the importance of our students learning these foundational building blocks and has therefore set literacy and numeracy as priorities for the next three years.
But there are still more reasons to develop new curriculum beyond just age and the required focus on literacy and numeracy. In order to maintain our world class standards and give our students both local and global advantages, we must do things differently. Many of our older courses of study put a premium on rote learning and skills development in isolation. New curriculum needs to fit local context, show practicality, engage students’ desire to learn and build competencies that will serve our students well into an ever-evolving future.
All of us can remember attending our own classes and wondering why we had to learn a certain concept. What was the purpose of learning this isolated fact or formula and how would it serve us beyond our days of schooling? New curriculum must be flexible enough to show relevance in students’ lives. Our patent response to why students must learn something can’t simply be because it is in the curriculum. Future curriculum must allow students the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills to their daily life. In other words, schools can’t only exist to prepare students for real life – schooling needs to be real life.
“Doing things differently” has been a focused direction for our school division for the last number of years and will continue to be into the future. That shift in practice, however, does not come without some trepidation. It is far easier to default to what we’ve always done or what we know. But what is easier isn’t always right. In order to build on exemplary practices and innovative approaches a new curriculum is required. Alberta students deserve the very best and part of the solution resides in a responsive curriculum that engages students and motivates them to become active lifelong learners.
