Elementary classrooms across Alberta are expected to implement curriculum updates in September 2021.
Due to delays from COVID-19, timelines for the new draft curriculum are being adjusted and will be expanded from kindergarten to grade 4 to include grade 5 and 6.
“We made a commitment to pause curriculum review and broaden consultations so they could be more open and transparent, including a wider range of perspectives from parents, teachers and subject matter experts,” said the Minister of Education, Adriana LaGrange.
“Through the work of the curriculum advisory panel and through subsequent public engagement on the draft ministerial order that they developed, I’m very pleased to say, ‘Promise made, promise kept,” she said.
The curriculum advisory panel collected input from approximately 8,500 Albertans and education stakeholders.
“We now have a ministerial order that no longer focuses on constructivist approaches to learning. Instead, the new ministerial order will give students a foundation of literacy and numeracy and a knowledge of the rich and diverse history of Alberta and Canada,” LaGrange said.
“We ended the focus on so-called discovery or inquiry learning, also known as constructivism,” she added. “By repealing the 2013 ministerial order on student learning and replacing it with one that focuses on teaching essential knowledge to help students develop foundational competencies.”
The updated curriculum will focus on developing foundational competencies, with a mandatory financial literacy element.
“It will include a social studies curriculum that is taught without political bias offering an objective understanding of Alberta, Canadian and world history, geography and civic literacy,” LaGrange added. “It will also teach consent as an essential part of the health and wellness curriculum.”
A draft curriculum for grade 7 to 10 will be ready for classroom validation in September 2022.
It is anticipated that all students attending school in Alberta will be learning from the updated kindergarten to grade 6 curriculum by the 2022-23 school year.
“It emphasizes civic virtues, core knowledge, and the outcomes students need to succeed both in school and throughout life,” LaGrange said.
“Under the new ministerial order, education in Alberta will promote the acquisition of skills and the pursuit of knowledge with wisdom while valuing equality of opportunity, parental responsibility, personal responsibility and excellence, respect for difference, and the inherent dignity of each individual,” she said.
Adding, “Our students will explore life opportunities that develop their unique talents and potential, provide a sense of purpose and belonging, and affirm the dignity of work. They will become lifelong learners who will cultivate the virtues of wisdom, courage, self-control, justice, charity, and hope.”
LaGrange and the curriculum advisory panel will begin work on reforming the new curriculum that falls in line with the new vision and fulfills the expectations of Albertans.
“It will be created through a reform process that begins by determining the key knowledge and skills Alberta students should possess by the time of their high school graduation,” LaGrange said.
