Alberta’s new K-4 curriculum has been pushed back a year because of the pandemic, and local educators say that’s a wise move.
Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange signed off on a new ministerial order on student learning Aug. 6. Said order sets out the philosophical goals for education in Alberta.
The new order is part of the province’s ongoing update to the school curriculum, which determines the topics teachers teach. The former NDP government started a revamp of the K-12 curriculum in 2016. The current UCP government paused the revamp last summer, alleging the NDP had put political agendas into the curriculum, and appointed a panel to review it and write a new ministerial order.
While the province had planned to do a test-run of the new K-4 curriculum this fall, LaGrange said the province would delay that trial until next year so schools could focus on reopening during the pandemic.
St. Albert Public curriculum services director Catherine Coyne said this was a wise decision, as it would have been a huge task to learn a new curriculum in just a month.
“We really want at this point to focus on reconnecting with our students.”
It would have been “insane” to try and roll out a new curriculum when schools are grappling with the pandemic, said Carla Peck, a social studies education professor at the University of Alberta who served on a committee with the curriculum review.
“They (teachers) certainly don’t need the extra pressure of trying to do a new curriculum.”
LaGrange said a draft K-6 curriculum based on the new ministerial order would come out early next year and get a test run in fall 2021, with full implementation to follow in September 2022. The new Grade 7-10 curriculum would also get a test-run in 2022.
Tone shift
Alberta’s old ministerial order on student learning was written in 2013, and emphasized the “inquiry, discovery and the application of knowledge” over the dissemination of information.
One offshoot of that was the popularization of discovery learning in Alberta schools. Broadly speaking, this teaching technique encouraged students to develop their own ways to implement concepts (e.g. multiplication) instead of following a set formula (e.g. memorizing a times table). Some parents and educators criticized this method, saying it leaves students ill-equipped to do basic tasks.
LaGrange said this new order would end discovery learning and instead emphasize literacy, numeracy and proven learning methods.
The new order says education is to “promote the acquisition of skills and the pursuit of knowledge with wisdom,” and emphasizes “specific factual content,” “the great works and ideas of world history,” and the use of standard algorithms (techniques) in math.
LaGrange said this order would lead to a curriculum that emphasizes financial literacy (as the draft NDP curriculum did) and a social studies curriculum “that is taught without political bias.”
When asked for examples of said bias, LaGrange’s press secretary Colin Aitchison provided images of classroom materials on oilsands development and consumerism, as well as complaints from parents that alleged teachers were biased on topics such as the environment.
No curriculum is bias-free, as all policies reflect the biases of those who wrote them, Peck said.
“Is it left-wing ideology to think that all human beings are created equal?”
Peck noted the province’s examples of biased curriculum were in fact teaching materials that some teachers may have used in class, none of which actually appeared in the curriculum.
“It is alarming that the Minister of Education and her spokespeople don’t know the difference between curriculum and teaching materials,” she said.
Coyne said she likes the order’s emphasis on critical thought, citizenship and communication, and noted her board already places heavy emphasis on literacy and numeracy. She wasn’t sure what LaGrange meant by ideological bias in the curriculum, as most of the current curriculum was written prior to 2011 under Progressive Conservative governments.
The new order appeared to emphasize facts and memorization over concepts and theory, which Peck likened to knowing dates and events over how to understand history.
“That approach absolutely turns people off history,” she said, and goes against the latest in educational research.
Coyne said the full impact of this ministerial order wouldn’t be clear until the province releases its new draft curriculum.
