Curriculum flexes to incorporate tomorrow's world
With more than 500,000 students heading back to schools across BC in a few days, those in the first nine grades may experience a change in curriculum.
The ministry of education has announced a new curriculum focused upon teaching children the skills needed to succeed in “tomorrow’s world.”
Over a three-year transition, starting with kindergarten to grade nine, the new curriculum will link critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills together with the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic.
Mike Bernier, minister of education, sees the link as a positive step toward helping students thrive in university, college and in the work force. “Parents, teachers, educators all share the same goal—student success,” he said in a press release. “With five years of labour peace, we can focus together on connecting students with the skills they will need tomorrow. The new curriculum will help ensure students have the skills they need to turn their dreams into reality in our constantly changing world.”
Students will be given more flexibility to explore their passions and interests. They will still need to learn their core subjects, but other subjects such as music, hockey and dinosaurs, could be added in. Students will also experience more hands-on learning opportunities.
The ministry described the curriculum as including a “renewed emphasis on environmental sciences; Aboriginal perspectives integrated throughout all grade levels; the history and ongoing legacy of the residential school system; and new content regarding historical experiences of East and South Asian immigrants.”
The plan has been developed by teachers for teachers over the past three years. It will take a further three years for the curriculum to fully transition into the school system. Starting next week, teachers in kindergarten through grade nine have the option of integrating the new curriculum into their classrooms, with full implementation for those grades by the 2016-17 school year. By 2017-18, the new curriculum will have been integrated across all grade levels.
Creating a more flexible curriculum falls into the key goals of BC’s Skills for Jobs Blueprint, “to re-engineer education to ensure young people have the skills they need to qualify for in-demand careers.”
