INNISFAIL - Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools (RDCRS) has completed a comprehensive review of the province’s proposed new K-6 curriculum, with trustees reviewing the findings during a recent board meeting.
Associate superintendent of curriculum Ryan Sawula presented the results of the review, which was conducted to provide both an overview of concerns and a discipline-specific breakdown of relevant issues associated with each of the courses provided in the draft curriculum.
The review was conducted with input from key stakeholders, including parents, teachers, administrators and others.
As part of the process about 300 participants, including parents, took part in a survey and provided feedback.
From the responses to the survey a number of overarching preliminary themes were identified, including the following suggestions and comments (quoted from report).
• Implementation needs to be paused to allow adequate time for extensive revisions.
• More consultation and emphasis placed on teachers’ input and expertise.
• Reading skills needs to be a priority.
• Numeracy skills including basic math facts need to be a priority.
• Critical thinking skills, math and literacy skills need to be prioritized.
• More emphasis on understanding what it means to be an active citizen.
• An understanding and acceptance of LGBTQS+ people needs to be included and emphasized.
• Tackling the mental health crisis we have with our youth needs to be a priority.
• Learning about history in a way that gives a voice to Indigenous peoples.
• More emphasis on understanding environmental science and climate change.
• Social studies appears to have a white, euro-centric viewpoint which doesn’t advance inclusion or alternate points of view.
Respondents said knowledge and skills they would like children to gain from K-6 include reading skills, writing skills, critical thinking, math skills including numbers and patterns, emotional intelligence/social skills, variety of ethnicities, problem solving and conflict resolution.
Stakeholder input was analyzed to provide a number of overall themes about the proposed curriculum, including the following (quoted from report):
• Has too much of a focus on memorization and lower-level thinking.
• Borrows heavily on United States curriculum, pedagogy and history.
• Is too focused on shallow learning based on memorization and does not encourage critical thinking or higher-level thinking skills.
• Minimizes Indigenous history and relationships with the Canadian government.
• Contains potential dogma, racism, misogyny and phobias.
• Is not age appropriate.
• Did not include educational experts in a fully consultative way in its development.
Trustees accepted the review report as information and instructed that it be forwarded to the Ministry of Education for consideration as part of the ongoing province-wide consultations.
The complete 32-page review report is available for viewing on the RDCRS website. The division includes schools in Innisfail and Olds.
