INNISFAIL - The 11,000-student Chinook’s Edge School Division may consider piloting the province’s updated social studies curriculum, says associate superintendent Jason Drent.
The new curriculum will be piloted in schools starting in September and school divisions have been asked to consider piloting in their respective schools.
“There are opportunities and multiple different entryways to enter into pilot opportunities as the implementation plan comes out,” Drent told the Albertan. “That’s definitely something we will engage on with our administrators, our schools and our teachers to see if there is an appetite for any of that.
“We haven’t had an opportunity yet to bring it to our administrators to see if there is an appetite for that. Our people have a lot on their plates with all the other curriculum coming out.
“We still need to look at what piloting could look like, if our people are interested in it. We are going to take it one step at a time and make sure there are good resources to support our people.”
School divisions have until May 15 to express interest to Alberta Education on whether they will pilot the new curriculum.
The new social studies curriculum for K-6 will “focus on building critical thinking skills and empowering students to be engaged citizens,” said Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides.
“I am incredibly proud of the work that’s gone into developing this new K-6 social studies curriculum and I am excited to see how it transfers into the classroom through piloting this fall.”
Alberta Education has released the updated draft K-6 social studies curriculum to help school authorities and teachers prepare for operational classroom piloting, he said.
The draft curriculum will “engage students in learning that promotes understanding of diversity across Canada and throughout the world,” he said.
Should the division decide to pilot the new curriculum, teachers would be provided with information and tools, including “opportunities to provide feedback to Alberta Education on the draft curriculum, including how it is experienced in classrooms,” he said.
“Teachers can access comprehensive learning and teaching resources and professional learning supports aligned with draft curriculum, including subject-specific overviews, quick reference videos, illustrative examples and fact sheets online.”
The 46,000-member Alberta Teachers' Association (ATA) has called on the province to delay the rollout of the new social studies curriculum.
Teacher concerns with the new curriculum include the “unrealistic number of concepts to be covered, some of which are developmentally inappropriate and conceptually inaccurate, as well as failing to engage higher-order thinking skills,” said ATA president Jason Schilling.
“The problems currently being faced by teachers having to implement a flawed math curriculum demonstrates the risk of proceeding prematurely to implement new curriculum content and design.”
The CESD is headquartered in Innisfail and includes schools across the district.
