Alberta Education rolled out its curriculum review survey earlier this month and portions of it are being met with criticism.
The survey is split into a short form and a long form portion asking questions meant to help update the province’s curriculum, with some of the oldest portions of the curriculum dating back up to 20 years.
While the long form survey is an in-depth look at all subject matter of the province’s curriculum, the short form survey is less quantitative and more value based.
“The short form survey, the questions are just motherhood statements – I don’t think you get a whole lot of value of information from those questions,” said Mark Smith, Wildrose MLA and shadow cabinet minister with the opposition.
The NDP was previously criticized by the Alberta Can’t Wait organization during a rally in July when Jason Kenney, Progressive Conservative leadership hopeful, said, “We will not allow the NDP to politicize our education system.”
The short form survey has 11 statements including “Kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum should reflect the diversity of Alberta’s population” to “Kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum should open up pathways to careers, the world of work, and post-secondary opportunities, which helps build a positive future for Alberta and prepares students for a more diversified economy.” The answer options range from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” or “Do Not Know.”
“This is a huge departure from how we developed curriculum in the past … we’ve allowed to digress into a model that is confusing kids and not allowing them to be successful,” Smith said.
Alberta Education is looking at a six-year development program and expects to roll out the first changes in 2018 for kindergarten to Grade 4 followed by Grade 5 to Grade 8 in 2016 and concluding with Grade 9 to Grade 12 between 2020 and 2022.
“Part A of the survey is based on the Guiding Framework developed by Alberta Education prior to embarking on this process,” Minister of Education David Eggen explained in an email.
When asked if Alberta Education thought the questions on the short form survey were political or relevant to the curriculum review, Eggen answered it was about preparing students for success.
“There are some who would choose to turn this into a political game, putting their own interests and negative attitudes over what’s best for our kids; however, this is about preparing our students for success. Some of our curriculum is quite dated, and we're working collaboratively with teachers and other education partners,” Eggen stated in an email.
Rocky View Schools (RVS) superintendant of schools Greg Luterbach agreed the province’s curriculum was in need of a review.
“I think the concept is good, our curriculum is getting a bit old and going through and doing a refresh is needed,” Luterbach said.
While the Wildrose MLA also agreed the review is needed, Smith called the project “a bit too ambitious.”
“The most important part is the children, the curriculum is a foundation for children … we have to make sure (the review) is done right – a whole generation of students can be negatively affected if it is not done right,” Smith said.
The survey will be available until Nov. 18 and can be found at curriculumsurvey.alberta.ca.
FACTBOX
Short form survey questions include “Kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum should:”
Open up pathways to careers, the world of work, and post-secondary opportunities, which helps build a positive future for Alberta and prepares students for a more diversified economy.
In all subjects and in all grades, should enable learning opportunities that are equitable, inclusive and accessible for all Alberta students.
Reflect the diversity of Alberta’s population.
Provide opportunities for students to learn about ways of knowing and diverse perspectives in historical and contemporary contexts of the First Nation, Métis, and Inuit.
Include and respect the unique perspectives and experiences of Francophones living in Alberta, Canada and the world.
Through learning outcomes, curriculum should support the development of literacy, numeracy, and 21st century competencies.
Students should have opportunities to learn about and practice the values of integrity and respect.
Students should appreciate excellence, value perseverance and develop positive attitudes towards lifelong learning and well-being.
Students should learn to set goals, make responsible choices, and be accountable for their decisions.
Students’ imagination and sense of curiosity should develop as they learn to think logically, creatively, and critically about topics.
Curriculum should be reviewed and updated within a minimum of four years to keep up with research, changing information and skills that children and youth need to be successful in life.
