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New curriculum coming for kindergarten to grade four

Alberta Education Minister David Eggen launches survey on K-12 curriculum re-design. October 18, 2016.

Alberta Education and the Alberta Teachers’ Association have approved a new curriculum for kindergarten to Grade 4.

This curriculum rewrite is the first of its kind in Alberta and focuses on rewriting all core subject areas at once so that all subjects complement each other, allowing students to develop literacy, numeracy and competencies like critical thinking in each subject and grade.

David Eggen, Minister of Education says field testing has now begun in some classrooms

 “…It helps to ensure that what looks good on paper also makes sense in the classroom. We will continue to work with our education partners and stakeholders to ensure that future curriculum is ready for students in a timely matter,” said Eggen.

George McGuigan, superintendent of the Fort McMurray Catholic School Board  told MyMcMurray he thinks the chance is great.

“We’ve been teaching this way for decades, there’s some curriculum that hasn’t changed for a while, and it was a really opportune time and really a high time that we started to make these changes and to update because 21 century learning is far different than it was 20 year ago, even ten years ago,” said McGuigan.

He think the new material will make more sense to the students and also to the parents, especially when they are working with their children at home.

Shannon Noble, Assistant Superintendent for the Fort McMurray Public school board told MyMcMurray they are very excited about it.

“In our opinion it’s preparing our children for 21 century competencies and infusing First Nations, Métis and Inuit, literacy and numeracy throughout the curriculum,” said Noble.

She says Indigenous and Francophone cultures and history will be connected throughout the new lessons.

The current curriculum will remain in effect until implementation timelines have been developed.