Much ado about very little in our schools

According to “Major school curriculum changes coming to B.C.” (Aug. 30), we are in for such a “massive shift” in our schools that the B.C. Teachers’ Federation is calling for teachers to receive training in the newly drafted curriculum.

As a result of the rhetoric, some parents worry that basic skills and knowledge will be replaced by individual students’ personal interests. Others believe that B.C.’s new draft curricula have been significantly watered down.

Are we really headed for a massive curricular shift? I don’t think so. I’ve compared the new draft documents to B.C.’s current curricula (known as IRPs or Integrated Resource Packages) and here is what I think parents should know.

First, B.C.’s current curriculum documents are not only “curricula,” traditionally defined as listings of what students need to know and be able to do. B.C.’s documents are “integrated” pack- ages — some running more than 100 pages each — that bring together information about the subject, general learning principles, teaching ideas, assessment strategies, copyright considerations, and the list goes on.

Only a few pages of the current IRPs list what students should know or be able to do (e.g. “describe 3-D objects”). To illustrate: B.C.’s Grade 2 mathematics package is 87 pages long, yet the prescribed learning outcomes occupy merely 21⁄ pages. The new draft curriculum runs just over two pages because it only lists what students need to know and be able to do. Gone are the general learning principles, teaching strategies, copyright considerations, etc.

I welcome this change not only because it saves paper, but also because it acknowledges that teachers are professionals who learned all the other stuff during their preparation to become teachers. With the explosion of the Internet and more readily available teaching resources, teaching ideas can be found everywhere, and teachers know how to find these and use them wisely.

The typical teacher has four to five years of post-secondary education; many have master’s degrees and some have PhDs. Do they really need as much direction as is currently prescribed in B.C.’s IRPs?

In the new draft curriculum, although some of the words have changed, the concepts generally have not. Current curricula use the words “prescribed learning outcomes” to define what kids should know (knowledge) and be able to do (skills). The new draft curriculum calls these “curriculum competencies” (essentially skills) and “content” (essentially knowledge).

In some ways, the new draft documents contain more detail than the current IRPs. The current IRPs cluster sets of learning outcomes under a curriculum heading or “organizer” (e.g. problem-solving, patterns, etc.). It looks to me like these one-word “organizers” have become “Big Ideas” — one-line descriptions that provide a context for the learning outcomes.

Take, for example, the kindergarten social studies curriculum. The current curriculum contains an organizer entitled: “Identity, Society, and Culture” followed by learning outcomes such as “identify groups and places that are part of [students’] lives” and “identify similarities and differences among families.”

In the new draft curriculum, these organizers have become “Big Ideas” such as “Our communities are diverse and made of individuals who have a lot in common” (essentially identity and society) and “Stories and traditions about ourselves and our families reflect who we are and where we are from” (essentially culture).

In the new draft curriculum, a few topics and/or learning outcomes have been removed; others have been added. Adding or deleting curricular components is simply part of ongoing revision cycles. Since B.C.’s first curricula appeared in the 1920s, they have been revised repeatedly.

For example, between then and now, Science 9/10 curricula have been “tweaked” 18 times. This is a good thing, given that some knowledge has been supplanted by new information following new scientific discoveries. Imagine if we were to restrict our students to learning only what was known in the 1920s. Also, if the removal of unnecessary learning outcomes means that teachers and children can spend more time on more essential content and competencies, then I’m all for it.

So, is there “a massive shift underway”? I encourage you to check out the documents and answer the question for yourself. Current curricula can be found at: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/welcome.php New draft curricula are available at: curriculum.gov.bc.ca Helen Raptis is associate dean of undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria.