Curriculum

Alberta Education:  Curriculum at a Glance

My Child’s Learning & Curriculum Express                                                

My Child’s Learning is a new online resource that provides up-to-date information about what children in Grades K—12 are learning, the  resources available to help them, and how they might be assessed. It can be found at:  www.learnalberta.ca/content/mychildslearning/

Curriculum Express for Parents provides a short explanation of school and what students learn in Kindergarten to Grade 3.  This online resource can be found at: https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/mychildslearning/

Learn Alberta.ca is a website that supports lifelong learning by  providing online resources to the Kindergarten to Gr. 12 community in Alberta.  Students, teachers, and parents can use this site to find multimedia learning resources that are correlated to the Alberta programs of study. Students, parents and staff of Black Gold Regional schools are authorized to use LearnAlberta at http://www.learnalberta.ca/.  To access these resources please contact your child’s teacher for Black Gold’s access codes.

Curriculum Design and Process

Alberta’s Kindergarten to Grade 12 provincial curriculum has enabled our students to achieve at world-class levels. Nonetheless, our provincial curriculum is in need of updating. Current subjects range from eight to approximately 30 years old.

Current curriculum was developed one subject at a time and over different time periods, so there is no common design. This makes planning across subjects more difficult for teachers. Updating curriculum means that design, content and the process by which it is developed will be changed.

We also know that some programs of study can be a challenge for teachers as they navigate through hundreds of learner outcomes while working to develop learning opportunities that would allow them to go in-depth on some topics with their students.

In the future, provincial curriculum will be developed and available for use through a digital platform, the Curriculum Development Application (CDA). The CDA will also support the move to a shorter curriculum development cycle and an improved ever-greening process which means curriculum can be updated as needed within shorter time frames. This will help ensure that curriculum remains current and relevant.

Content

Future provincial curriculum in all subjects will be student-centred and will:

• keep pace with issues, topics and themes that are of concern to many Albertans. This includes topics like climate leadership, financial literacy, mental health, sexual health and consent, online citizenship and many more.
• reflect the importance of inclusion, diversity and pluralism.
• include Francophone perspectives, history and contributions.
• include enhanced mandatory content about First Nations, Métis and Inuit ways of knowing, perspectives, experiences, languages and cultures, in historical and contemporary contexts, including residential schools and treaties for all students in Alberta.
• focus on learner outcomes that support the development of 21st century competencies as well literacy and numeracy across curriculum.

Future provincial curriculum will consider and help to support directional documents, such as the Ministerial Order on Student Learning (MO), Inclusive Education Policy. It will also begin to fulfill the Government of Alberta’s commitments to implement the principles and objectives of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Expression of Reconciliation for the Legacy of the Indian Residential School System announced at the Truth and Reconciliation event in March 2014.

Links to Alberta Education information on Curriculum Design and Process:

Alberta Ed