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Alberta has all the right ingredients to make major changes to its curriculum.
That was one of the messages delivered at the ATA’s Invitational Symposium on Curriculum Design for Informed Transformation: Creating a Great School for Every Student. More than 300 educators attended the event, which was held in Edmonton on November 4 and 5.
Participants heard various international perspectives on curriculum design, considered the challenges and opportunities associated with curriculum design, and provided input on guiding principles for future curriculum design.
The symposium featured keynote speakers from education, including Pasi Sahlberg, director general, Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation, in Helsinki, Finland. Sahlberg described curriculum as the most important “steering instrument” for Finland’s transformation of its schools and pointed to challenges and lessons from which Alberta could learn.
In the 1990s, the Finns had a discussion about their school curriculum similar to the one that Alberta is now having about its curriculum, he said. They asked: “How can we have a system and a curriculum that are flexible, given the reality of ongoing changes, new ideas and new subjects, without having a centrally revised curriculum every year?” In response, the curriculum was developed directly with schools and teachers, rather than with government or ministries.
Sahlberg sees Alberta as one of the few jurisdictions in the world that has everything it needs to make a major change in its curriculum—well-trained teachers, good leadership and sufficient resources. “If Alberta can’t make this change, then nobody can. Right now, Alberta operates with a very prescribed curriculum architecture, so you need to loosen this up by allowing schools more responsibility and autonomy to decide on their own curriculum,” he said.
Stephen Murgatroyd, educator, author and former Athabasca University professor, advocated for “re-imagining the classroom as a place where problems are solved, rather than a textbook-focused institution.” Murgatroyd said Alberta has packed its curriculum too full of objectives that tend to distract from real-life learning opportunities. As an example of a real-life learning opportunity, Murgatroyd described a school in Cheshire, England, that empowered its students to address the loneliness of seniors in their community. The project transformed the town in a significant way and at the same time allowed the students to tackle different subject areas, such as social studies, psychology, health, science and politics. “Schools can be transformative agencies, on all sorts of levels and in all sorts of ways, when they are empowered to make a difference themselves,” Murgatroyd said.
Irmeli Halinen, head of the Curriculum Development Unit, Finnish National Board of Education, spoke about the unique role that curriculum plays in Finland and how changes in society can and must influence education. “It’s our common working tool, and it’s also like a map that allows us to better navigate this very complex and ever-changing world.” She said that curriculum needs to be developed in cooperation with curriculum developers, teachers, teacher trainers and textbook producers to find the best way forward. Halinen said it is absolutely necessary that teachers feel that the curriculum helps them in their everyday work. “If they have been involved in the creation of the content, then they feel ownership [and believe] that what they feel is important is included … how they think the learning environment should be organized or how assessment should occur.”
Interviews with all three keynote speakers are available on our YouTube channel.
