 Hello, and welcome to the Provincial Curriculum Development Stakeholder Engagement video created by the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia on behalf of Alberta Education. Provincial Curriculum is foundational to children's future and to the future of our province. Provincial Curriculum, also known as Programs of Study, identifies what children are expected to understand and be able to do in each subject and grade level. The what is the responsibility of Alberta Education? That is the focus of this stakeholder engagement. Please keep in mind, teachers have the flexibility to determine how students achieve the expected learning outcomes at the local level. Teachers bring the Provincial Curriculum to life in the classroom through meaningful learning activities. ARPDC are pleased to be able to support Alberta Education in the engagement of stakeholders to seek feedback on general direction for the development of future curriculum, as well as seek feedback on the strengths and gaps in our current Programs of Study. This will help inform the new Provincial Curriculum development in our province. These are exciting times in Alberta as we move forward in developing new Provincial Curriculum to give all students the best possible start in life to meet the demands of living in the 21st century. The broad-based engagement strategy planned by Alberta Education is truly an opportunity for the voices of many Albertans and stakeholders across the province to provide valued input into the curriculum development process. This video shows what Alberta Education is striving to achieve for all students. Alberta Education has been listening through global research, online consultations, and through other engagement activities. We've learned that we need to do things differently to maintain our world-class standards, and more importantly, to meet student needs in the future. So it's time to change, to grow, to evolve. This will mean consistency and integration in the way programs of study and new assessments are developed, greater ability to keep curriculum current and relevant, and new ways to support opportunities for interdisciplinary learning. How will it transform curriculum better support Alberta students? As students acquire attitudes, skills, and knowledge over time, they will develop competencies needed for lifelong learning, work, and citizenship. Our goal is to create actively involved citizens who realize their place and who are agents of change to create the globe that they want to be a part of. We need to be harnessing that potential to make school relevant to them so they can start taking that into their workplace, taking that into their communities after they graduate. Students will have more opportunity to apply concepts and skills to real-life situations. They'll take ownership of their learning and assessment at a variety of paces and in a variety of environments, engaging curriculum that inspires every student every day will build on a foundation of literacy and numeracy. New provincial curriculum will be responsive to needs of students and society. Along with getting credits here, they can challenge their first year apprentice. So they're getting actual real world credits basically for what they're doing in high schools. 100% of our students have a leadership role in some way, shape, or form in our school and so really what we do is more of a facilitation role with the students. It's centered. It will build competencies for learning, living and working, honor ways of knowing, and facilitate ways of learning. It will enable broad exploration and deep understanding of subjects. Best of all, it will support what's already beginning to happen within Alberta. We've constructed this other reality, which is one of textbooks and videos and artificial constructs. If we want kids to be prepared for the real world, we need to make our classrooms about the real world and with the use of technology, with the use of these international networks we can plug our kids into. We can have the real world part of a normal education, not just an extraordinary education. Alberta Education will be better able to support exemplary practices and innovative approaches just like those emerging across the province. It will empower boards, administrators, teachers, students, community members and parents to make education more responsive to local needs and nurture active, lifelong learners. These citizens will be prepared for success both within the province and as part of a dynamic global society and world economy. The Alberta government is committed to developing a provincial curriculum so that children may have the best possible start in life to prepare for rewarding careers in a diversified and global economy and society. The outcomes we are striving for during this video with you today include helping you to understand the curriculum development process and helping you understand the online survey and how you can provide input that will help inform the new provincial curriculum development. On June 15, 2016, Minister of Education David Egan announced that Alberta Education will begin developing new curriculum in six subjects and will be asking Albertans to provide input. He said, building on the strengths of existing curriculum, feedback received from stakeholders in Albertans, ongoing research and ideas from prototyping, Alberta Education is modernizing curriculum. Future curriculum content will focus on the fundamentals of literacy and numeracy but will also support the development of what students need for success in the 21st century such as cultural and global citizenship, critical thinking, managing information, creativity and innovation and personal growth and well-being. Alberta Education is pleased to have the support of its education partners including the Alberta Teachers Association as we undertake this important work. Future involvement is critical to the development and implementation of provincial curriculum and our government values teachers' hard work and dedication. This dynamic partnership is one of many ways we are working to ensure that our new curriculum provides equitable, inclusive and accessible learning opportunities for all Alberta students. Ultimately, final decision making regarding programs of study content will reside with the Minister. Some of you may have participated in curriculum development prototyping. Curriculum development prototyping was an opportunity for education partners to make a valuable contribution earlier in the curriculum development process. It illustrated ways to engage a broader network of education stakeholders at the beginning of the development process including educators, parents, students, communities, post-secondary institutions and business and industry. In providing direction for curriculum development, analysis of feedback from prototyping has affirmed a few things for us. The need for common design across subjects, the significance of literacy and numeracy to build an even stronger foundation for students across curriculum and explicit emphasis on competencies across all curriculum such as critical thinking, problem-solving and managing information within and across subject areas and grades is appropriate and needed. The need for fewer but more focused outcomes. And it also identified the need to have the relationship between subject specific knowledge, cross-curricular competencies and literacy and numeracy made explicit in future curriculum. So what's staying the same? Alberta Education develops provincial curriculum in collaboration with stakeholders, educators and community members. As stated earlier, final decisions rest with the ministry. New curriculum continues to be developed by subjects and by grade levels. New curriculum is written so that teachers can create learning opportunities that meet the specific needs of students and local communities. New curriculum continues to demonstrate that it is important for students to know things, but of equal importance will be for students to use and apply what they know. Let me set the context for the guiding framework. Currently, there is a lack of consistency and coherence across the various subjects because there's been an inconsistent application of principles and standards to develop all curriculum. Develop separately and over different periods of time, there was no common approach or philosophy. Currently, there is limited or inconsistent inclusion of First Nations, Metian Inuit and Francophone cultures and perspectives. Each subject has its own design and many learning outcomes. This makes it challenging for teachers to plan for coherent instruction. It also creates a challenging dynamic around covering the provincial curriculum rather than enabling opportunities for in-depth student learning. There is limited and inconsistent inclusion of literacy and numeracy and competencies across provincial curriculum. Recognizing that improvements to Alberta's kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum are needed, renewal or modernizing it will require a number of shifts. These are outlined in the chart. Principles will provide direction and guidance and ensure consistency in the common design and development of all provincial curriculum. They are interdependent and apply to all subjects. Associated standards are the mechanism by which curriculum developers will bring the principles to life in new provincial curriculum. For example, the standards ensure that new curriculum is equitable, inclusive and accessible for all Alberta students and that diverse First Nations, Metian Inuit and Francophone perspectives are explicitly included. There will be fewer but more focused learning outcomes. By teaching the outcomes, teachers and students will also be addressing the competencies and reinforcing literacy and numeracy development. In order to achieve these shifts, Alberta Education has developed the guiding framework, a first for Alberta. This document consolidates research, feedback from consultations and results of prototyping. It is intended to set a common, student-centered direction for the development of new provincial curriculum. This document represents years of work. It's based on and contains many elements that were first developed, in some cases up to six or seven years ago with education partners. For example, the principles and standards, competencies and digital platform upon which future curriculum will be built represents the contributions of many over the years. The guiding framework design integrates cross-curricular competencies into the subject learning outcomes and allows for literacy and numeracy to be developed, applied and reinforced in all subjects and grades. This will make it easier for teachers to understand and to use the new curriculum. The common architecture and design for the new kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum, as described in the guiding framework, is based on this student-centered direction. Stakeholders were engaged to secure their understanding and agreement with the guiding framework. The feedback from key stakeholders has generally been very positive and supportive. New provincial curriculum in all subjects will have a common design and student-centered direction, which will ensure consistency across the kindergarten to grade 12 curriculum. The end result will be curriculum that will contain an explicit focus on literacy, numeracy and competencies. This will make it easier for teachers to plan across subjects, improving the overall learning experience for students and reducing teachers' planning time. For students, a focus on the development of learning outcomes that support and reinforce literacy, numeracy and 21st century competencies, such as personal growth and well-being, creativity and innovation, and managing information in an increasingly digital world, means that they will be better equipped to be successful in a dynamic, global economy and society. Teachers will also benefit from the launch of a new digital platform called the Curriculum Development and Management Application, or CDMA, currently under development by Alberta Education. This interactive platform will become a one-stop shop for provincial curriculum, as well as learning and teaching resources and assessments. Provincial curriculum will no longer be static. Teachers will also be able to interact with it and access it in a variety of ways to support their planning for student learning. The CDMA will also support the move to a shorter curriculum development cycle and ongoing ever-greening process. As the development of new provincial curriculum evolves over the next several years, so will the CDMA. This new technology will make it possible for teachers to connect and interact with other teachers from all corners of the province, allowing for greater professional collaboration and sharing of resources that will support student learning. Alberta's kindergarten to grade 12 provincial curriculum development process includes three interdependent phases, shaping, developing and implementing. This describes how we will do the work. Shaping is already underway in each subject with a review of research and a survey of the latest programs from other national and international jurisdictions, as well as discussions with teachers, students, parents, business and industry and others about strengths and areas for improvement in current curriculum. Developing largely began on October 3rd with the launch of our expert working groups. Joining us in this important work at the University of Alberta campus were more than 300 expert teachers and post-secondary subject matter specialists. They experienced an orientation process on the first two days and will be periodically meeting over the course of the year as we prepare and begin in the writing process in the new year. Beginning with the end in mind, Alberta education is preparing for implementing now. This will ensure that teachers and their school authorities across the province have determined their readiness for new provincial implementation after the new provincial curriculum is available. Determining a model for implementation will be a process, not an event. Preparations are underway for the first meeting in the spring of 2017. Engagement in all three phases will include all types of stakeholders. Communication and evaluation are fundamental to every phase of the curriculum development process. The stakeholder engagement strategy will be utilized throughout the three phases of curriculum development, shaping, developing and implementing. It includes various ways to engage stakeholders such as online, face-to-face, written submissions from organizations and working groups between 2016 and 2022 for all six subjects. The selection of stakeholders and the level of participation will be targeted to meet the purposes and desired outcomes for each of the engagements. Engagements will be tailored to leverage the knowledge, expertise and creativity of participants, so together we may create a high quality, responsive and relevant new curriculum. Expert working groups will develop new curriculum, building on the strengths of current curriculum. They began their work on October 3rd, 2016, and will meet for 14 days from October 2016 to February of 2017. We are at the needs assessment task now. Further shaping and the start to develop a new provincial curriculum will begin with the needs assessment. Timelines for provincial implementation, once development is complete, have yet to be determined. However, we will not rush the process and it will take as long as necessary to ensure effective implementation. In the interim, current curriculum remains in effect. Targeted ministerial approval dates are as follows. Kindergarten to grade four by December of 2018, grades five to eight by December of 2019, the first three subjects for grades nine to ten by December of 2020. The other three subjects of grade nine to ten, as well as the first three subjects of grade 11 to 12 by December of 2021, and the other three subjects of grades 11 to 12 by December of 2022. As stated previously, curriculum used to be developed one subject at a time and took about 10 years to develop and implement. Our upcoming initial work across six subjects supports the beginning of a move to a shorter provincial curriculum development cycle, six years initially, using our digital platform. After provincial curriculum is in a digital form and has a common design, an evergreening process will allow for curriculum to be updated as needed in a more timely manner. This will help ensure that curriculum remains current and relevant to student needs. The online survey creates opportunity for every Albertan to provide feedback about the general direction for the development of all new curriculum, as well as the strengths and gaps in our current curriculum in math, English and French language arts, social studies, sciences, and arts and wellness education. As part of Alberta Education's provincial curriculum engagement strategy, there are multiple ways to complete the survey in each ARPDC region. Face to face, using this online video as a guide, or by just sharing the link and having individuals complete the survey from the cupboards of home. The feedback collected is one source of data that will be used to help shape new curriculum in the six identified subject areas. Alberta Education will also be looking at an analysis of our current curriculum, research on student learning, what other jurisdictions from around the world are doing, and previous work with our stakeholders, such as curriculum development prototyping. The survey link is provided. Before beginning, there are some important things for you to know. The survey contains two parts, part A and part B. Note that there is no save function within the survey, but also note that you can go back and complete another survey if you did not get the chance to input all of your feedback in one sitting. There are only 250 words per comment box in the survey. And, once again, note that the information gathered through the survey is one source that will be used in conjunction with research evidence and other sources to help move curriculum development forward. Part A of the survey should take about seven minutes to complete. The purpose of the first part of this survey is to give you the opportunity to share your feedback about the general direction for the development of all new curriculum. Part B could take between 15 minutes and one hour to complete, depending on the choices that you make. You will be invited to select the specific grade levels and subject areas for which you would like to provide your feedback. The length of your survey and the questions that you will be asked will be determined by your choices. Remember, comment boxes have room for only 250 words, and you must provide a response to each of the questions in the tabled sections. Choose I don't know if you need to. Questions regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of the survey may be directed to Paul Lamarrow, Executive Director of Operations and Implementation Supports at the Student Learning Standards Division of Alberta Education. His email address is paul.lamarrow.gov.ab.ca In addition to providing input through the online survey this fall, there will be additional opportunities to be involved in the development of new provincial curriculum over the next few years. This includes the opportunity to provide feedback on the draft subject area introductions and draft scope and sequences in May to June of 2017. This completes our video introduction of the Provincial Curriculum Development Stakeholder Engagement Survey. We encourage you to use the survey participation guide that accompanies this video to get the most out of your participation experience. You can find the video using the link provided here which is also posted on the webpage where you accessed this video. This is also where the participation guide is housed. Thank you for watching and for your participation in this important process.