Ministerial Order on Student Learning

On May 6, 2013 a new Ministerial Order on Student Learning was signed by the Education Minister Jeff Johnson.  The link to the document is http://education.alberta.ca/department/policy/standards/goals.aspx

This document articulates well the changes anticipated in the Education Act and marks a significant departure from what the former Minister of Education, David Hancock, called “Industrial Education”.

This Ministerial Order sets the stage for curriculum development and teaching standards in the province.  Given our efforts in continuous improvement of instructional practices, curriculum development and learning outcomes, the Order is an important reference point for the CEFL.

 

Some points of note:

•          The emphasis is on education and not the school; on the learner not the system; competencies over content; inquiry/discovery/application rather than dissemination of information; and on technology to support creating/sharing knowledge rather than supporting teaching.

•          Interdisciplinary learning is emphasized.

•          Students are viewed as engaged thinkers who can think critically and creatively, reflect, explore, experiment, innovate, collaborate, work as part of a team, and who see no limit to what can be learned.

•          Students are ethical citizens who can act beyond self-interest, commited to democratic ideals, contributes to the world, engages with diversity, can take care of themselves in the psycho-social-spiritual-health domains.

•          Students are confident, resilient, respect others, can take risk, make decisions, and have the courage to dream.

The Order sets out four major outcomes of K-12 education. All students will be enabled to achieve the following outcomes:

1.         Be engaged things and ethical citizens with an entrepreneurial spirit

2.         Strive for engagement and personal excellence in their learning journey

3.         Employ literacy and numeracy to construct and communicate meaning, and,

4.         Discover, develop and apply competencies across subject and discipline areas for learning, work and life.

As a department, we have many examples of what the Ministerial Order is aiming to create already in practice.  Part of the evolution of the CEFL is to take examples and to generalize those efforts across all of our functional areas: Literacy and Essential Skills, Senior High, Rural Initiatives, Curriculum and Testing, and, Assessing and Advising.

I would like each coordinator to create an opportunity to discuss what the Ministerial Order, the Education Act, and the new directions for education in Alberta mean for our instructional practices, how we evaluate and place students, student outcomes, the development of curriculum and curriculum support materials and so forth.

Keith