Social studies

We listened to all feedback from classroom piloting and engagement activities and heard these common concerns across all K to Grade 6 subjects:

• Load
  • Some content is too heavy within a subject, grade or learning outcome.
• Age appropriateness
  • Some knowledge, understandings, and skills/procedures need to be better aligned with students’ developmental level in a specific grade.
  • More pre-requisite learning is needed to support the knowledge, understandings and skills/procedures.
• Wording clarity
  • Clearer expectations and verb choice are needed in some content for students to achieve learning outcomes.
  • Clearer descriptions are needed for some knowledge, understandings or skills/procedures.
• First Nations, Métis and Inuit content
  • Additional content is needed to support First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives.
  • Some content needs to represent First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives and contributions more authentically.

We considered feedback from multiple engagement activities and heard some common themes:

• Clear and concise: Clear and precise language is needed to support students with critical engagement with content.
• Load: Reduce content within some grades or learning outcomes.
• Developmental appropriateness: Some knowledge, understandings, skills and procedures need to be better aligned with students’ developmental level in a specific grade; more pre-requisite learning is needed in some grades to support the knowledge, understandings and skills and procedures.
• First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives, contributions and histories: Additional content is needed to support First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives; content needs to authentically represent First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives and contributions.
• Pluralism and francophone perspectives, contributions and histories: Additional content is needed to support understanding of Alberta’s diverse pluralistic society.

We made the following content updates:

• Clear and concise: Clarified language in learning outcomes and knowledge, understanding, and skills and procedures across K to 6 to align with the Ministerial Order on Student Learning. These changes include limiting jargon and abstract language to ensure the focus of learning is clear to students, parents and teachers.
• Load: Changes include adjustments to the volume of content, resulting in increased emphasis on essential content. These adjustments increase opportunities for critical thinking. Changes in this category include removing duplications, consolidating content, and adding clarifying information where needed.
• Developmental appropriateness: Adjustments to content reflect stakeholder input on the extent to which students have the required background knowledge to meaningfully access essential learnings for each grade. Changes include adjusting sequencing/ordering of content and revising abstract concepts to be more tangible. In some cases, changes may include shifting verbs from passive to active voice. These changes ensure concepts align with age and developmental readiness for critical thinking.
• First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives, contributions and histories: Changes reflect revisions to support respectful and authentic inclusion of First Nations, Métis and Inuit histories, perspectives and contributions.
• Pluralism and francophone perspectives, contributions and histories: Changes also reflect respectful and authentic inclusion of pluralism and Francophone histories, perspectives and contributions to support understanding of issues faced by society, such as discrimination and racism.

We considered feedback from multiple engagement activities and heard some common themes:

• Clarity: Language needs to be more universal and understandable.
• Content load: Heavy content load affects student engagement and opportunities for in-depth learning and critical thinking.
• Critical-thinking and analysis skills: More opportunities are needed for the development of higher-order thinking skills.
• Alignment and sequencing: Knowledge, understanding, and skills and procedures need to better align with students’ developmental level in a specific grade; more pre-requisite learning is needed in some grades to support the knowledge, understandings and skills and procedures.

• Clarity: Revisions were made to reduce abstract and academic language that would require additional instructional time to ensure students have the background knowledge to learn key content. Where possible, language was adjusted by incorporating developmentally appropriate vocabulary and including additional background knowledge.
• Content load: Revisions were made to increase opportunities for student engagement, in-depth learning and critical thinking by consolidating or adjusting content identified as redundant, repetitive or developmentally inappropriate.
• Critical-thinking and analysis skills: Revisions were made to increase opportunities for students to develop critical-thinking and analysis skills by incorporating higher-order thinking, synthesizing content to foster deeper understanding and revising content to prioritize critical thinking over memorization or recall.
• Alignment and sequencing: Revisions were made to address issues with sequencing and alignment within and between curricular components, ensuring that there is cohesion between the knowledge, understanding, and skills and procedures to support students in connecting learning within, between and across grade levels.

Following field testing, we made the following updates: 

• Clarity: Revisions were made to language, vocabulary and background information across the draft curriculum, with changes to how ideas are expressed and organized.
• Content load: Content load was adjusted through the removal or consolidation of content.
• Pluralism: Revisions were made to support a more focused exploration of diverse perspectives, histories and contributions, including greater emphasis on women’s suffrage.
• Critical thinking and analysis skills: Revisions were made to strengthen opportunities for critical thinking and analysis by supporting higher-order thinking through verb choice and prioritizing experiential learning over memorization or recall in the skills and procedures.
• Alignment and sequencing: Revisions were made to learning outcomes, with updates to the organization and sequencing of knowledge, understanding, and skills and procedures.