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| Image retreived from http://www.azed.gov/character-education/ |
For my front matter assignment
in this course I decided to compare and contrast the math curriculum for Ontario
(link: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/math.html) and New
Zealand (link:http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum). I
didn’t realize upon choosing this particular comparison that I would come to
such interesting findings. I immediately found a stark and significant
difference between these two documents that has really intrigued me and
affected the way that I look at curriculum. In this course we have discussed
the unifying framework and what this means (Drake, Reid & Koholon, 2014).
In Canada our curriculum is unifying in the sense that at the provincial level
there is a curriculum for each learning area that covers from kindergarten to
grade but in New Zealand they really take this concept to a whole other level
by have a country wide curriculum and then allowing each school to create their
own personalized curriculum. There are several important implications for this,
a couple of which I will mention.
One implication of this difference in structure is that Ontario is more standards based and therefore they don’t talk much about the “be” in the Math curriculum. I think there needs to be more emphasis on the “be” in order to keep subjects like mathematics grounded in real life so that the learning will be relevant to educators and students alike and increase success. Drake et al. (2014) have proven this to be a valid concern when explaining that: “Most educators today recognize that the Be is important…but generally Canadian teachers say they personally put more emphasis on the importance of character development than they felt their curricula did” (p 39). This shows that educators all over Canada are feeling like their curriculum gives them a lack of direction in terms of the “be”. This can also be concerning when you consider that we are largely leaving it to each individual to determine what values to emphasize and to what to degree. This inevitably means that not all educators will be on the same page, and traditional educators may not place much or any emphasis on the “be” components. Overall this just leaves one with an image and feeling of disorganization.
One implication of this difference in structure is that Ontario is more standards based and therefore they don’t talk much about the “be” in the Math curriculum. I think there needs to be more emphasis on the “be” in order to keep subjects like mathematics grounded in real life so that the learning will be relevant to educators and students alike and increase success. Drake et al. (2014) have proven this to be a valid concern when explaining that: “Most educators today recognize that the Be is important…but generally Canadian teachers say they personally put more emphasis on the importance of character development than they felt their curricula did” (p 39). This shows that educators all over Canada are feeling like their curriculum gives them a lack of direction in terms of the “be”. This can also be concerning when you consider that we are largely leaving it to each individual to determine what values to emphasize and to what to degree. This inevitably means that not all educators will be on the same page, and traditional educators may not place much or any emphasis on the “be” components. Overall this just leaves one with an image and feeling of disorganization.
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| The New Zealand Curriculum Structure from the National Curriculum |
In comparison to this, New
Zealand enforces a national curriculum that encompasses year 1 to year 13 of
education, provides a brief explanation about what each learning area is about,
why they value it, and how it is structured in terms of achievement objectives
and allows each school to create their own curriculum. As a result this New Zealand
dedicates a lot of space within this national curriculum to providing their
country a strong, unified vision of what they would like their students to be
and what they value in comparison to Canada. They do this without allocating certain
aspects or values to specific learning areas which makes their approach more
like a philosophy that all educators across all learning areas and all levels
of learning should share. Ontario probably could benefit from a shift in
approach similar to this as with the current approach Ontario has seen declines
in standardized math tests for the last 5 years (Rushowy, 2014). Also, being
that Canada is so multicultural we could benefit from using this approach because
without it we face the fact that we haven’t determined which values are
considered the “right” values or which values are worthy of cultivating (Drake
et al., 2014) and this leaves our students vulnerable to the personal values
and agendas of each individual educator
across the nation. You can imagine how much variability there must be there!
While considering these ideas I came to really appreciate New Zealand’s approach to curriculum and I understand it as addressing holistic education on a whole new level. Upon searching the web for some more information of the importance of the “be” aspect of learning I came across a Ted Talk (I love ted talks!) by Andrew Sokatch called Teaching character – the other half of the picture. In this he talks about the importance of character development and focusing on what we want students to “be” in by highlighting the implications for students as they continue through to post secondary or into the real world. He argues that be having such a heavy emphasis on test scores that we are missing half of what students need to become fully engaged, successful adults. This is supported by the findings that many students, despite a solid academic background, are not making it through post secondary education. This points to the fact that grit and perseverance in the face of failure, aspects of character, are missing from their education. He even goes on to discuss how science has shown how this can have negative impacts in terms of health, income and relationships. He also describes an interesting concept to infuse character development into the school day through a goal attainment strategy called WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan) that a study revealed to have aided in a group of middle school students increasing their GPA by half a standard deviation within a single marking period in comparison to a control group. Listen to his talk below for more details:
For some more information and ideas of how to infuse character education and include more emphasis on the “be” of the KDB model within a mathematics context as well as generally, please visit the following links:
- http://eprints.uny.ac.id/1357/1/P%20-%2044.pdf
- http://eprints.uny.ac.id/1366/1/P%20-%2049.pdf
- https://education.alberta.ca/media/1260747/ch6.pdf
While considering these ideas I came to really appreciate New Zealand’s approach to curriculum and I understand it as addressing holistic education on a whole new level. Upon searching the web for some more information of the importance of the “be” aspect of learning I came across a Ted Talk (I love ted talks!) by Andrew Sokatch called Teaching character – the other half of the picture. In this he talks about the importance of character development and focusing on what we want students to “be” in by highlighting the implications for students as they continue through to post secondary or into the real world. He argues that be having such a heavy emphasis on test scores that we are missing half of what students need to become fully engaged, successful adults. This is supported by the findings that many students, despite a solid academic background, are not making it through post secondary education. This points to the fact that grit and perseverance in the face of failure, aspects of character, are missing from their education. He even goes on to discuss how science has shown how this can have negative impacts in terms of health, income and relationships. He also describes an interesting concept to infuse character development into the school day through a goal attainment strategy called WOOP (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan) that a study revealed to have aided in a group of middle school students increasing their GPA by half a standard deviation within a single marking period in comparison to a control group. Listen to his talk below for more details:
For some more information and ideas of how to infuse character education and include more emphasis on the “be” of the KDB model within a mathematics context as well as generally, please visit the following links:
- http://eprints.uny.ac.id/1357/1/P%20-%2044.pdf
- http://eprints.uny.ac.id/1366/1/P%20-%2049.pdf
- https://education.alberta.ca/media/1260747/ch6.pdf
References
Alberta Ministry of Education (2005) The heart of the matter: Character and citizenship education in Alberta schools. (ISBN 0-7785-3791-9) Edmonton, AB. Retrieved October 7, 2015 from https://education.alberta.ca/media/1260747/ch6.pdf.
Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L. & Koholon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: Engaging the 21st century learner. Oxford University Press.
Mahmudi, A. (2011). Developing students’ character through mathematics teaching and learning. Yogyakarta State University Department of Mathematics Education. Retrieved October 7, 2015 from http://eprints.uny.ac.id/1366/1/P%20-%2049.pdf.
Noer, S. H. (2011). Character development in mathematics problem-based learning. Yogyakarta State University Department of Mathematics Education. Retrieved October 7, 2015 from http://eprints.uny.ac.id/1357/1/P%20-%2044.pdf.
Rushowy, K. (2014, August 27). Math: Number one problem for Ontario school boards. Toronto Star. Retrieved October 7, 2015, from http://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2014/08/27/math_number_one_ problem_for_ontario_school_boards.html.
Sokatch, A [Tedx Talks]. (2014, December 4). Teaching character- the other half of the picture [Video File]. Retreived from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxHGSTV3LF0.
Nicole, I thoroughly enjoyed this blog post and definitely gained a better understanding of the “be” aspect of curriculum and its importance in education today. Before we started writing our front matter assignment, I had no idea that our curriculum even had these three areas of know, do and be; but now it is clear to see the impact each has on student learning and success. Like Andrew mentions in his TED Talk, I think we need to place more emphasis on the “be” aspect of curriculum rather than just content knowledge. Simply remembering knowledge and receiving high scores on tests is not going to help children to become successful, engaged, and active social adults in the future. Our curriculum needs to make learning more relevant to our daily lives and must focus on the whole child, not just what students are capable of remembering. Additionally, Andrew states that our education system is failing students since it only seems to value high test scores rather than teach students how to persevere in the face of failure and how this not only affects how well they do in school, but has a negative influence on our health, income and relationships. This is an extremely important finding and as educators we should strive to teach the importance of character and provide opportunities for our students to build skills in the classroom that they can use in their daily lives to help them become happy, healthy, and successful individuals in the future. But the question is how exactly do we go about improving our curriculum? Do you think it is important that we revise and equally focus on all aspects of curriculum (KDB), or value and emphasize one over the other (e.g. “be” over “know”)? It would have been interesting to read about how you plan on integrating the “be” aspect of curriculum in your future classroom as you seem very passionate about the topic! The TED Talk was an amazing choice for a video and very informative, as were the colorful photos!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog this week Nicole! As always I love the ted talks you are able to find and they really strengthen the message you are trying to get across. I agree with you that Canada needs to take more steps in their curriculum to be more holistic and unified! I also saw in my front matter that it seems to not focus much on the “be”. I love your point about how this is problematic because it leaves it up to the personal opinions of teachers to teach what they believe is important values for students to learn. This reminded me of a teacher I had in high school who had very strong values and beliefs, yet they often challenged many of the beliefs of students. The particular teacher would try to challenge student’s faith and make us rethink power imbalances in our society. Although the teacher did have many important points I think his views and opinion on the values he wanted us as students to have were much too strong and overwhelmed us. This is a great example of how a certain teachers own values can be put on students because there is no clear definition of what the Canadian curriculum wants us to value. Many teachers put it in their own hands to teach these things, yet it would be much more beneficial if we had a holistic view as a country on the topic. It can be confusing when the different teachers vary so vastly with their own ideas of what values are important. There are also cases were teachers could completely ignore the “be” and not really teach any underlying values to student, simply because it is not clear how to do so in the curriculum. I am glad you brought this topic up in your blog because it is so important for our curriculum to be unified in order to ensure all students are getting equal education and that all students are being taught the proper values of Canada. Even if Canada changed their curriculum to be more holistic like New Zealand’s do you think teachers would still bring in their own personal beliefs of values that are important? How would we go about insuring that this doesn't happen? Or is it just a inconsistency in schools that will always be present?
ReplyDeleteNicole,
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly enjoyed your blog! Having a nation-wide curriculum and allowing schools to create a personalized curriculum is such an interesting topic to read about as it is so different than that of Ontario’s framework. I think that this type of framework would ensure that children across the country are learning the same content but at the same time, schools can tailor the curriculum to the needs of the students in the school. Additionally, I agree that math should be relevant so that students understand why they are learning the topics. I can think of many times in my formal schooling experience when I thought to myself “why are we learning this?” By teaching math in a way that is relevant to the students, I believe that students would stay engaged and motivated to learn. Just like you did, I also noticed that the Ontario curriculum leaves the “Be” of the curriculum implicit. By doing this, the values that teachers will teach students will differ depending on the individual educator. How, when everyone has different values, can we determine which values are the most important to teach when each individual is unique in their values and morals? I like that New Zealand makes it clear what they want students to be and what they value as a nation so that it is clear to teachers what they should teach students to be within the curriculum. However, what if teachers have a philosophy that differs from the national one expressed in the curriculum? I think it would be quite difficult to teach students about values that you do not believe in yourself. Furthermore, the New Zealand curriculum certainly helps to teach the whole child, which is something that we have continuously focused on in many of our classes. I love seeing that some countries have really embraced the idea that teaching the whole child is the right way to approach teaching and learning, as I feel it helps students to become active citizens in the future. Finally, I could tell not only through your blog, but also through the way you spoke about the topic when we met in our blog groups, that you are very knowledgeable about how the New Zealand curriculum works and how it is different from the Ontario curriculum. It was obvious that you put a lot of research and thought into this post and I thoroughly enjoyed learning from you!