In 2020, our faculty will begin teaching the first cohort of students emerging from B.C. secondary schools with some experience of the new curriculum. This new curriculum has the potential to transform the learning style of our future students. On Monday May 6, during CapU’s Symposium week, the CTE will be facilitating a workshop on the changing face of education in BC. Conrad King (the K-16 faculty liaison) has invited guests from the Ministry of Education and from the superintendents’ offices of local school districts to discuss the recent curricular reforms in secondary schools. Find out what our future students will know, understand and be able to do.   

K-16 Connections: the new high school curriculum and its impact on CapU

For the last few months, Conrad King has been the faculty liaison between CapU and the K-16 sector (especially secondary school) to better understand and disseminate recent curricular reforms. There have been substantial reforms made to school curriculum in B.C., and faculty at Cap will start encountering students taught with this new curriculum as early as September 2020. How can we prepare for these new types of learners? The expected outcomes for the new curriculum will mean we will see the next generation of domestic students arriving at CapU with new skills and competences. Gone are high stakes, summative assessments (such as provincial exams) and Prescribed Learning Outcomes based primarily on knowledge content in specific disciplines. Instead, students will cultivate an understanding of big ideas and develop their skill-sets, with fewer prescriptions for specific content. The curriculum will be more inquiry-based, interdisciplinary, and indigenized. And students will engage in more formative assessment and self-evaluation, in order to be more self-reflective on how they learn. The result could be a very different kind of learner in the post-secondary classrooms of the future. This will impact not only what we teach – we can no longer assume the same ‘base knowledge’ for students emerging from BC secondary schools – but also how we teach (and assess) new cohorts of students. If you would like to learn more about the curricular reforms to BC secondary, you are invited to attend the workshop on May 6.