Development teams present proposals for new curriculum
After more than a year of work, teams of teachers and school leaders are today submitting their proposals for the new curriculum in primary and lower secondary education. The teams argue for multilingual education from primary school. They also want extra attention for statistics and working with digital sources.
Picture: Type tank
About 150 teachers and school leaders worked together in development teams per learning area and tested their ideas at 'development schools'. There are a total of nine learning areas, including Dutch, arithmetic & mathematics and digital literacy. On the website Curriculum.nu all proposals per learning area can now be found.
At the end of April, Minister of Education Arie Slob sent a letter to the House of Representatives about the new curriculum. He wrote that the new proposals for the attainment targets and learning outcomes would be published today. At the time, the minister also informed the House that it is not yet a 'definitive end product'. Today's proposals are open for consultation and further work will be done afterwards. For example, teachers from primary and secondary education a meeting on May 22 attend where they can give their reaction to the proposals. Others from within and outside education will also be asked to respond.
Contemporary curriculum
The development teams got to work fourteen months ago. The assignment was to come up with concrete proposals for 'a contemporary curriculum that meets the needs of society, further education and the labor market', Slob said in his letter. The new curriculum must update the educational content and ensure continuous learning lines between primary and secondary education.
The assignment was to come up with concrete proposals for 'a contemporary curriculum that meets the needs of society, further education and the labor market
The development teams have developed a base of knowledge and skills for each learning area. They have also thought about themes such as globalization, sustainability, technology and health.
Propose
Marco ten Hoff is a mathematics teacher at the Piter Jelles Impulse in Leeuwarden and is a member of the arithmetic & mathematics development team. “The proposals we make are about what students should know and be able to do: the what. We make the building blocks for the core goals. We will not get to the 'how', the didactics. Schools and teachers can decide for themselves. "
The Ten Hoff development team wants more attention to statistics. Pupils should already be introduced to that area in primary school and this should continue in secondary education. Ten Hoff: “We have also been working on an algebra line in secondary education. Now students often apply tricks, it should be less about that. It should be more about thinking and working methods. Pupils need to understand what they are doing. ” The math teacher admits that it is quite difficult to think about the curriculum. "You have to keep each other sharp, because you can easily fan out."
The proposals also devote a great deal of attention to digital literacy: dealing with and using digital resources. The group that examined the Dutch curriculum wants to encourage primary school pupils to become readers. The team aims for a continuous learning line in which students learn to communicate with and about literature. There is also a focus on citizenship. This area has been developed in concrete terms so that teachers in primary and secondary education can integrate the subject around the core concepts of democracy and diversity. In the learning area 'people and welfare' more attention should be paid to subjects such as ethics and welfare and in 'art and culture' to new manufacturing and design processes.
Ten Hoff: “The most important thing is that we have now looked at everything at once for primary and secondary education and not everything separately. That is completely new. I am not saying that all problems have been solved, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. ”
Mathematics teacher Marco ten Hoff: 'The most important thing is that we have now looked at everything at once for primary and secondary education and not everything separately. That's completely new
Education 2032
Curriculum.nu stems from Education 2032, the plan of former State Secretary Sander Dekker. Initially, a committee led by Paul Schnabel produced a report arguing for a single curriculum for primary and secondary education with more attention to digital and cross-curricular skills, compulsory citizenship education and English from primary school. The AOb then indicated that teachers had had too little say. The union suggested this group a leading role to give in curriculum development. Also the Education Magazine wrote about this.
Broad questioning
AObdirector Henrik de Moel believes that all teachers from the relevant educational sectors should be properly questioned about the proposals that are currently underway. “We notice that there are very diverse thoughts about the new curriculum. It differs per discipline. It is now important to see what all teachers think of it, that is really a condition. They must be questioned and involved. We have advocated greater involvement from the beginning and will continue to do so. We will take action if we feel that this is not happening enough. ”
