Educational Practice Today
Story appeared in the 2014 issue of QMS Connections Magazine.
BY LEANNE SCHULTZ, OPERATIONS & HR MANAGER
Educational practice has changed since Miss Denny and Miss Geoghegan founded Queen Margaret’s School. The early years at QMS were characterized by a traditional teacher-centred approach that focused on rote memorization and repeated practice.
In the mid 20th century, curriculum was influenced by the ideas of educational theorist, John Dewey. Dewey proposed that school was not only a place to gain knowledge, but also a place to learn to live.
After World War II, it was thought that students with a deep, broad liberal arts education would have the knowledge to enable them to meet the challenges of the future as informed, thoughtful adults. In the 1950s, it was common for a QMS student to take Biology, Latin, English Grammar and Literature, Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, History, Physical Education and Home Economics.
This thinking continued to influence classrooms into the early 2000s, and the current BC Graduation program (which includes Grades 10, 11 and 12) requires students take a program of studies that includes English Language Arts, Mathematics, Sciences and Social Studies, a Fine Art or Applied Skill, and Physical Education.
Now, in 2014, BC's new Education Plan is based on one key principle: every learner will realize their full potential and contribute to the well-being of our province. The focus is on student-centered learning, where teachers intentionally engage students interactively. In addition to literacy and numeracy foundations, core competencies are at the centre of the redesign of curriculum and assessment.
Core competencies are sets of intellectual, personal, and social and emotional proficiencies that all students need to develop to engage in deep life-long learning. For example, the thinking competency encompasses the knowledge, skills and processes we associate with intellectual development. It is through their competency as thinkers—critical thinkers, creative thinkers and innovative thinkers—students will take subject-specific concepts and con-tent and transform them into a new understanding.
The personal and social competency encompasses the abilities students need to thrive as individuals, to under-stand and care about themselves and others, and to find and achieve their purpose in the world. The communication competency encompasses the set of abilities that students use to impart and exchange information, experiences and ideas, to explore the world around them, and to under-stand and effectively engage in the use of digital media.
At Queen Margaret’s School, the days of lecturing, repetition, and teacher-centred classrooms with little interaction are long gone. The student-focused, interactive classroom of today includes activities where students use thinking, collaboration, and communication to solve problems, address issues, or make decisions. Students at our school are challenged to employ the core competencies every day—in school and in life—and become life-long learners.