Saskatchewan Education developed Understanding the Common Essential Learnings as a support for teachers in the incorporation of the Common Essential Learnings into their teaching. It is a foundational document intended to support further questioning, reflection and dialogue. The purpose of the handbook is to provide teachers with an overview of each Common Essential Learning as it relates to teaching practice. It is hoped that the material provided will be useful in helping educators examine the scope and the purpose of each Common Essential Learning as they begin incorporating them into instruction. However, Understanding the Common Essential LearrLings is not intended as a detailed "how-to-do-it" manual. It is a starting point in the process of incorporating the Common Essential Learnings into instruction. The Common Essential Learnings will receive more detailed treatment as new curricula in the Required Areas of Study are implemented.
Saskatchewan Education recognizes that the ideas expressed here are not necessarily new, and that many of the suggestions for appropriate and sound instructional methods represent current practice. It is hoped that the conscious articulation of the C.E.L.s developed through this handbook can further guide educators' observations, thoughts and actions.
The Common Essential Learnings comprise six categories: Communication, Numeracy, Critical and Creative Thinking, Technological Literacy, Personal and Social Values and Skills, and Independent Learning.
focuses on improving students' understanding of the language demands in each of the Required Areas of Study, based on a recognition that language is central to learning in all subject areas. Communication does not require that all teachers become language arts teachers,
but rather, that teachers understand the role played by language in their subject area(s) and deal systematically and concretely with that role in their instructional methods. The goal is to promote students' learning in all school subjects through improving their language abilities within each subject.
is concerned with developing students' knowledge, skills and appreciations of mathematical ideas, techniques and applications. In relation to instruction, Numeracy suggests that a better balance is required between knowing how to compute, measure, estimate and interpret mathematical data, knowing when to apply these same skills and techniques and understanding why these particular processes apply. The goal is to enable students to cope confidently and competently with everyday situations demanding the use of mathematical concepts, as well as developing their ability to learn new concepts when necessary. Further, Numeracy is intended to strengthen students' learning in all school subjects through providing them with grounded understanding of the quantitative aspects of each subject.
is intended to better develop students' abilities to create and to evaluate ideas, processes, experiences and objects. It requires that teachers and students learn to articulate, publicly defend, and change when necessary, their criteria for evaluation. The goal is to develop students who value knowledge, learning and the creative process, who can and will think for themselves, yet recognize the limits of individual reflection and the need to contribute to and build upon mutual understandings of social situations.
is concerned with improving students' understanding of how technological systems are integral parts of social systems, and that they cannot be fully separated from the political, cultural and economic frameworks which shape them. The goal is to have students appreciate the value of technology in society within the context of its limitations, and see themselves as having roles and responsibilities in shaping public policy related to technological change.
examines the personal, moral, social and cultural aspects of each school subject and of the school environment. It reflects a concern with the development of responsible and compassionate individuals and with developing understanding of
the rational basis for moral claims. What is desired are students who are capable of self reliance and willing and able to work harmoniously in groups and with other groups. Increased understanding of how culture shapes our thoughts and values is also an important goal of this C.E.L.
Independent Learning focuses on creation of the opportunities and experiences necessary for students to become capable, self-reliant, self motivated and life-long learners. What is desired are students who value learning as an empowering activity of great personal and social worth. All of the other C.E.L.s contribute to the goal of developing independent learners.
Because these statements are fundamental to understanding the relationship between the C.E.L.s, the Required Areas of Study, and other school subjects, they require further elaboration.
First, the Common Essential Learnings are perspectives which influence school subject matter and how it is taught, but they are not school subjects themselves. The incorporation of the C.E.L.s into Saskatchewan's core curriculum framework does not mean that teachers will be expected to teach new courses such as critical thinking or independent learning. Rather, the C.E.L.s are to be incorporated into new curricula so that students will be helped in learning how to think critically or acquire some strategies to learn independently within each school subject. The knowledge, skills, processes, attitudes and values contained in the C.E.L.s will be acquired through school subject matter matched with appropriate methods of instruction and a supportive school environment, but not through the direct teaching of any one C.E.L. in isolation from school subjects.
Second, students will not be evaluated on their acquisition of the C.E.L.s independently of school subject matter. The C.E.L.s depend on school subjects for their content, depth and breadth and are shaped in different ways within different subjects. For example, critical thinking in arts education involves different concepts and abilities than critical thinking in mathematics or in social studies. It is necessary, then, that assessment of students acquisition of the knowledge, skills, values or processes associated with the C.E.L.s be achieved largely through assessment within the school subjects. Teacher, peer and self assessments of progress toward achieving the abilities related to Personal and Social Values and Skills, however, will be influenced by subject area learning and by the whole of the school experience.
Third, while the C.E.L.s are discussed as though they were separate and distinct, they contain many of the same values, attitudes, knowledge, skills and processes. Achievement of growth in one of the Common Essential Learnings supports growth in the others and the various C.E.L.s may be developed through similar teaching practices. One lesson can develop abilities and understandings of several of the Common Essential Learnings. Overlap and interrelationships can be expected. The recommendations and understandings of the other C.E.L.s apply equally to Independent Learning. AB a consequence, individual chapters in this handbook should be read with the realization that understandings developed when discussing a particular Common Essential Learning may also apply to other C.E.L.s. For example, the discussion of the teacher's role in developing Personal and Social Values and Skills applies equally to and supports the development of Critical and Creative Thinking. While it is beyond the scope of this handbook to provide detailed lesson plans for incorporating the C.E.L.s into the Required Areas of Study, the chapter on Communication contains more specific information related to instructional strategies than subsequent chapters. It is hoped that the other chapters benefit from this initial elaboration and that understanding of how to develop appropriate instructional strategies will increase as the reader progresses through the handbook.
Fourth, educators will achieve greater understanding of the depth and breadth of each Common Essential Learning as new curricula are developed which incorporate them. Incorporation of the C.E.L.s into teaching practice will be supported through on-going in service developed by Saskatchewan Education in co-operation with key educational organizations and through the on-going development of teaching materials related to the C.E.L.s. It is intended that this handbook together with the initial in service will provide teachers with the foundational knowledge required to begin incorporating the C.E.L.s into instruction. Responsibility for implementation of the C.E.L.s will occur as new curricula which integrate them with the Required Areas of Study are developed and implemented.
The Common Essential Learnings promote active, self-motivated and increasingly independent learners. They are intended to direct content and instruction in ways that will provide students with an integrated and meaningful knowledge base, as well as the understanding and processes necessary to achieve personal autonomy and compassion for others. The C.E.L.s are based upon certain foundational beliefs about the teaching-learning process and the teacher's role, and are developed in part from Saskatchewan's Goals of Education (1984).
The Common Essential Learnings (incorporated into the Required Areas of Study) support the achievement of Saskatchewan's goals for education. Such important goals as "working to create greater social justice" and "participating in the democratic process of governments" are developed through Personal and Social Values and Skills and Critical and Creative Thinking. Lifelong learning goals such as "acting as a self reliant learner, capable of autonomous learning" are developed through such C.E.L.s as Communication, Numeracy and Independent Learning. The promotion of Technological Literacy supports goals such as "making informed consumer decisions" and "respecting and seeking to enhance the environment." The emphasis
provided by the C.E.L.s is one of developing persons committed to both reflection and action, and to participation in the shaping of the future rather than reacting to change. Finally, the C.E.L.s emphasize that one should analyze personal needs in the context of respect for the environment and respect for others.
Foundational beliefs about learning (Program Policy Proposals, Saskatchewan Education, 1986) which led to the development of the Common Essential Learnings can be summarized as follows:
The individual C.E.L. perspectives contain - either implicitly or explicitly - an emphasis on learning in order to understand and to apply knowledge in daily life, rather than simply learning by rote. This emphasis requires a compatible vision of the teaching-learning process. The central principles of such a vision can be described in the following manner.
What children learn depends not only on what they are taught but also on how they are taught, their developmental level, and their interests and experiences. In other words, there is not a direct equation between what is taught and what is learned. These beliefs require that much closer attention be paid to the methods chosen for presenting material, as well as the ways in which mediating influences (such as economic circumstances, cultural background, special talents or abilities) affect students' learning. While the goals of the Common Essential Learnings apply to all students, it needs to be recognized that not all students will reach these goals to the same extent or in the same way. For example, expectations for students with special needs are shaped by their particular abilities or disabilities.
Another fundamental of a teaching-learning process shaped by the C.E.L.s is that meaningful learning depends on giving students opportunities to be actively involved in knowledge construction. This does not mean totally embracing a discovery approach to learning, nor does it mean abandoning lecture and drill as methods of teaching. It does mean that new curriculum developments will include analyses of which types of knowledge are best acquired through lectures, memorization or practice, and which are best achieved through teaching methods that lead students to make the important connections themselves.
"The teacher has to teach both students and subjects, and to do that, he or she must reconcile respect for the child and respect for what is being taught." (Lazerson, McLaughlin, McPherson and Bailey, 1985, p. 109)
Teaching is a learned profession, and many of the demands made on teachers relate to their being part of a scholarly community. Teaching requires an understanding of several categories of knowledge, including: content knowledge derived from the various disciplines; general pedagogical knowledge; curriculum knowledge; knowledge of learners and the learning process. In addition, teachers need to have: knowledge about education as an institution with its own rules and regulations, as well as education's relationship to the larger community and the government; knowledge of educational goals, purposes and values; and understanding of how the body of knowledge in each of these categories is built, codified or changed.
While teaching has technical aspects which can be analyzed and prescribed, it is also a dynamic and reflective process. Changing and improving instruction has implications for teachers' personal values and beliefs and is dependent in part on their unique abilities and experiences. Teachers' understandings of curricula and instruction will grow out of meaningful and concrete learning situations - just as they do for students. Teachers play a critical role in incorporating the Common Essential Learnings into school subjects. The demands of this process are best supported by a belief in the potential of the C.E.L.s to strengthen and enrich students' present learning and future lives.
The purpose of this handbook is to enable teachers to proceed from understanding to action - from understanding the basis of the Common Essential Learnings to practical incorporation of the C.E.L.s in the classroom.
The C.E.L.s contribute to the quality of students' education by equipping them with tools useful both within and outside the classroom. That is, the Common Essential Learnings will assist students in better acquiring the subject matter, values, skills and processes that make up their school subjects, as well as developing the abilities needed to function as rational, responsible, and compassionate members of society. The teacher's role is central to improving students' understanding and learning in all of these areas.