Social Studies

The implementation of the Kindergarten to Grade Twelve Program of Study for Social Studies is considered to be a major change in teaching pedagogy, requiring several layers of support. Alberta Education is committed to providing teacher support through Field Services Branch and in partnership with the Edmonton Regional Consortia. They are also looking at producing a guide to implementation, with potentially a digital accompaniment, to be ready for the spring prior to the implementation year. Alberta Education is also committed to having publishers produce teacher and student resources ready for the implementation dates; these resources will require professional development support as well.

Principals will need to allocate funds for both the professional development of all teachers and for new resources to support the implementation of this new program. The district recommendation is that professional development take place in the spring prior to the implementation year, and to better facilitate this the district is suggesting that area families of schools be created.

Alberta Education will select two publisher's resources for each grade, from which districts/schools can choose one of the two. The district is suggesting the formation of a selection committee to work toward the recommendation of one publisher's resource per grade for our district, to ensure continuity from one school to the next. Such a committee would then negotiate with the publisher for the necessary teacher/school support.

Implementation dates:

2005 - 2006 - grades K - 3
2006 - 2007 - grades 4 and 7
2007 - 2008 - grades 5, 8 and 10
2008 - 2009 - grades 6, 9 and 11
2009 - 2010 - grade 12