PME 810: Module 4: Foundations and Principles in the Context of Practice

The professional learning community that I have decided to work with is my Grade 8 science team (4
teachers). At our school, collaborative planning, instruction and assessment is encouraged, which is
great! Fortunately, I have worked with many of these teachers for the past 4 years and we have a great
working relationship. Over the summer, our Grade 8 science team is planning to meet biweekly to
improve our implementation of the new BC Curriculum in Science 8. For those of you that are
unfamiliar, here is a bit of background regarding the new curriculum (much of which I have learned from
this course!)

Big Ideas: What students

should understand.

Curricular Competencies:
What students should be
able to do.

Content: What the

students should know

The new curriculum is a learner centered design that promotes the individualization of education for
each students. As we have learned thus far, this would fall under a humanistic conception and based on
a progressivism philosophy. With the subjects still be divided there are some elements of subject
centered design, such as broad fields design. Also, there are elements of Society – Culture – Based
design since there is a push for students to identify issues both locally and globally and find potential
solutions. The more I interact with this curriculum, the more I see that it is a hybrid curriculum that
draws on aspects of many different conceptions and designs. Also, understanding that this new
curriculum is learner centered will encourage us to change our assessment to align better and ensure it
is high quality for our students.

Last year was the first year that we used the new curriculum and we did not have the foundational base
or understand the intricacies of this new style of curriculum. Although we made great strides and
changes, there is still room for improvement. One of the main issues we identified was that we were still
focusing too heavily on content and traditional ways of assessing (ie. Tests, quizzes etc.). Our goal of the
summer meetings were to talk about new assessment strategies, new projects or assignments that
would better align with the new curriculum. I did not realize when I selected my masters’ courses at the
start of the summer that PME 810 it could be so beneficial to our conversations. It has given me an
opportunity to take a leadership role and pass on what I have learned to my colleagues. My hope is that
the foundational knowledge that I have learned here can help us make research based decisions that
will ultimately help our students.

We will meet three time throughout the summer and I have made a plan as to what ideas I would like to
share with my colleagues that relate to this course.

Meeting #1

1) Share mind map created in PME 810

a. Highlight conceptions of curriculum
b. Highlight philosophies that guide curriculum
c. Highlight curricular designs
2) Have the group look at the new BC curriculum and try to identify conceptions, philosophies and
designs
a. How might this new knowledge impact our teaching next year?

Meeting #2

1) Look at teaching, planning and assessment for the type of design

2) Discuss the idea of using backwards planning

Meeting #3

1) Create a rubric for the curricular competencies so students understand how they are being
assessed (since it is very different than previously)
2) Create projects that use the new rubric