Curriculum in K-12 education in Newfoundland and Labrador is organized by outcomes and is based on The Atlantic Canada Framework for Essential Graduation Learning in Schools (1997).

Essential Graduation Learnings provide a consistent vision for the development of a coherent and relevant curriculum. The Essential Graduation Learnings statements offer students clear goals and a powerful rationale for academic achievement. They help ensure our province’s education mission is met by design and intention. The Essential Graduation Learnings statements are supported by curriculum outcomes. Both are described below.

Essential Graduation Learnings are statements describing the knowledge, skills and attitudes expected of all students who graduate high school. Achievement of the Essential Graduation Learnings will prepare students to continue to learn throughout their lives. These learnings describe expectations not in terms of individual school subjects but in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes developed throughout the curriculum. They confirm that students need to make connections and develop abilities across curriculum areas if they are to be ready to meet the shifting and ongoing demands of life, work and study today and in the future. Essential Graduation Learnings serve as a framework for the curriculum development process.

Curriculum outcomes statements articulate what students are expected to know and be able to do in particular subject areas. These outcomes statements also describe the expectations at a particular grade level. Through the achievement of curriculum outcomes, students demonstrate the Essential Graduation Learnings.

In Newfoundland and Labrador there are seven Essential Graduation Learnings:

1. Aesthetic Expression – Graduates will be able to respond with critical awareness to various forms of the arts and be able to express themselves through the arts.
2. Citizenship – Graduates will be able to assess social, cultural, economic and environmental interdependence in a local and global context.
3. Communication – Graduates will be able to think, learn and communicate effectively by using listening, viewing, speaking, reading and writing modes of language(s), and mathematical and scientific concepts and symbols.
4. Personal Development – Graduates will be able to continue to learn and to pursue an active, healthy lifestyle.
5. Problem Solving – Graduates will be able to use the strategies and processes needed to solve a wide variety of problems, including those requiring language, and mathematical and scientific concepts.
6. Spiritual and Moral Development – Graduates will demonstrate understanding and appreciation for the place of belief systems in shaping the development of moral values and ethical conduct.
7. Technological Competence – Graduates will be able to use a variety of technologies, demonstrate an understanding of technological applications, and apply appropriate technologies for solving problems.

Related Documents

The Atlantic Canada Framework for Essential Graduation Learnings in School