Job Discussion Forums

[Peligro]

Hey everyone
This probably seems crazy, but I am doing a major school project about the educational differences between different countries. is there ANY way to get a hold of the Basic curriculum of a Grade 12 Student (in math or english or anything you can find) For countries such as:
China
Spain
Ireland
Canada
Mexico
Russia
etc.

I tried searching the net, but I cannot find anything useful, except this: <http://www.eastchina.k12.mi.us/district/departments/Curriculum/currlearningstand.htm>

that is exactly what I am looking for. I was thinking maybe ESL teachers in any of this coutries may be able to help me?

Any help is much appreciated

-jess

[Glenski]

What other countries do you include in that "etc."? The world is a pretty big place.

And, just what did you want in terms of "curriculum"? Just a list of class titles (math, world history, art, etc.)? Or did you want some description of those classes, the number of hours per week they meet, class sizes, textbook titles, chapters covered in each book, and other info?

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

I'm thinking you have to do it subject by subject, at least for Ontario, Canada. Each province in Canada has a different (provincial government run) education system, just like each state in the US has a different education system. There are differences, especially in Quebec (for which you would almost certainly need to read French, except in the English system, and then there is a French system in Ontario and probably the other provinces as well- definately in New Brunswick, the only offically bilingual province in Canada). So for China, you would most likely have to read Chinese. Maybe your best bet is to go to a university and see if you can interview visa/foreign-students about what they did in high school. Then you could compare education systems based on case study instead of charts and graphs.

I once found the mandatory French curriculum for Ontario on the internet. I just googled it. I think it was a PDF. But that isn't up to grade 12, only grade ten (maybe even only up to nine). Obviously, you can continue taking French after this, but that's when students are allowed to drop it. Also, in Ontario, there are different streams (when I was in high shcool it was Advanced for university bound kids, General for college bound kids and Basic for kids who couldn't handle the general level. The names have been changed, thouh to academic and applied or something). High school went to grade 13, not 12 (it was called OAC- Ontario Academic Credit, the top six grades of which were what universities considered for your application. If you were in the General stream you could not take OACs, except maybe in business, I don't know).

For subjects other than second/foreign languages (where languages are taught by grammar related areas so you san see "imparfait", "subjonctif" etc), math, and science, the curriculum will be much harder to see (as in how do you compare, say, English literature at the grade twelve level from different Anglophone countries? All you will see is do they know metaphor, similie etc, but you won't know the level at which they are expected to be able to study them, or tie them into other literature they have read. Or what is expected knowledge of the kids- how well are these kids supposed to know things like the Bible, because biblical metaphor is very strong throughout English literature, especially in older literature, but I would say for the most part, Canadian kids know far less about it than their parents or grandparents. Curriculum for English literature is more about the books they read, and what they do with them- but it's hard for a curriculum to say "You must teach the kids that this line is foreshadowing for this event" for each book).

[Jetgirly]

For British Columbia, Canada:

"Integrated Resource Package" - "The IRPs, available in both English and French, consist of provincially required curriculum (learning outcomes), suggested ideas for instruction, a list of recommended learning resources (books, videos, electronic resources, et.) and possible methods for teachers to use in evaluating students' progress. Draft IRPs are also available for review and response."

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/ela1112/elatoc.htm

Curriculum Only-

http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/irp/ela1112/apa.htm

I chose both of these for English Language Arts, which is what they apparently call English. If you dig around a bit you can find them for Math, Chemistry, French, History, etc... Note that English Language Arts is different than English Literature in that it focuses more on composition and is mandatory to every student graduating from high school.

[Peligro]

[ntropy]

Canadian curriculums are all different province by province as already mentioned. I'd suggest going to the provincial govt web pages and then following links to Ministries of Education. I know the Alberta curr is there.

http://www.gov.ab.ca

[Ben Round de Bloc]

To avoid going into a long (longer?) complicated explanation . . . In Mexico only students who plan to go on to some type of higher education go to preparatoria (equivalent of US high school, more or less.) What they study in preparatoria, especially during their last 2 years (grades 11 and 12,) depends on what their plans are for higher education. Over-simplified, there are 2 general choices: technical or academic, although in some cases they overlap, or maybe better said, in some cases there's not a clear dividing line. Preparatoria curriculums (including required courses) vary depending on students' future education plans. Those preparing to go on to higher education in areas such as medicine, dentistry, engineering, computer technology, psychology, education, accounting, law, business administration, and on and on don't all have the same curriculum (required courses) in preparatoria.

[dagi]

http://www.bbw.admin.ch/html/pages/bildung/matur/ch-pruefung-e.html

You could try there for information about Switzerland, but you will have to be able to read either German, French or Italian.

[dagi]

on educational systems in europe
http://www.eurydice.org/Eurybase/Application/eurybase.htm