The following article comes from Malin Liss, an English and Spanish teacher in Sweden.
As society changes, so must the curriculum in our school. The Swedish curriculum recently made an update, for the better in my opinion and in this text, I will try to explain what has happened. During many years, the focus in Swedish secondary schools has quietly and almost without us even noticing, shifted from being about teaching and learning to instead focus too much on results, gradings and tests. The students have come to school to show what they know and to get a letter on an assignment or a test that shows how good or bad they are. We have almost forgotten to talk about education and learning.
After a lot of meetings, thinking and discussions with colleagues we have come to the conclusion that the change is good and we are ready for it. The shift of focus from grades to education will lead to better learning, less stress (for teachers and students) and in the end, better results. What we didn’t think about was that when we were ready for it, the students were not at all prepared and became quite upset when we dropped the bomb that they would no longer get grades on their assignments. Instead, grades will only be given in the end of the term. Thus, the Swedish students who were used to getting immediate feedback on their tests, projects and essays with a letter, all of a sudden, didn’t. The frustration they felt (and still feel) is easy to understand.
Changes take time and both teachers and students need time to adjust and to get used to a new (but in fact, old) way of thinking. We need to get back to the basics, what is school really about? Teachers will now need to talk about how students learn and how we teachers teach. The staff meetings from now on will be so much more interesting and I look forward to sitting down with my colleagues, talking about how and what we should teach and not only how, when and what we should grade.
After an Erasmus plus project earlier this year, I came back from Belgium with new ideas and perspectives. Belgium has a complicated school system, I am not sure I understand it yet, despite several teachers and principals trying to explain it to me. One thing that differed a lot from us was their grading system. They didn’t at all seem to pay as much attention to letters, numbers and results in the way we do. When I asked the students there about grades, they had a hard time understanding what I meant.
Still, the lessons, breaks and teachers were more or less the same in our countries. We faced the same challenges such as students not coming to school, finding educated teachers and lack of money and material etc.
The experience of being part of this Erasmus project made the switch in our curriculum much easier for me to adjust to. I had already prepared my mind for it since I had talked to my Belgian colleagues and reflected on the topic. International exchanges sure are meaningful and more teachers should take the opportunity to go abroad, learn, make contacts, and take the experience back home to share with others. If the actual trip is not possible, being part of the Global School Alliance is another option.
”International exchanges sure are meaningful and more teachers should take the opportunity to go abroad, learn, make contacts, and take the experience back home to share with others. If the actual trip is not possible, being part of the Global School Alliance is another option.
Malin LissSwedish Teacher
Another recent and very important change in Sweden’s curriculum is that in all subjects we must teach about sex and consent. “The school has a responsibility to ensure that students regularly during schooling face issues related to sexuality, consent and relationships” furthermore it says that “Students should also be given the opportunity to develop a critical approach to how relationships and sexuality are portrayed in different media and contexts, including pornography.” When I earlier felt that the Swedish school system was heading in the wrong direction (considering our big focus on grades and results and not teaching and learning) I now feel that we are on the right path and a country in the lead when it comes to equality and a healthy view on sex, consent and relations.
Author
Malin Liss, English and Spanish Teacher in Sweden
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