EEEL building

Curriculum and Learning

Researchers at the Werklund School are addressing how curriculum can transform ways of thinking about schooling, knowledge, and teaching and learning, while encompassing issues of content, context and teaching in both formal and non-formal educational settings. 

New Alberta curriculum would overload young learners when what they need is balance

Mother assisting son to ride a bike

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Literacy is much like learning to ride a bike, writes Hetty Roessingh, Werklund School of Education, in Conversation Canada.


Re-imagining the Past, Present, and Future of Education in Alberta

Re-imagining the past present and future of education in Alberta

Meet our experts

  • Gabriela Alonso-Yanez
  • Maren Aukerman
  • Veronika Bohac-Clarke
  • Catherine Burwell
  • Tonya Callaghan
  • Aubrey Hanson
  • Michael Kehler
  • Astrid Kendrick
  • MIchelle Kilborn
  • Gregory Lowan-Trudeau
  • Jennifer Markides
  • Mairi McDermott
  • Ronna Mosher
  • Cynthia Prasow
  • David Scott
  • Jackie Seidel
  • Jo Towers
  • Curriculum and instruction
  • Curriculum studies
  • Curriculum theory and design

Research topics:

Researchers at the Werklund School are addressing how curriculum can transform ways of thinking about schooling, knowledge, and teaching and learning, while encompassing issues of content, context and teaching in both formal and non-formal educational settings. 

At the Werklund School, we are researching strategies to better understand and improve young children's learning and development as a foundation critical for continued prosperity throughout their schooling.

Werklund researchers are fostering more diverse learning communities through addressing challenges in and outside of schools, and sharing the voices of the students, teachers, school psychologists and counselling psychologists working to eradicate conditions that have historically marginalized vulnerable populations.

Werklund School researchers are re-examining the methods and theories that have shaped teaching and learning for generations, while historically marginalizing Indigenous people and perspectives. Today,  many of our scholars are working towards a curriculum in which all people belong. In their research, they are incorporating different ways of knowing, being and doing, all essential to the process of decolonizing and Indigenizing education.

Researchers at Werklund are exploring communication through the multi-faceted dimensions of literacy, and linguistic and cultural diversity, especially as they relate to different forms of expression, including print, visual, oral, and gestural texts, as well as new literacies and digital media.

Leadership researchers at the Werklund School are analysing and resolving educational policy and leadership issues specifically related to the direction and management of schools, school systems, post-secondary institutions, and both governmental bodies as well as non-governmental organizations concerned with public and private education.

At Werklund, researchers are advancing the holistic needs of children, ensuring they thrive from child to adolescent and into emergent adult, in their schools, homes and communities at large. From early learning, to social emotional learning, and in consideration of neurodiversity, researchers are redefining how teachers, school psychologists and counselling psychologists support lifelong learners.

Werklund School researchers are doing pioneering work in the area of neurodiversity, studying developmental cognitive neuroscience, neurodevelopmental disorders, early experience and brain development.

Researchers at Werklund are exploring the relationships between education and economic, political and cultural systems, as they seek new ways to understand and address social and economic inequality, gender and race relations, multiculturalism, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, sustainability, globalization and colonialism.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics are among the foundational building blocks of education. At Werklund, researchers are reimagining these core subjects while developing teaching and learning initiatives that are responsive to and reflective of the rapid changes requiring societies to be more nimble and adaptable.

Read more stories on Curriculum and Learning

Maren Aukerman

Opinion: Is Alberta's draft curriculum for K-6 really knowledge-rich?

Dr. Maren Aukerman says K-6 students need skill - and knowledge-rich curriculum.

Indigenous Education Resource

Métis educators outline concerns over K-6 curriculum in letter to Alberta Education Minister

Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt joins colleagues in critique of consultation process and omissions in subject matter

Shelly Russell-Mayhew

K-6 Curriculum: An Open Letter to all Alberta Parents of School-Aged Children

The Werklund School’s Body Image Research Lab believes the proposed curriculum’s simplistic view of wellness may do harm to children

Students with teacher

An Open Letter Regarding the Proposed French Immersion/FLA Draft Curriculum for Alberta

Werklund French Advisory Team express concern and dismay at the content of the draft curriculum and lack of consultation in the preparation of Français Immersion et Littérature.

David Scott

Opinion: Alberta's draft social studies curriculum will hinder students

Dr. David Scott among number of social studies professors who believe the proposed curriculum is developmentally inappropriate and will fail to prepare students for the future.

Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt

Curriculum Round Table

As Albertans continue to demand their provincial government hit pause on the questionable K-6 curriculum, Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt, joins a panel of experts to unpack what's problematic about the draft, why, and what citizens can do about it.

Maren Aukerman

Opinion: Too much missing in Alberta's draft language arts curriculum

Dr. Maren Aukerman believes that the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the proposed curriculum would benefit from the inclusion of varied expert perspectives – teachers among them.

Hurley in the morning podcast

Alberta Curriculum Revision

David Scott and Maren Aukerman join Stephen Hurley for an insightful conversation that explores Alberta’s K-6 curriculum review process and the direction the provincial government is taking in regard to content.

Looking for more stories? View all Werklund News