Comparing the Saskatchewan and British Columbian Curriculums for Foundations and Calculus

Upon comparing the Saskatchewan and British Columbian curriculums, I noticed many distinct differences in the approaches taken by the two provinces. The Saskatchewan curriculum documents are considerably longer than those of British Columbia, 48 pages to 7 pages (Foundations) and 45 pages to 8 pages (Calculus). The BC curriculum is much more ‘to the point’ than that of SK, however, lacks the detail and specifications of the SK curriculum. Despite the conveniences offered by the much more detailed SK curriculum, their are redundancies and surpluses of information. Long sections on the importance of Lifelong Learning (page 10 of pdf) may be important to education as a whole, however, they have no direct pertinence to Mathematics and frankly undermine the document itself by adding unimportant or non-relevant information. The BC curriculum is proof that the SK curriculum could be more stream lined, in my opinion the optimal curriculum document would be to the point like BC but also detailed like SK, with the redundancies and non-pertinent information removed.

The SK curriculum is based on a system of ‘Indicators’ and ‘Outcomes’ that function as a ‘means’ and an ‘end’ to learning the information of the curriculum. The BC curriculum is very similar and is based on a system of ‘Big Ideas’ and ‘Elaborations’ that function much the same way.

Saskatchewan Foundations 30 (2012) https://curriculum.gov.sk.ca/bbcswebdav/library/curricula/English/Mathematics/Mathematics_Foundations_Of_30_2012.pdf

British Columbia Foundations 30 (2018) https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/curriculum/mathematics/en_mathematics_12_foundations-of-mathematics_elab.pdf

Saskatchewan Calculus 30 (2012) https://curriculum.gov.sk.ca/bbcswebdav/library/curricula/English/Mathematics/Calculus30_2012.pdf

British Columbia Calculus 30 (2018) https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/sites/curriculum.gov.bc.ca/files/curriculum/mathematics/en_mathematics_12_calculus_elab.pdf