The new BC curriculum & secondary math course pathways structure

• Two things that were new to me or surprised me from the curriculum orientation guide and/or glossary of new terms
  
  First thing that I feel surprised is that “thinking” is listed as one of the core competencies. When I was in school, there was not an emphasis on training how students think. Even in subject like mathematics, I did not see any implementations that were dedicated toward training students to think critically and creatively. Normally math classes were taught in the form of a lecture, which was a one way communication from teacher to students. Students mimicked how teacher solve problems and learn the technique for solving problems. There were rarely any debates between teachers and students on concepts, instead, student would trust their teacher entirely and follow what the teacher did. There were not much creative nor critical thinking. I see the importance in teaching students to think but thinking itself is a very abstract object which is hard to grasp as well as to measure. I glad to see that this is properly addressed in nowadays curriculum and I would like to see how we can follow up with this.
  
  The second thing I read which was not seen during my school time was the use of inquiry-based approaches. As I mentioned, in a mathematics classroom, the method of delivering knowledge was through lecture. Usually after learning in class, we practiced our skills by the assigned homework and used the way we were taught in class. And the traditional way for assessment were tests and exams. Talking from my own experience, I had never done a mathematical project nor an open-ended small research problem in secondary school. All of what we learned is for the purpose of passing exams but not for applying them in the real life situations. I have heard a saying that “education is the kindling of the flame not a filling of a vessel”. It is very important for educators to elicit the interest and curiosity from students so that they can take ownerships of their learning. Inquiry-based approach is one good way to actually implement creative and critical thinking skills which is lacked in traditional approach.
  
  
• My own schematic chart of possible pathways in the courses of the BC Math curriculum from Grade 8 - 12.