Changes are coming to Ontario’s kindergarten program

Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce recently announced Ontario’s full-day kindergarten program is undergoing an .”

What do these proposed changes mean for educators, parents and children?

The proposed revisions must be considered and understood in the context of 1) , and 2) , released in February 2022, stemming from an inquiry of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC).

The revealed Ontario’s public education system was not using evidence-based approaches to teach children with reading disabilities (and others) how to read. The education minister also said curricular updates are in keeping with .

While the province says kindergarten updates will be ” there are concerns that play-based aspects of the curriculum — also grounded in — could be impacted by curricular revisions.

Curricular updates are in keeping with the Ontario Human Rights Commission’s Right to Read report recommendations. (Piqsels)

Teaching reading isn’t basic

The “back to basics” language used in the province’s kindergarten announcement is intentionally and strategically tied to Premier Doug Ford’s promise in his and is a slogan that Ford (and his team) have .

It is not surprising that this political strategy is being used to market updates to the kindergarten program.

However, this language distracts from the importance of continuously updating and revising curriculum across the kindergarten to Grade 12 education sector.

It’s also important to note that the phrase “basics” is contradictory to what we know about the science of reading: teaching reading is anything but basic and .

Ontario’s full-day play-based kindergarten

The current kindergarten curriculum has been in effect following a 2010 public policy shift. , began phasing in full-day play-based kindergarten for all four- and five-year old children.

This shift was also informed by .

Essential to the was the play-based structure of the full-day program. So was the delivery of the model by a of an Ontario certified teacher and a registered early childhood educator.

Decisions to revise the earlier half-day kindergarten program acknowledged and leveraged research on the and its role in .

It is important to note that , including the belief that play-based learning means letting children do whatever they want. Evidence-based play-based learning .”

Furthermore, play is a basic human right of all children as recognized in the . The revised play-based model in Ontario had (and continues to have) both empirical and philosophical grounds.

The OHRC Right to Read report

Changes to the above model are now being made in response to recommendations from the Right to Read inquiry.

The inquiry’s report includes 157 recommendations directly tied to addressing systemic issues affecting children’s right to read. These related to reading. The recommendations for curriculum and instruction focus on the need for evidence-based direct and explicit instruction.

These recommendations were made based on the .

The Right to Read report states: “Implementing the OHRC’s recommendations will ensure more equitable opportunities and outcomes for students in Ontario’s public education system.”

In keeping with prior revisions to the Ontario Kindergarten program, current plans to update kindergarten curriculum are being made based on empirical and philosophical grounds.

Not an either/or conversation

As revisions to Ontario’s kindergarten curriculum unfold, stakeholders need to ensure the best scientific research in both play-based learning and early reading are leveraged to ensure the success of all young children.

The beauty is that play-based learning is not an all-or-nothing approach. Drawing on the benefits of playful learning and using these strategies in combination with evidence-based direct instructional practices in kindergarten will be essential to successfully integrating proposed revisions.

There are many educators in Ontario who already offer meaningful play-based learning opportunities and direct and systematic instruction in their classrooms.

This is evidenced in research published in 2016 and also in follow-up research by Pyle and colleagues in which focused on how play and literacy interface in full-day kindergarten classrooms.

My current research in kindergarten classrooms, to be published later this year, examines how educators use a range of approaches (including teacher-directed play) to support children’s literacy and self-regulation outcomes. This research has, to date, also documented kindergarten educators using systematic instruction in combination with play-based learning.

Educators need development, resources

What’s needed is to ensure kindergarten educators are being provided with training and professional development to effectively lead classrooms utilizing both play-based learning and systematic instruction in reading, writing and math. This task is anything from basic — but is 100 per cent possible and necessary.

As curricular revisions are made, we must ask:

Who are the stakeholders that are being invited to make the revisions to the curriculum?
Who is missing from the conversations?
What research is being used?
What type of training will be provided to educators?
Will this training include a focus on what it means to teach in evidence-based ways — and how to do so?
Will policymakers consider class size and sufficient resourcing for teachers so all students have the classroom supports required to ensure these changes will have real impact?

In updating a curriculum, we cannot merely add additional content for educators to cover each day.

Instead, we need to consider what these changes mean and how we can best support educators in successfully supporting children’s learning — through both play-based learning and direct instruction.

, Associate Professor, Early Childhood Education,

This article is republished from under a Creative Commons license. Read the .

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