State of Kuwait
Ministry of Education
ELT Asema supervision
E.L.T Senior Supervisor : Nouria Al Sedra
Presented By: E.L.T Supervisor : Fatma Ameen
Project Presentation:
Curriculum and Standards
Component

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School Education Quality Improvement
(SEQI) Partnership Program between the
Government of the State of Kuwait and the
World Bank Group
SEQI Project has three main components:
1. Curriculum and standards for grades 1 to 12.
2. National Education Standards for Teachers, School
Leadership and Students .
3. National Assessments (MESA).
II. Short overview of the process:
phases

Preparing human resources

Preparing National conceptual Curriculum
Documents

Preparing National operational Curriculum
Documents

Preparing subject curricula and standards

Preparing the implementation Process
How do we exercise these competences ?
An initial cascade training model has been designed where each
cascade trains the following one:
International consultants
Master trainers
School principals
Subject trainers
Teachers
Head teachers
At the end of the session you will be able to:



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Explain the reasons for a new curriculum approach in Kuwait
Primary Education.
Describe the concept of competence-based curriculum as a
process.
List the main components of the Kuwait National Curriculum.
Explain the main terminology related to competence- and
student achievement standards-based approach
A GOOD CURRICULUM CAN CHANGE
THE
FACE AND FATE OF A NATION
 Why
a new Curriculum in Kuwait?
National Challenges
 New vision of Kuwait as expected by his Highness Sheikh Sabah
Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Amir of the State of Kuwait
 New social, economic, political, cultural and human challenges
 New learning needs and expectations of children and
youngsters towards school
International challenges
 Globalization
 Knowledge Economy
 The Digital Age
 (CPD )Continuous Development .
 Learning to Live Together
 Lifelong learning
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
What are the skills of the 21st century?
Why 21st century skills learning?
How is Teaching in the 21st century ?
Being Creative and
Innovative
Undertaking critical
thinking, problem
solving and decision
making
Illustrating metacognition, learning to
learn and
original/meaningful
thought.
Ways of
Thinking
Citizenship – local
and global;
21st Century
Skills
Ways of
Working
Communication
capabilities.
Collaborative
capabilities.
Living
in the
World.
Life and Career
capabilities and values;
Information and ICT
literacy (learning in
digital networks)
Capability to
undertake Personal and
Social responsibility.

To develop a quality curriculum and standards, you
should have a common understanding regarding
the following questions (concepts).
Concepts to be approached
Curriculum
Standards
Kuwait
National
Curriculum
Kuwait
National
Curriculum
Framework
Specific
competenceS
Competencebased
curriculum
General
competenceS
KeycompetenceS
CompetenceS
The Word : Curriculum
 Latin:
The term, ‘curriculum’ is derived from
the Latin word "Currere" which means to
run/to proceed. Currere refers to the ‘course
of deeds and experiences through which
children grow to become mature adults.’
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
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
a)
b)
c)
What outcomes do we want?
What content is therefore needed?
How can that best be taught/learned?
How do we best assess that?
How do we evaluate our process?
Cronbleth (1992) defines curriculum as answering three
questions:
What knowledge, skills and values are most
worthwhile?
Why are they most worthwhile?
How should the young acquire them?

A curriculum is a system of learning experiences and
opportunities that are planned for children and young
people through their education.
◦ A curriculum represents a multifunctional, but highly
organized system of knowledge, skills and
attitudes/values that all individuals are offered by a given
education system (and society) and that is useful for
personal fulfillment and development, inclusion and
employment in a well-functioning society.

Curriculum is the reality of learning in /outside the classroom
which is not shown in books and documents
False assumption- Curriculum is the textbook!
Difference Between A Syllabus &
A Curriculum (Task)
Syllabus
Curriculum
Difference Between Syllabus &
Curriculum
Syllabus
Functionally a “Syllabus” is
generally a uni-dimensional
document. It merely
presents the content or the
subject matter to be studied.
Curriculum
A curriculum is three
dimensional , because it
takes into account: the
needs of the students, the
content of different
subjects and instructional
methodology
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
What do you think?
Please discuss in group
Each group is kindly asked to give a set of answers

Inclusiveness.
First, assisting every student, regardless of ability, gender or
social circumstances, to reach their individual potential as
learners. Each student is different. Not all are academically
gifted. But all students can be encouraged to do their best
development in helping them achieve their potential.

Future-orientation.
Secondly , the curriculum will be forward-looking and prepare
learners for the future through the development of broad
competencies. The curriculum will need to develop student
competency in Communication, Collaboration , Critical
thinking , problem solving, and Creativity .
Differentiation.
Thirdly, the curriculum will permit curriculum differentiation,

it will provide space for teachers to adapt the curriculum to
suit the students in their classes. It will not demand that every
student learn exactly the same content in exactly the same way
and in exactly the same number of hours.
New teacher roles.
Finally, the curriculum will promote a new role for the

teacher, a new individualized teacher-student relationship and
a desire in teachers to encourage inquiry and curiosity.
Similarly, the teacher in the role of assessor should use
assessment not just to test how well content is learned, but
to understand the strengths and weaknesses of individuals.
The curriculum offers not only the WHAT but also the

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Why?
When?
How?
In which concrete context?
With which expected results?
Connected to what?

Kuwait National Curriculum covers the overall
system of learning experiences offered to children
and students of Kuwait in all ordered subjects in
terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes/values
from ages 3 to 18 by relevant educational
institutions.
Therefore, the National Curriculum defines,
by necessity, what students should know, be able to
do, and how they should behave in terms of valuesoriented human beings as a result of their learning
process.

KNCF
•Standards
•Rationale
•Competences
•Conceptual foundations
•Teaching plan
•Vision
•T/L Resourses
•Mission
•philosophy
•Principles
"Curriculum Framework"
The Story Of Learning
processes
products
prospects


The KNCF is the main conceptual document that
regulates the Kuwait curriculum system. The KNCF
has a normative, prescriptive and regulatory role.
It presents the conceptual foundation, the vision,
the philosophy, as well as the concrete ways in
which learning is organized and offered to children
and students of Kuwait throughout various
education stages, from grades 1 to 12.
The Kuwait National Curriculum Framework indicates:

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The rationale of the new Kuwait National Curriculum
The conceptual foundations of the new curriculum
The key curriculum statements; the vision, the philosophy,
principles and the mission of the curriculum system in Kuwait.
The types of competences student should acquire through
schooling.
The type of standards that describe the level of achievement of the
competences at different stages of schooling
The way in which the curriculum is organized in a Teaching Plan
and in this context in a number of subject matters.
The Kuwait National Curriculum Framework clearly guides policy
makers, curriculum writers, schools and education administrators in
the process of designing, organizing, managing and assessing
school activities and their effectiveness
key curriculum statements
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Vision
Mission
Philosophy
principles
Task
Discuss in groups the meaning of
each word and why they are
essential in building any curriculum.
Understanding the key curriculum statements

The Curriculum Statements have the role of regulating the
whole curriculum system, including the subject curricula and
standards. They concretely determine - what, why and how,
based on what rationale, in which order and – last but not
least – with what kind of benefits for learning do children and
students in Kuwait get within their education.
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The basic Curriculum Statements are:
Vision
Mission
Philosophy
principles
The future citizens should be:
Confident in their Islamic,
national and global identity
Actively involved in social and
individual growth
Connected to other people
and the environment
Lifelong learners


In the light of the Kuwaiti Vision for its future, the
Mission of the new Kuwait National Curriculum is to
contribute to the education of a new generation fully
equipped with the key competences needed for making
the country a financial and commercial power in the
current world.
On the grounds of preserving Islamic, Arabic and
National Kuwait values, in the next twenty – thirty years,
we should educate citizens who cherish and respect
their country, their traditions and their national identity,
being at the same time open to acquiring multiple
identities as citizens of Kuwait, the Gulf, the larger Arab
World, and the World at large.
The following key Educational and Curriculum Philosophies of
the 21st Century are seen as playing a leading role:

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Developing a holistic, complex personality, equipped with a
genuine respect for Islamic, National and general human
values and fully committed to personal development.
Enhancing Education for All and Inclusiveness as key pillars of
the National Curriculum.
Consistently infusing the life-long learning perspective as
well as the pre-eminence of learning processes as compared
to the teaching processes.
Fully assuming the Philosophy of Globalization, the
Knowledge and Learning Economy, the Digital Age and
Sustainable Development, while educating students to
preserve national values and traditions.
Promoting the real integration of the domains of knowledge
as one of the most important current trends in curriculum
development and in teaching and learning internationally.

The Kuwait National Curriculum is developed based on
a set of principles and criteria aimed at ensuring
coherence at the level of its design and development
and – at a later stage – of its implementation. These
principles, related to different aspects of the National
Curriculum, are concise statements that express the
characteristics of the new curriculum approach or
education improvement in Kuwait
A. Principles related to Curriculum as an overall System
B. Principles related to the Learning Process
C. Principles related to the Teaching Process
D. Principles related to the Assessment of Students’
Achievements

Kuwait National Curriculum
is based on the competences children and students aged 3 to
18 are supposed to acquire and the learning achievement
standards that indicate to what extent this process
effectively happens over the school years and/or at
different stages of the process.
What is a competence- and standard-based
curriculum?
A curriculum that emphasizes what the learners are expected
to do rather than mainly focusing on what they are expected
to learn about. In principle such a curriculum is:
Learner-centered and adaptive to the changing needs of
students, teachers and society, and
Real life needs-centered: implying that learning activities
and environments are chosen so that learners can acquire
and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes to situations
they encounter in everyday life.
In a competence-based curriculum, the aims of education are
achieved by gradually developing a coherent system of key,
general and specific competences that are measurable by
means of the learning achievement standards and their
detailed indicators.
The main idea of competencybased curriculum illustrates:
1.Instead of objectives, think “competences”
2.Instead of content, think outcomes
3.Learner activities will be based on performance
of learners.
4.Teaching activities are learner centered
5.Formative evaluation is necessary
The main idea of competency-based education

Competences are
integrated systems of knowledge, skills, attitudes,
values and beliefs developed through formal (and
non-formal) education that allow individuals to
become responsible and autonomous persons, able
to solve a diversity of problems and perform in
everyday life-settings at the quality level expressed
by the standards.
What are the Competences?
The Kuwait National Curriculum operates
with three types of competences
Key
competences
General
competences
Specific
competences
What are the Key Competences?
key competences(NON-SUBJECT )specific
represent a transferable, multifunctional package
(system) of knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, beliefs,
and personal/social attributes that all individuals need
to acquire for their personal development, inclusion and
employment
(i.e. for being successful in their personal and social life,
as well as in their professional career).


key competences are supposed to be achieved by the
end of the Secondary Education period. They are crosscurricular (i.e. non-subject specific), transferable and
multifunctional competences – so that, in principle, all
subjects can/should contribute to their development.
The Key Competences students should master by the end of
Grade 12 are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Islamic Religious and Ethical Competences
Communicative Competences in Arabic Language
Communicative Competences in English and other Foreign
Languages
Mathematical Competences
Social and Civic Competences
Scientific, Technological and Digital Competences
Personal Development and Learning to Learn Competences
Life and Work, Economic and Financial Competences
As compared to the key competences
General competences are subject-specific.
They define the most general subject-based knowledge,
skills and attitudes/values embedded/integrated in
students’ expected outcomes by the end of Grade 12.
General competencies developed through the study of
English
 Listening to oral messages by means of different
strategies in a variety of contexts for effective
comprehension
 Speaking by using strategies of individual and
interactive speech in a variety of communicative
contexts
 Reading and viewing a range of texts by means of
different strategies in a variety of contexts
 Writing a range of texts adapted to a variety of
communicative purposes
www.themegallery.com
Specific Competences
The specific competences are structured and developed in students
during a school year.
As compared to the General Competences:
Specific Competences define more specific systems of integrated
knowledge, skills and attitudes/values.
They can even cover specialized, topic-based competences students
are supposed to display by the end of each grade.
The specific competences are clustered in the
following four dimensions:
 A range of realities specific to the subject (knowledge);
 A range of operations (skills and strategies)
 A range of personal and social responses (attitudes, values)
 A range of connections with other subjects and domains.
2. Speaking by using
strategies of
individual and
interactive speech in
a variety of
communicative
contexts
A range of language realities
2.1. Using simple words, expressions and
sentences to express themselves about self, family, food
and other items in small conversations or individual speech
A range of operations
2.2. Responding to simple communicative situations in mini
dialogues related to everyday topics
A range of attitudes
2.3. Building up positive personal motivation to speak with
peers and adults using simple phrases and sentences
A range of connections
2.4.Using the knowledge and abilities acquired in other
subjects when producing sounds of English or speaking
about their family or school
www.themegallery.com
Group Work Task
What do you think are the differences
between competences and
learning objectives ?
The difference between
competences and learning objectives
Competences define the
applied skills , attitudes
and knowledge that
enable people to
successfully perform their
work
Competences are relevant to
an individual’s job
responsibilities, roles and
capabilities. They are a way to
verify that a learner has in fact
learned what was intended in
the learning objectives.
learning objectives
are specific to a
course of instruction.
Learning objectives describe what
the learner should be able to
achieve at the end of a learning
period. Learning objectives should
be specific, measurable
statements and written in
behavioral terms.
The difference between
competences and learning objectives
Competences say
how we can be
certain they know it.
Objectives say
what we want the
learners to know
Here is an example of competencies and learning
objectives relating to the competency:
Competency:
Utilizes appropriate methods for interacting sensitively, effectively, and
professionally with persons from diverse cultural, educational, and
professional backgrounds, and persons of all ages and lifestyle
preferences.
Learning objectives from a course that relate to the above competency
Describe the demographic trends related to diverse populations in the
United States and abroad
Compare and contrast diversity and cultural competency in the public
health context
Identify a framework to design culturally competent public health care
services for diverse populations
What are Standards?
All competence-based curricula – including the
new Kuwait National Curriculum – introduce and
largely use the concept of standards.
Standards
Standards are statements about what is valued IN
LEARNING.
They describe expectations and are used to judge the
level of performance in a field or domain.
An operational decision, requirement or regulation
related to the quality level to be achieved by a certain
aspect of the education system”, (in our case, student’s
learning)
Standards are the WHAT of education while
curriculum and instruction are the HOW.”
What types of standards in KNC?
Performance Standards
Curriculum standards
They refer to the quality level to be
achieved by students’ in performing their
general competences by the end of each
of the school stages – i.e. Primary,
Intermediary, and Secondary. The
measurement of the performance
standards is a matter of different forms
of national summative assessments or
examinations.

Measurement Process
By the
end of
grade 9
By the
end of
grade 5
By the
end of
grade 12
Performance standards for MESA

They refer to the quality level to be
achieved by students in attaining the
specific competences. Curriculum standards
describe to what extent the specific
competences should be achieved by the end
of each grade. In the Kuwait Curriculum,
curriculum standards are related to specific
competences defined in the subject
curriculum. Curriculum standards are a
matter of school- and class-based
formative and summative assessment.
Measurement Process
By the end
of each
grade
curriculum standards for school
exams
Key Competencies
To be achieved by the end of grade 12- cross
curricular
General
Competencies
To be achieved by
the end of grade 12
subject specific
Specific
Competencies
To be achieved by
the end of each
grade
Performance
standards
Level of
achievement
by the end of
each stage
5,9,12
Curriculum
standards
Level of
achievement
by the end of
each grade
What is Subject Curricula?
Are official documents that define why, what, how
and with which kind of final expected results
students learn in a certain subject from Grades 1 to
12. They fully reflect the conceptual foundation and
the provision of the key curriculum statements as
defined by the Kuwait National Curriculum
Framework.
Why Subject Curricula and Standards are
important?
Subject Curricula and Standards are an essential part of the
curriculum for all those interested in education: students,
parents, teachers, school principals, supervisors and
curriculum and standards developers, Education.
They offer a clear vision for the knowledge, skills and
attitudes/values to be achieved by a student by means of
the concrete learning process (textbooks included).
Well-structured curricula generate efficient teaching
learning materials as well as a learning process that inspires
extends and motivates students for achieving the
competences and the standards mentioned in the
curriculum.
Task
Curriculum Concepts
New curricula
Moving from
To
1.Content /skill/ based
curriculum
Competency and standard
based
2. Knowledge / skills
/performance
focus
Skills/performance focus
3. Teacher’s/student
Student’s centered class
centered
( PPP)
class ( PPP )
4. Summative / evaluation Formative & summative
evaluation
) Ps and teachers)
Moving from
To
5.Parents are not much involved
and are not aware of standards
Parents are involved and know
the standards
6. Cognitive Domain
7.Proficiency Domain
A range of language realities
A range of operations
8. Affective domain
A Range of attitudes
9. Transfer Domain
Integration of school subjects
A range of connection
10.Progression of skills from one Progression of skills is clearer ,
grade to another was not among organized , and a good guide for
teachers priorities
teachers
11.Ambitious,hard to achieve
standards/objectives
Activities designed made
standards more applicable
Roughly:
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-
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To plan the teaching-learning-assessment process within a larger
period of time
To choose/produce and use a wide range of TLM that represents
best the curricular content and helps to achieve the performance
standards
To choose and use interactive methods of teaching on a daily basis
To adapt the teaching style, methodology and TLM to every
classroom needs
To use creatively all the assessment methods and tools
To systematically study the innovations in the relevant area of
science
To focus the learning process on competence gain (instead of
memorizing the information)
To constantly work at self-improvement, to be methodologically
creative
To acquire educational skills by involving in various CPD activities
To demonstrate openness, collaborating with other teachers of
different subjects, school management and community
Considering the requirements, they should:
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Be automatically involved in CPD programs to foster their teaching
competencies in order to operate with the new curriculum
-
Be encouraged and supported by the supervisors and school principals to
apply the new curriculum at classroom level
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Have time to reflect on the new procedures with other people
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Have the guidance of their Head Teacher and access to examples of best
practices in subject teaching
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Be active participants in their own CPD
Be motivated, promoted for the outstanding work reflected in the
students’ achievements
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