Spring 2018 | Volume 20 | Number 3
Table of Contents-Spring Issue

ISG-Dhahran: NESA Continuum Inspires Innovation in Curriculum Review

By Tara Waudby, Assistant Superintendent for Learning, & Nicole Fedio, District Learning Coordinator & Mathematics Coach, International Schools Group, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia

The NESA Continuum has become our common language for growth and professional learning at ISG. This started in 2017 when ISG created a Continuous Curriculum Review model, an upgraded curriculum review process that allows for agility and flexibility based on the needs of our learners in the 21st century.

(click image to enlarge)

The Continuous Curriculum Review model provides a hexagonal process for curriculum implementation (above) and showcases curriculum implementation at system, school and division levels. The Continuous Curriculum Review model was inspired by the hexagonal design work done by David Chadwell and the team at Cairo American College, a testament to the collaboration that NESA inspires across the region.

Progress towards our curriculum goals is monitored via a GANTT chart, which serves as a planning and monitoring tool. After creating the Continuous Curriculum Review model and the GANTT chart, the next question ISG needed to answer was, how do we measure our progress and plan for continuous action?

We looked to NESA for the answer to this question, and the NESA Continuum emerged as the obvious answer. The continuum provides a common language and visual that we use to plan for meaningful and innovative curriculum implementation, program development, and professional learning.

NESA's Learning Continuum

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In fact, the NESA Continuum has been so successful that we have started using it for any program development, including planning to launch new system goals based on re-accreditation and measuring the implementation of our mission, beliefs, and profile of graduates. As well, we have used it in preparation for an upcoming consultant visit. We created a school profile sheet that included a ranking on the NESA continuum with regard to each school division's implementation of the NGSS standards. This provided the consultant with a better understanding of the needs of the teachers he would be working with before arriving at ISG.

The ISG Continuous Curriculum Review was inspired by collaboration with colleagues in the NESA region and further expanded with the inspiration of the NESA Continuum. More than ever, NESA continues to inspire “collaboration as the cornerstone of our success.”

waudb.t.08@isg.edu.sa, fedio.n.08@isg.edu.sa

For more on how NESA uses the Learning Continuum in planning Professional Development, click here.