The Oxford International Curriculum will be implemented at Denge College as part of a pilot study during the 2023-2024 academic year. It will be accredited at the pre-school level and implemented as a pilot study at the 1st and 5th grade levels. The main details of the programme are as follows:
The Oxford International Curriculum is an international curriculum developed by Oxford University Press that offers a new approach to teaching and learning. The curriculum aims to enable students to learn by doing and experiencing, placing learning through enjoyment at its core. It is the only international programme that includes the curricula of ‘Well-being’, ‘Social and Emotional Learning’, ‘Global Skills’ and ‘Life Skills’ necessary for students to achieve academic, personal and career success in the future. The latter two curricula, in particular, distinguish one institution from others.
The Oxford International Curriculum has been developed flexibly for both ESL (English as a second language) and EFL (English as a foreign language) contexts. As English is taught as a foreign language in our country, this curriculum is the only one that meets international standards while also addressing the current situation in our country. With this quality, the Oxford International Curriculum also brings flexibility to institutions. As is well known, internal and external factors such as the different academic backgrounds, perceptions, parent profiles, and motivation levels of students and teachers, even within different campuses of the same institution or different classes within the same campus, must be evaluated separately, necessitating different approaches, teaching techniques, and the use of support materials to achieve the objectives. Considering these important factors, it is an undeniable fact that only a flexible curriculum can bring academic success.
The only compulsory subject in the curriculum is English. Mathematics, Science, Computer Science, Well-being, and Global Skills are offered as elective subjects. The fundamental aim here is to provide school management with the flexibility to evaluate the student-teacher-parent profiles in the educational institutions where the curriculum will be implemented, thereby enabling the best academic yield from the curriculum. It is to serve as a guide that leads schools to success in an international curriculum, rather than imposing rigid programmes upon them.
The curriculum covers all levels from nursery school to the final year of secondary school. As previously mentioned, institutions can begin the curriculum at the desired level based on student, teacher, and parent profiles. The curriculum is assessed using ‘process-based assessment techniques,’ which have become increasingly important today. The student's performance within one year is measured using various assessment tools at different times, such as mid-term exams, short exams, project and portfolio assessments, and end-of-year exams. In this context, the curriculum has a structure that offers a wide variety of assessment tools and gradually prepares students for the end-of-year exam.
Another important aspect of assessment is that it will be conducted by the institution's teachers using the assessment criteria prepared by Oxford University Press. This is because one of the most important criteria in process assessments is getting to know the student and being able to observe their development. Our English teachers at Denge College will implement the programme content for our students, having received intensive training on all programmes included in the curriculum from Oxford University Press. Students will not pay any additional fees for the examinations.
The learning outcomes of the Oxford International Curriculum are too detailed to be explained in a single paragraph for each subject and each lesson. However, to briefly summarise the curriculum's purpose, we can say that it aims to ‘equip students with the well-being (physical, social, emotional, academic) and life skills necessary to achieve their academic and personal careers, thereby nurturing them into global citizens through experiential, immersive, and enjoyable learning.’
