It’s important to note that there is no single profile of a child who bullies. While some fit the traditional image of someone who is generally aggressive and has poor impulse control, others may be very sensitive to social nuances and are able to use that understanding against their targets. Others may be motivated simply by boredom.
In the Nova Scotia Health Education curriculum, media literacy outcomes are included under the general outcomes requiring students to think critically and make informed decisions to enhance health of self, those around oneself, and to demonstrate within a global context and effective communication and interpersonal skills that facilitate positive relationships between themselves and the world.
In fact, half of us pay more attention to who shared a story with us than where it originally came from.
There are several challenges in identifying evidence-based best practices in media education: first, because most evaluations compare media literacy interventions either to a control group or to another intervention not based on media literacy; second because, as noted above, there is often a mismatch between what a program is teaching and the results it is measuring. As a result, “empirical evidence of best pedagogical practice, as opposed to self-testimony or retrospective reporting, is scarce”[1]; in other words, while we can say generally that media literacy works, it is difficult to say precisely which elements of media literacy programs work better than others.
In the Newfoundland and Labrador Art curriculum, media components are found throughout the K-12 grades under the Key Stage Curriculum Outcomes in which students are expected to demonstrate critical awareness of and the value for the role of the arts in creating and reflecting culture and analyse the relationship between artistic intent and the expressive work. Within the individual courses media components are found in the strands Understanding and Connecting Contexts of Time, Place, and Community and Perception, Culture, Technology.
In the Newfoundland and Labrador Health Education Framework, media literacy outcomes can be found in General Curriculum Outcome 1(Students will demonstrate an understanding of the aspects of their health and the issues and challenges which impact health and well-being) and General Curriculum Outcome 2 (Students will demonstrate the capability/ability to use skills, resources, and processes to create conditions and take actions that promote their health and that of the family) as well as many specific curriculum expectations.
Many curricular expectations in B.C. Social Studies courses relate to media and digital literacy. The core historical and geographical thinking concepts include a consideration for evidence, perspectives, and ethics, all of which are required for teaching students to be digitally literate citizens. Thus, media and digital literacy skills and concepts can be found in many of the Big Ideas, Curricular Competencies and specific course content.
Alberta’s Aboriginal Studies curriculum “is intended to provide a conceptual framework for all learners to enhance understanding of the diverse Aboriginal cultures within their region, Canada and the world.” (Aboriginal Studies 10-20-30).
In the New Brunswick Music curriculum, media and digital literacy outcomes mostly fall under Strand 2, Understanding and Connecting Contexts of Time, Place and Community, and Strand 3, Perceiving, Reflecting and Responding. Digital citizenship habits skills are also found in General Curriculum Outcome 4, “Students will be expected to respect the contributions to the arts of individuals and cultural groups in local and global contexts, and value the arts as a record of human experience and expression.”
In Alberta, the following strands in the Mathematics curriculum have connections to digital and media literacy:
K-9:
10-12: