Learning is based on skills, i.e., on the capacity of the child to use acquired knowledge in order to achieve a result. The child must be able to use such knowledge and skills in specific and new situations, whether at school or in real life. If learning grammar and multiplication tables remains essential, it is also necessary to put these skills in action.
This skill-based approach is motivating for the children who are more aware of why they need to learn thesesubjects.
The socle de compétence (skills base) to be reached at the end of each cycle is defined for each development and learning field. The bases include essential knowledge and skills to move from one cycle to the other.
The detailed study plan for each of the development and learning fields in primary education covers:
- the skills base the pupil has to achieve at the end of each learning cycle ;
- the programme of the subjects to be taught ;
- the weekly schedules.
In cycle 1
The child’s learning process in cycle 1 is mostly considered as a social experience involving meaningful interactions. Diversified situations allow children to interact with their pairs and the people around them as well as to work with a multitude of objects and materials. The skills to be acquired are included in the following development and learning fields:
- logical and mathematical reasoning;
- language, Luxembourgish, awareness of languages and initiation to the French language ;
- discovering the world using all senses ;
- psychomotricity, body language and health;
- creative expression, initiation to aesthetics and culture;
- life in a community and values.
In cycles 2 to 4
Skills to be acquired are included in the following development and learning fields:
- literacy, German, French and Luxembourgish as well as openness to other languages ;
- mathematics;
- discovering sciences as well as human and natural sciences;
- body language, psychomotricity, sports and health ;
- initiation to aesthetics, creation and culture, arts and music ;
- life in a community and values taught through the subject « vie et société ».
Differentiation
Teachers are encouraged to pay special attention to pupils as soon as they show first signs of learning difficulties and to motivate the more gifted ones by implementing what is called differentiation. This is an essential tool to deal with pupils with increasingly heterogenous capacities and possibilities. It is a factor of social justice.