Learn Curriculum Design
What you will be able to do
- Given a subject, analyze its dependency structure: identify what depends on what, which dependencies are shared, and which paths through the graph are valid.
- For each node in a dependency graph, define a testable completion criterion — not “understand X” but “given Y, do Z.”
- Annotate each prerequisite edge with what specifically is required from the prerequisite, distinguishing what is needed from what the prerequisite covers in full.
- Identify when a curriculum confuses a dependency graph with a numbered list, and explain what the numbered list hides.
- State a curriculum’s scope: what it covers, what it excludes, and why the exclusions matter (the “whose knowledge?” question applied to curriculum structure).
Prerequisites
- learn-lesson-design — backward design (you need the concept of starting from desired results and working backward, which curriculum design applies at a larger scale) and the distinction between teaching and presenting (so you can evaluate whether individual nodes in the curriculum actually teach)
- learn-decolonial-pedagogy — the “whose knowledge?” question (you need this to evaluate scope honestly: every curriculum centers some knowledge and excludes other knowledge, and stating this is part of the design)
Lessons
- Designing Curricula — dependency graphs, completion criteria, edge annotations, scope honesty, the spiral curriculum
This is a single lesson. Work through it fully, including the self-check questions and the worked example on the semiotic universe dependency graph.
Scope
This skill covers the design of curricula as dependency graphs with completion criteria. It does not cover:
- Designing individual lessons within a curriculum (covered by learn-lesson-design, a prerequisite)
- Institutional curriculum design (course sequences, credit hours, accreditation requirements — this vault’s curricula are self-directed)
- Assessment at the curriculum level (how to verify that an entire curriculum has been completed is a design question this skill raises but does not fully answer)
- The formal mathematics of graph theory (the dependency graph concept here is intuitive, not formalized — a learner does not need to know graph theory to design curricula)
Verification
Design a small dependency graph (3-5 nodes) for learning any subject you know well. For each node, write a completion criterion. For each edge, annotate what specifically is required. Identify at least one place where a naive numbered list would misrepresent the dependency structure (e.g., two independent nodes that could be studied in either order, or a shared dependency). State what your curriculum covers and one thing it does not.