A curriculum is a structured sequence of lessons designed to move a learner from a starting state of understanding to a target state of capability. In this vault, the term refers to the ordered collections of lessons that live in curricula/ directories within each discipline module.
Curriculum design in this vault follows backward design principles: the designer begins by identifying what the learner should be able to do after completing the sequence, then works backward to determine what knowledge and skills each lesson must build. This approach comes from the understanding-by-design framework and aligns with the critical pedagogy tradition’s emphasis on education as a practice of capability rather than information transfer.
A curriculum differs from a reference document or a textbook. A reference document organizes information for lookup; a curriculum organizes learning experiences for transformation. The order of lessons matters: each lesson assumes the knowledge built by preceding lessons and prepares the ground for those that follow.
In this vault, curricula declare their prerequisites, their learning objectives, and their constituent lessons. Each lesson within a curriculum addresses one core idea with at most three or four new concepts, following the pedagogical guidelines in Designing Effective Lessons. The curriculum as a whole provides the larger arc that gives individual lessons their context and purpose.
The plural form “curricula” (Latin) is used in this vault alongside the anglicized “curriculums”; both are acceptable.
Related terms
- banking model — the pedagogical approach that curricula in this vault are designed to avoid
- dialogic education — the participatory approach that informs curriculum design here
- conscientization — the critical awareness that well-designed curricula can support