Concept Based Curriculum and Instruction

Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction (CBCI) is an educational model that is inquiry driven and idea-centered. It goes beyond the memorization of facts and skills, and adds the critical third dimension of concepts and deep conceptual understandings. (Erickson, Lanning, 2014). H. Lynn Erickson and Lois Lanning have developed a model that explicitly supports teaching from an inquiry stance through a focus on concepts and Big Ideas of curricula. Teaching with a conceptual lens encourages students to develop deep understandings; the ultimate goal being to 'uncover and transfer' their learning to new contexts. The Ontario Curriculum is a rich concept-based curriculum that is perfectly suited to the CBCI model.

CBCI introduces the pedagogy of inductive teaching. Inductive teaching means that students respond to and generate questions, and participate in learning engagements that guide their thinking and their uncovering of the Big Ideas. The learning percolates with students until a consensus of meaning is achieved and confirmed and framed by the teacher. Coupled with intentional, explicitly taught facts and skills, CBCI builds a solid foundation of concepts, knowledge, skills and attitudes for the 21st century learner.

The special consideration of this TLLP is the French Immersion classroom and the ways that CBCI can be used to structure learning from an inquiry stance while providing rich academic and intellectual experiences, in French. A critical consideration for French Immersion teachers is the way to prepare students with content-relevant vocabulary for their units of study. Further along in this website, there are examples of how this is achieved and videos of students using French to explain their thinking and learning.

Moving Ahead

Following this paragraph you will find materials to help you learn about the Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction methodology. Once you have learned to recognize some of the features of Concept-based Curriculum and Instruction and its role in developing a unit plan using the Ontario Curriculum, you will be ready to begin planning a unit with the adapted CBCI planner found in this website. Using the planner will guide you through the structure of a CBCI-planned unit by drawing your attention to:

• a strategy for aligning Big Ideas from two grade levels for a specific content area (i.e. science)
• a section for identifying the common macro concepts ( significance, cause and consequence)
• a section for collecting and recording micro concepts that can also work as relevant vocabulary for French immersion students ( environment, employment, etc).
• A section for guiding questions - either drawn from the curriculum, or co-created with your students
• A section for planning and recording a culminating task that is designed to require students to transfer their deep learning to a new scenario.
• A section to map out relevant specific expectations and their relationship to the Big Ideas that your students will uncover

"Concept-based instruction creates connections to students’ prior experience, brings relevance to student learning, facilitates deeper understanding of content knowledge, and acts as a springboard for students to respond to their learning with action. "(Erickson 2008)

A CBCI model: Structure of Knowledge

These important visuals, The Structure of Knowledge and The Structure of Process demonstrate the relationship between larger theoretical ideas, important macro concepts, Big Ideas and factual knowledge. The Structure of Knowledge is the model used to design a conceptual program for Mathematics, Social Studies and Science, where The Structure of Process is more process-based,focused on processes, strategies, and skills rather than concrete knowledge. Disciplines which uses the Structure of Process is used primarily to design a conceptual program for Language Arts, and the Arts.

Please expand to view full image.

(permission provided by Lynn Erickson and Lois Lanning)