Concept-Based Curriculum and Inquiry: A Practical Guide for International School Teachers

Quick answer

Concept-based curriculum teaches students to understand transferable ideas rather than memorise facts in isolation. Instead of learning "the causes of one particular war," students grasp a concept like conflict that transfers to any war, any era, any playground. The approach was developed by H. Lynn Erickson and Lois A. Lanning, and it underpins concept-driven programmes like the IB. It's a well-established framework grounded in how understanding transfers, rather than a single technique.

Key facts

- Concept-based curriculum and instruction was developed by H. Lynn Erickson and Lois A. Lanning (with Rachel French), set out in Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom (Corwin, 2017).

- Its central idea is transfer: students who understand a concept can apply it to new, unfamiliar situations, which knowing isolated facts does not enable on its own (Erickson, Lanning & French, 2017).

- The IB describes its programmes as concept-driven and inquiry-based; the MYP alone is built around 16 key concepts plus subject-specific related concepts (International Baccalaureate).

- Concept-based curriculum is a widely-adopted pedagogical framework, but it is practitioner- and theory-led; there is no strong, concept-based-specific effect-size evidence, so it should be adopted for its coherence, not on the promise of a headline number.

What is concept-based curriculum?

Most curricula are built from two layers: facts (the content) and skills (what you do with it). Concept-based curriculum adds a third, higher layer: concepts, the transferable big ideas that sit above any single topic. H. Lynn Erickson, who originated the approach, and Lois A. Lanning, who extended it, argued that the facts-and-skills model leaves students knowing a lot and understanding little. A student can list the causes of one revolution and still have no idea what a revolution is in a way that helps them make sense of the next one. Concept-based teaching fixes the target on the transferable understanding, so the facts become evidence for an idea rather than the endpoint.

How is concept-based different from traditional teaching?

The difference is what you're aiming at. A traditional unit aims for coverage: know these events, dates, and processes. A concept-based unit aims for a generalisation, a sentence stating a transferable truth that the facts prove, such as "conflict can arise when groups compete for limited resources or power." Students still learn the specific war in detail, but the detail is in service of an idea they can carry to economics, to literature, to a dispute in the corridor. Erickson calls the engine of this "synergistic thinking": the deliberate interplay between the factual level (the specifics) and the conceptual level (the transferable idea). Neither works alone. Facts without a concept don't transfer; a concept without facts is a slogan. Good concept-based teaching keeps students moving between the two.

Structure of Knowledge and Structure of Process

Concept-based curriculum rests on two complementary models, and knowing which one you're working with changes how you plan. The Structure of Knowledge (Erickson) best fits content-heavy disciplines like science, history and geography, and organises learning from facts, to topics, to concepts, to generalisations. The Structure of Process (Lanning) best fits process-driven disciplines like English and language arts, world languages and the arts, and organises learning from skills and strategies, to processes, to concepts, to generalisations. A history teacher usually starts from content and lifts it to a concept. An English teacher usually starts from a process, like how writers create tension, and lifts that to a concept. Same destination, different route, and getting the route right is most of the planning battle.

Why is concept-based learning central to the IB?

If you teach in an IB school, you're already doing a version of this. The IB describes its continuum as concept-driven and inquiry-based, and concepts are the spine of every programme. The MYP is organised around 16 key concepts plus related concepts in each subject, and the PYP is built on a set of specified concepts that drive its units of inquiry (https://eduspark.world/blog/inquiry-based-learning-guide). Worth one clarification: the IB's concept model is its own. It is accurate to say the IB is concept-based; it would be wrong to say the IB simply applies the Erickson and Lanning framework. The two are connected rather than identical. Erickson herself consulted on the development of the MYP, so the influence is real, but the IB built its model for its own programmes and it stands on its own terms.

What does the evidence say?

Here's the honest version, because it matters. Concept-based curriculum is a mature, widely-adopted framework used across international schools and embedded in the IB. What it is not is an intervention with a strong quantitative evidence base and a headline effect size. The research that exists is limited and mixed, and the large effect sizes you'll sometimes see quoted actually belong to adjacent approaches like inquiry-based and project-based learning, not to concept-based instruction specifically. Anyone attaching those numbers to concept-based learning is misattributing them. That isn't a reason to avoid it. It's a reason to adopt it for the right reasons: it is coherent, it takes the idea of transfer seriously, and it aligns with what we know about how understanding moves to new contexts. Treat it as a well-reasoned way to design learning, not a guaranteed score bump, and you'll frame it honestly to your staff.

How do you start teaching conceptually?

You don't rebuild your curriculum. You start with one unit.

1. Pick a unit you already teach, and name one or two concepts underneath it (change, systems, conflict, pattern, relationships).

2. Write the generalisation: one sentence stating the transferable understanding you want students to reach ("Systems depend on the relationships between their parts").

3. Design the questions that lead there, factual questions to build the content, then conceptual questions that push students to state the idea themselves.

4. Keep formative assessment (https://eduspark.world/blog/formative-assessment-strategies-teachers) running, so you can see whether students are reaching the concept or just reciting the facts.

Do that once, well, and the approach makes sense in a way no explanation does. Then do it again next unit.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between concept-based and inquiry-based learning?

They overlap and are often used together. Inquiry-based learning is about how students learn (through investigation and questioning); concept-based curriculum is about what they're aiming to understand (transferable concepts). Concept-based inquiry combines the two. See our inquiry-based learning starter guide: https://eduspark.world/blog/inquiry-based-learning-guide

Do I have to teach in an IB school to use concept-based curriculum?

No. The IB is concept-driven, but the framework of Erickson and Lanning applies in any curriculum. The concepts and generalisations you target don't depend on IB structures.

Is concept-based curriculum backed by strong research evidence?

It's a well-established, widely-used framework grounded in the idea of transfer, but it does not have a strong concept-based-specific effect-size evidence base. Adopt it for its coherence, and be wary of anyone quoting big effect sizes borrowed from inquiry or project-based learning.

Sources

- H. Lynn Erickson, Lois A. Lanning & Rachel French, Concept-Based Curriculum and Instruction for the Thinking Classroom (2nd ed., Corwin, 2017): corwin.com

- Julie Stern et al., Tools for Teaching Conceptual Understanding (Corwin): corwin.com

- Jennifer Chang Wathall, Concept-Based Mathematics: Teaching for Deep Understanding in Secondary Classrooms (Corwin, 2016): corwin.com

- International Baccalaureate, concept-based learning across the programmes: ibo.org

Concept-based teaching is a craft you build one unit at a time, and it's easier with a guide who has done it. EduSpark's concept-based and inquiry courses (https://eduspark.world/courses), led by recognised practitioners, walk through planning units, writing generalisations and running conceptual inquiry, and they sit alongside our guides to inquiry-based learning (https://eduspark.world/blog/inquiry-based-learning-guide) and the wider professional development (https://eduspark.world/blog/professional-development-international-schools) picture. School leaders can book a demo (https://eduspark.world/book-a-demo) to roll it out across a team.