The aim of this blog is to spark curiosity and open dialogue around what a knowledge-rich curriculum is, and why educators may choose to take a deeper dive into the research and underlying philosophy that underpins this style of curriculum design.

Around the world, school leaders and educators are exploring what it means to develop and teach a knowledge-rich curriculum. Sometimes this is referred to as knowledge-led or knowledge-based curriculum. These curriculums are developed from research based in cognitive science and align with the science of learning.

A knowledge-rich curriculum is carefully planned and progressively builds students’ subject knowledge over time, providing them with plenty of opportunities for practice, review and retrieval. This supports the storage of their learning in their long-term memory.

A knowledge-rich curriculum enables students to progressively learn broad and deep knowledge and skills as it is structured in line with how memory works (Ashbee, 2021; Deng, 2022).

What is a knowledge-rich curriculum?

• Knowledge provides a driving, underpinning philosophy.
  Content is chosen purposefully for each subject, in alignment with a vision of education.
• The knowledge content is specified in detail.
  The curriculum explicitly outlines what students are expected to know, understand and be able to do for subjects and topics across all stages.
• Knowledge is taught to be remembered not just encountered.
  Students learn by using working memory to focus on and process new information, allowing them to connect information to what they already know; if the learning is carefully sequenced it is then transferred into long-term memory.
• Knowledge is mapped deliberately, sequentially and coherently.
  The curriculum ensures content is interconnected across topics, subjects and stages, and is designed to develop deep and broad knowledge over time by building on prior content and gradually increasing complexity.

Why does knowledge matter for literacy?

Typical skills-based approaches to comprehension – which focus primarily on teaching isolated comprehension skills and strategies (finding the main idea, summarising and inferencing) – are being replaced with educators making the change to implementing a knowledge-rich curriculum that focuses on building children’s knowledge of the world.

Knowledge is essential for students to comprehend the texts that they read (at any year level). A knowledge-rich curriculum supports strong reading comprehension by building vocabulary and rich background knowledge that students can draw on as they encounter increasingly complex concepts and language.

Research consistently shows the importance of vocabulary and solid background knowledge for language comprehension (Elleman & Compton, 2017; Smith et al, 2021; Willingham, 2021).

A knowledge-rich curriculum is structured to support reading comprehension – and literacy more broadly – by building language competence and deep knowledge, which enables students to understand and engage with more complex subject texts as they progress through their schooling (Hirsch, 2016; Wexler, 2019).

Essentially, once students have established their foundational literacy skills and their phonics knowledge, and decoding skills are secure, a knowledge-rich curriculum ensures that students are exposed to rich, broad and diverse knowledge. This knowledge assists them in furthering their literacy acquisition due to the sheer variety, complexity and coherence of the knowledge. It supports their ability to recognise words, phrases, understand new vocabulary and attain comprehension.

Implementation of a knowledge-rich curriculum is seen by many as an important step in achieving their students’ educational goals, and it is widely considered that a knowledge-rich curriculum provides a foundation for excellence and equity. This is achieved by prioritising and explicitly outlining the essential knowledge and related skills that students should be taught and should develop at each stage of their schooling.

A knowledge-rich curriculum doesn’t ignore skills – but recognises that skills are developed through content. This differs from a skills-based curriculum, which focuses on developing skills or competencies in a general manner, such as critical thinking, communication and problem-solving, and has a de-emphasis on subject knowledge.

The choice to implement a knowledge-rich curriculum may not fall on individual classroom teachers, but being informed on what a knowledge-rich curriculum is has interesting insights and considerations that are well worth investigating.

Johnna Alborn
Deputy Principal/Literacy Facilitator 

References:

What is a ‘knowledge-rich’ curriculum? Written by Tom Sherrington, Consultant, Teacher head-consulting UK, Astrea Academy Sheffield, 2022.
A Knowledge-Rich Approach to Curriculum Design, AERO, March 2024.
The importance of a knowledge-rich curriculum; Christine Counsell, The Education Hub, 2023.

Recommended Reading:

The Knowledge Gap, Natalie Wexler, 2019.