Chapter 2 - Designing and delivering a curriculum that supports the development of the learner attributes

Oct 23, 2026

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Chapter 2 explains how schools should design and deliver a curriculum that supports the development of learner attributes. It distinguishes broad, balanced, and coherent curriculum planning from a narrow view limited to subjects and the school year, highlighting the co-curricular and hidden or informal curriculum. The chapter outlines curriculum organization through academic disciplines and interdisciplinary approaches, emphasizing powerful knowledge, critical thinking, curriculum mapping, and collaborative teacher planning to build connections, progression, and well-rounded competences.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Overview

A broad and balanced curriculum

How should the curriculum be organised?

What subjects and activities should the curriculum provide?

Chapter 2: Designing and delivering a curriculum that supports the development of the learner attributes Overview This chapter builds on some of the points made in Chapter 1 of this guide and Chapter 2 of the Implementing the Curriculum with Cambridge guide [www.cambridgeinternational.org/curriculumguide](www.cambridgeinternational.org/curriculumguide). Schools interested in developing the learner attributes need to develop a curriculum that is broad, balanced and coherent in a number of ways. A broad and balanced curriculum The school curriculum is sometimes narrowly defined to include only the subjects a student studies within a school year, and in sequential years, as they progress through the school. The concept of curriculum, however, can be considered more broadly to include the co-curricular curriculum, which recognises the valued educational activities that support learning beyond classes and subjects. We also need to recognise the hidden or informal curriculum. This is learning that takes place as a result of the culture and climate of the school and is often unacknowledged. Broad definitions of curriculum focus on the overall learning experience a student receives as a result of the educational programme and culture in the school. It can be useful to distinguish the curriculum, which includes all valued learning, from qualifications and subjects. The curriculum in an excellent school is more than the sum of the qualifications, subjects and activities that are visible on the school schedule. This is because careful attention in curriculum design and implementation is given to learning within, across and between the subjects and activities. All subject teachers support the development of the learner attributes and other qualities identified in the school’s vision. Breadth, balance and coherence need to be built in by design. Here are a few questions to consider for your school. Does the curriculum: • expose students to learning powerful knowledge and skills that will be useful for them in the future? Is there an appropriate balance of subjects, disciplines and activities? • make connections in students’ minds between what they are learning in different topics in a discipline and between different disciplines? • teach subjects and disciplines in a way that helps students master basic skills and build on these to develop deep understanding of the material and the ability to apply their knowledge in unfamiliar contexts? • encourage students’ creative contributions? • help students explore their interests and passions, exposing them to new possibilities? • nurture learning habits in all subjects and activities that help students understand themselves as learners so that they can help themselves learn new material? • support the development of emotional, physical and creative competences? • support the development of collaborative and individual learning habits and skills? • provide challenge in non-academic practical areas, for example service learning? • support students’ physical and mental wellbeing? How should the curriculum be organised? Most schools operate a timetable that divides the day into blocks of time in which subjects are taught. The main reason for including academic disciplines in the curriculum as discrete subjects is that they nurture powerful knowledge (Young, 2013), with applications that are not easily acquired from everyday experience, so that students learn to think critically and creatively as mathematicians, artists, scientists, historians etc. Each academic discipline has its own methodology. Critical thinking in science, for example, requires an understanding of the scientific method and the development of scientific knowledge and understanding which is embedded in practice and theory. As competence and understanding grow, learners can take on more advanced concepts and challenges because they have a solid disciplinary foundation. 18 Developing the Cambrid

FAQs

What does a broad and balanced curriculum include beyond school subjects?

It includes the co-curricular curriculum and also the hidden or informal curriculum arising from the school’s culture and climate.

Why are academic disciplines treated as discrete subjects in the curriculum?

They nurture powerful knowledge with applications not easily gained from everyday experience, helping students learn to think critically and creatively within each discipline.

How can schools reduce the risk of knowledge being viewed as isolated silos?

By prioritizing interdisciplinary understanding and creating curriculum structures (such as interdisciplinary topics or courses) that help students make connections across and between disciplines.

Oct 23, 2026

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