Problem-based curriculum is designed to experientially engage students in processes of inquiry into complex problems of significance and relevance to their lives and learning. It is intended to challenge students to pursue authentic questions, wonders, and uncertainties in a focused way, which enables them to construct, deepen, and extend their knowledge and understanding. Problem-based curriculum steps away from typical notions of curriculum in that it positions students as stakeholders, and as knowers, in both teaching and learning processes. It organizes curriculum in holistic ways, around problems that are messy and multiple, foregrounding the development of processes of learning, attitudes, and dispositions as well as the acquisition of content knowledge.

The four curricular commonplaces conceptualized by Joseph Schwabteacher, subject matter, student, and milieuhelp make visible the structure ...