Upgrading content requires deliberate provocation. Active and vibrant discussion and debate formally planned at each school site, at each district office, and at each state, provincial, or national education office should engage key players around three questions: What content should be kept? What content should be cut? What content should be created?

Content replacements require us to carefully articulate what is timely and timeless and to concurrently find what we can let go. For our purposes, content is the selected subject matter either taught by the teacher or self-taught by the learner; it is knowledge we wish to impart and to investigate within the time available. Content is a central element in curriculum design and can be organized within disciplines or through interdisciplinary designs. The decision on what knowledge to present and share with learners is most often predetermined by professional educators, but in some schools and settings, content is selected and constructed by the student. A best practice in planning is organizing content around central concepts supported by selected facts and information (Ericksen, 2002; Jacobs & Johnson, 2009; Wiggins & McTighe, 2005). To provoke thoughtful reconsideration of these concepts, selected facts, and knowledge in an upgrading review cycle, fundamental questions need to be asked: What is essential and timeless? What is not essential or dated? What should be created that is evident and necessary? A knowledge-updating review process is daunting to maintain and cultivate in any field of study, yet it is the bedrock of learning. The ongoing process of challenging accepted knowledge and the cycle of replacing it are the signs of cultural maturation.

Tenets for Purposeful Debate Leading to Content Upgrades