Built from Julie Stern’s decades of work on conceptual understanding and transfer of learning, the Essential Concepts Framework helps schools answer a deceptively simple question:
What is most important for students to understand deeply?
Julie Stern is a four-time bestselling author, global speaker, and John Hattie’s “go-to person” on transfer of learning. Her work has helped educators around the world move beyond coverage toward learning that lasts and transfers.
Curriculum can quickly become a long list of standards, outcomes, and content to cover.
The Essential Concepts Framework helps schools see the bigger picture.
It identifies the most recurring, foundational, and transferable academic concepts students need from PreK through secondary.
Julie and her team analyzed curriculum standards and learning outcomes from around the world, including:
• British Columbia
• the United Kingdom
• Australia
• leading U.S. professional teaching organizations
They looked for the ideas that appeared again and again, across grade levels and disciplines, and that students need to revisit as their understanding becomes more sophisticated.
Each concept comes with ready-to-use teaching resources that help students:
• build deep understanding
• connect ideas within and across disciplines
• develop insights about how the world works
• apply their learning in new situations
Teachers can add these resources directly to existing lessons and units, bringing greater depth and relevance without redesigning the curriculum.
A clear roadmap of the ideas students need to understand deeply, revisit over time, and use to make sense of new learning and an ever-changing world.
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Concepts are considered essential when they:
Are foundational to understanding the discipline's purpose and significance.
Are developmentally appropriate for the learners' age or stage.
Have strong potential for transfer to new situations and problems.
Help students connect ideas across contexts and build deeper understanding.
Build sequentially, with foundational ideas supporting more complex concepts.
Every academic concept is paired with practical, ready-to-use resources that help students understand it deeply, harness their prior knowledge and experiences, connect concepts for lasting insights, and apply learning to new situations.
✓ Visual icons that make abstract ideas more concrete
✓ Visual concept attainment activities
✓ Pop culture and everyday-life concept hunts
✓ Compelling questions that make learning meaningful
✓ Authentic situations for practicing transfer
✓ Clear organization by discipline and age band