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BIG IDEAS 

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Are you curious for more? Would you like to get in touch? Feel free to contact our lead directly for any questions or inquiries you may have. Tikvah Breimer (MSc MAEd MSc) Director tikvah@studioblended.com +31 6 42 47 29 69

Image: “Architectural Sketch by Cazú Zegers © Cazú Zegers – all rights reserved.”

EDITORIAL: SETTING THE SCENE

© 2026 STUDIOBLENDED https://www.studioblended.com/Big-ideas

Qualification ensures that young people are sufficiently equipped to act in the world. The difficult work of qualification is about providing students with the knowledge and skills that make it possible for them to act in the world. ‘Right now, qualification seems to occupy the centre of the universe’ argues Biesta (2022, p. 8). Let’s dwell a bit on this pedagogical and philosophical argument.

The risk is in this: the desire to make the world of qualification efficient, effective and eventually “perfect” (see Biesta 2020, 2022). ‘This is a real risk in the “age of measurement”, an age obsessed with the production of measurable “learning outcomes” rather than that it focuses on encouraging (...) young people to become knowledgeable and skillful in their own right’ (Biesta 2022, p. 8). ‘We should (...) be concerned about the ways in which (such) objectifications shows up within education itself, particularly through the well-intended but ill-conceived attempts at improving educational systems that turn the education of subjects into the “management of objects” (Biesta 2022, p. 101).

Indeed, (higher) education has experienced “learnification” (a term coined by Biesta 2009), which ‘refers to the shift in educational discourse, policy, and practice towards learners and their learning and hence away from teachers, teaching and the curriculum’ (Biesta 2022, p. 42-43). You can recognise it by expressions such as “deep learning”, “brain-based learning” and “machine learning” (Biesta 2022, p. 60, see also Osberg & Biesta 2021).

Especially the “global education measurement industry” continues to promote a rather one-dimensional focus on learning. ‘The enormous power with which the global education measurement industry has managed to set the educational agenda in many countries - focusing on the production of a narrow set of learning outcomes and a narrow set of pre-defined identities (the lifelong learner, the good citizen, the resilient individual and so on) shows the problem with an approach that focuses exclusively on the intentional side of education and “forgets” about the “action” side (Biesta 2022, p. 76). And then there are also ‘authoritarian forms of education in which teaching is enacted as a form of control (...) including those that may look benign (Biesta 2022, p. 69).

This is why, ‘it remains important to continue to engage in discussion about the purpose of education’ (Biesta 2022, p. 61). Because ‘the language of learning is insufficient to capture the complexities of education’ (Biesta 2022, p. 73). ‘Learning is at best one dimension of our human condition, but it neither defines nor exhausts our existence-as-subjects in and with the world’ (Biesta 2022, p. 73).

Biesta (2022, p. 3) writes: ‘we are too quickly drawn into monitoring and measuring the learning itself, looking for interventions that produce the desired learning outomes, trying to control the whole machinery‘.

At the same time, we need learning objectives for procedures such as accreditations. After all, the accreditations and exit terms such as from the Dublin descriptors[1] for the end terms of a bachelor and master degree, ultimately are here to stimulate you, to make the actual learning more effective.

What could be a way forward? We propose to work with so-called ‘big ideas’.

Big ideas resonate with the current experienced ‘hangover’ feeling among scholars and practitioners that is the result of decades of too tightly formulated learning outcomes and objectives in the design of curricula – and the felt need for teaching to take centre stage again in Higher Education (Schoot & Sluijsmans 2021, Biesta 2024).

A hindsight is perhaps, that we need some structure to go by, in order to organise education. We need a clear view on the learnings. This hindsight, is actually already from the 1940s too. Tyler writes (1947, p. 3): ‘No doubt some excellent educational work is being done by artistic teachers who do not have a clear conception of goals but do have an intuitive sense of what is good teaching, what materials are significant, what topics are worth dealing with and how to present material and develop topics effectively with studets. Nevertheless, if an educational program is to be planned and if efforts for continued improvement are to be made, it is very necessary to have some conception of the goals that are being aimed at. These educational objectives become the criteria by which materials are selected, content is outlined, instructional procedures are developped and tests and examinations are prepared. Hence if we are to study an educational program systematically and intelligently we must first be sure as to the educational objectives aimed at’.

What we can take from the current turbulence around learning objectives, is that you can also over-do it with learning objectives. Often times indeed, set standards are too many, too big, too small or too vague (after Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 60-65 citing also work by Caswell & Campbell that goes back to 1935).

A way forward is looking at a meta level, the level of the fit for purpose framework for the curriculum of entire course or degree, and instrumentally: how can we use all this to best design in a modular way?

Big ideas and learnings allow you to keep the spirit of designing for teaching, and strive to meet the set quality standards from that place, not from a top down stifling way that gets lost in the formulations of a multitude of indicators.

A focus on big ideas leaves oxygen and room to take on the challenge of resonating both with the pedagogical concerns raised, and pragmatically aligning with set standards such as defined at national or European level. One of them, is the Bologna Declaration for Higher Education[3] (2010) which seeks to bring coherence to Higher Education systems across Europe.

The big ideas and learnings here proposed must still be broken down into learning objectives to become useful for actual activities such as a lecture or workshop. But one teacher may have different needs than another in their articulation.

Where does this design angle come in?
Big ideas, come in in the early (re)design stages of a course, training or (master)degree.

A good way to scope the big ideas for your knowledge domain is with a workshop ‘big ideas’ or a Design Studio.

Do you need support in identifying the big ideas in your course/training/degree, and strategizing them in paradigm shifts? Have a look at what we can offer with our independent senior advice.

THINKPIECE

Why not read our Thinkpiece (2 pager) - forthcoming, to discover more about how big ideas are used in our methodology for technical curriculum design?

WHAT BIG IDEAS LOOK LIKE

To be elegant and powerful, your curriculum design must be coherent and focused on clear and worthy intellectual priorities – the ‘big ideas’ (after Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 65-66). By far the most interesting component of the fit for purpose framework for curriculum design are the big ideas. They are the backbone of our time robust design, and more dynamic than you would expect. They are also an excellent way to align the various subjects in your course or degree. And as OECD (2020a, p. 24) reports, big ideas are a way forward in overloaded curricula is ‘focusing on conceptual understanding or “big ideas” to avoid an excessive number of subjects or topics within the allotted time’.

We argue that you just need up to some 5-10 big ideas for your entire course curriculum or perhaps even the entire degree. They best resemble exit goals of your course or degree, that you arrive at over time. They set the scope of your course or degree.

Big ideas just need 1 – 2 words each (after Lynn Erickson 2001, 35 in Wiggins & McTighe 2005, p. 69). Where a learning journey is more like storytelling, big ideas are about framing the content. Making it really simple.

Here are some examples of big ideas:
-      Land markets (in a course about land)
-      Natural selection (in a biological course)
-      Nature Based Solutions (in an urban course)

‘Big idea’ is not a new concept, and goes back at least to the beginning of the 20th century (see i.e.  Dewey 1902) – even as it started with children and primary schools, then secondary schools, and arrived later for applications at universities (see i.e. William 2014).

Big ideas are chosen especially for their power to explain phenomena, they provide a comprehensive survey of science (Wynn & Wiggins 1997 in Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 67).

‘Big’ is not necessarily intelectually vast, but pedagogically powerful (see also Bloom 1981, 235 in Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 69), and ‘points to the ‘core’ of the subject – they need to be uncovered, we have to dig deep until we get to the core.

Big ideas are hard won results of inquiry, ways of thinking and perceiving that are the province of the expert. They are not obvious, in fact, most expert big ideas are abstract and counterintuitive to the novice [learner], prone to misunderstanding (Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 67).

A big idea may be thought of as a linchpin – the device that keeps the wheel in place on an axle. It avoids the curriculum is just bits and pieces of facts that cannot take us anywhere (Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 66). ‘Without a focus on the big ideas that have lasting value, students are too easily left with forgettable fragments of knowledge’ (Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 66). Big ideas can also be the practical way, the hands on way, to integrate various disciplines in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary education.

The challenge then is to identify the few big ideas and carefully design around them, resisting to teach everything of possible value for each topic(Wiggins & McTighe 2005, 66).

Identifying big ideas is especially hard. ‘Framing big ideas is [also] not simple.’ (...) Or as Mitchell (Mitchell et al. 2016, p. 6) and his research team conclude: ‘Our experience shows that if big ideas are to be framed differently and not merely extricated from curriculum documents, textbooks or even research papers, then teachers need to be supported in developing these big ideas.‘

What exactly is a ‘big idea’? There are many working definitions[1] around, so the point is more to get what the spirit of the ‘big idea’ is, and how they can point us towards time robust curriculum design.

And, here comes the fascinating part: big ideas are dynamic. Which concepts carry through time in your domain? How can you use big ideas to actually innovate your existing academic curriculum? A ‘hype’ is a mismanaged expectation: which big ideas are already passe? How can you use big ideas to actually innovate your existing academic curriculum?

KEY PROJECTS

MASSIVE OPEN ONLINE COURSE (MOOC) funded by the ERC
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2025 - 2026 (1 year)
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[Photo follows]
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STUDIOBLENDED is currently working on the realisation of an impactful MOOC  for an institute for capacity development within a European University (March 2025 - March 2026). The challenge of this client is transforming the scope of the 4 year research program, into a scope for a playful, light yet superintersting learning journey (9 studyhours) and develop it into a succesful MOOC.

An important baseline work for this design, was identifying the big ideas of the envisioned MOOC, and strategizing it in paradigm shifts. For this purpose, we held several Design Studios.



WORKSHOP ‘BIG IDEAS’ to kick-off the new academic year
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2024
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We organised a workshop for the academic staff of AMS, to make them conscious of the undercurrents and trends in the curriculum of their master degree and source within the diverse team where they foresee the big ideas going in the near future. For more see our events page.

^{“It was inspiring and fruitful [for me as participant of the workshop]. I realised a course has baseline building blocks versus the trends and hypes that come and go. I realised where to invest in most. I am taking this further for my own field for sure.”}

AUDIO PODCAST

🎙 Keynote: Big ideas and modular curriculum design.
Prefer to read? Transcript
Listen on: Acast Spotify Apple
Release summer ‘24  

Listen to this episode to discover how we use big ideas as linking pin for our technical curriculum design.

For more background see our page on technical resilience.

Today’s keynote was delivered [in a 20 min. form] on the kick-off of the new academic year with the academic teaching staff of the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Studies (AMS) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on Friday August 30, 2024.

REFERENCES

Biesta, G. (2024) ‘Taking education seriously: the ongoing challenge’. Educational Theory, May 28. Available: https://doi.org/10.1111/edth.12646(Accessed: October 27, 2025).

Biesta, G. (2022) World-Centered Education; A view for the present. New York and London: Routledge.

Biesta, G. (2009). Authority is relational. Rethinking educational empowerment. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Dewey, J. (1902), The child and the curriculum. Chicago IL, University of Chicago press, reprinted in Hickman, L.A. and T.M. Alexander (eds.) 1998, The essential Dewey, Vol. 1. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.

Mitchell, I., Keast, S., Panizzon, D., and Mitchell, J. (2016), ‘Using ‘big ideas’ to enhance teaching and student learning.’ Teachers and Teaching, pp. 1-15. Available: doi: 10.1080/13540602.2016.1218328

OECD (2020a), Curriculum (re)design, a series of thematic reports from the OECD Education 2030 project. Available :https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/about/projects/edu/education-2040/2-1-curriculum-design/brochure-thematic-reports-on-curriculum-redesign.pdf (Accessed: 26 November 2025).

OECD (2020b), Curriculum overload: A way forward, OECD Publishing, Paris, Available: https://doi.org/10.1787/3081ceca-en (Accessed: November 14, 2025).

Osberg, D. and Biesta, G. (2021), ‘Beyond curriculum: Groundwork for a non-instrumental theory of education.’ Educational Philosophy and Theory, (53)1, pp. 57-70. Available: doi: 10.1080/00131857.2020.1750362

Schoot, M. and Sluijsmans, D. (2021), ‘Het dichtgetimmerde curriculum; Over de doorgeschoven verschuiving van inhoud naar vorm in het hoger onderwijs’ [The boarded up curriculum. About the current shift from content to form that has gone too far in higher education’], Edukitchen, 28 July [In Dutch]. Available: http://edukitchen.nl/het-dichtgetimmerde-curriculum/ [Accessed: October 27, 2025).

Tyler, R. 1947 (2013) Basic principles of curriculum and instruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wiggins, G. and Mc Tighe, J. (2005) Understanding by Design. Expanded 2nd edition. Alexandria Virginia USA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.


William, D. (2014) Principled Assessment design, SSAT. The Schools Network, London UK.
[see also his website https://dylanwiliam.org/Dylan_Wiliams_website/Welcome.html ]

FOOTNOTES

[1] Find the Dublin descriptors for instance here https://create2021.utwente.nl/doc/DublinDescriptors.pdf

[2] The Bologna Declaration states that: “A learning outcome is a measurable result of a learning experience which allows us to ascertain to which extent / level / standard a competence has been formed
or enhanced. Learning outcomes are not properties unique to each student, but statements which allow higher education institutions to measure whether students have developed their competences to the required level. Learning outcomes describe what a learner is expected to know, understand and
be able to demonstrate after successful completion of a process of learning. They are statements of concrete and verifiable signs that show how the planned competences, including the required levels of knowledge, are being developed or acquired.”
(Lokhoff et al., 2010, pp. 21–22). See also https://education.ec.europa.eu/education-levels/higher-education/inclusive-and-connected-higher-education/bologna-process[accessed May 25, 2024].

[3] See for example this working definition (after Lynn Erickson 2001, 35 in Wiggins & McTighe 2005) which states that big ideas are:

-      Broad and abstract

-      Represented by just one or two words

-      Universal in application

-      Timeless- they carry through the ages

-      Represented by different examples that share common attributes

MORE DESIGN ANGLES WE USE

Technical resilience
Big ideas
Paradigm shifts/decade strong
Simplicity and decluttering
Human resilience
Modular
Innovative and deep pedagogy
Assesment / evaluation
Time dimension
Evidence-based design
Financial health and resilience by (re)design
Multi- Inter- and transdisciplinary
Flexibilisation and personalisation
Blended



Curios? Feel free to contact our senior advisor and teacher trainer directly:
tikvah@studioblended.com

Resilient education that stands the test of time - by design.