MULTIDIMENSIONALITY
Multidimensionality is a design principle that expresses the fact that any learning moment operates on more than one level at once. Alongside the declared content, a learner is also:
࿇ experiencing a process
࿇ inhabiting a role
࿇ forming a sense of themselves
࿇ relating what is going on to past and possible future experience
࿇ meeting or resisting authority
࿇ noticing what kinds of performance and intelligence are valued
࿇ discovering what kinds of participation are possible
A Living Curriculum holds multiple dimensions together in a coherent direction. Process and content support the growth of the whole person and allow us to enjoy ourselves in the present moment — not merely prepare for the future. A curriculum that does this can be described as edusystemic.
࿇ experiencing a process
࿇ inhabiting a role
࿇ forming a sense of themselves
࿇ relating what is going on to past and possible future experience
࿇ meeting or resisting authority
࿇ noticing what kinds of performance and intelligence are valued
࿇ discovering what kinds of participation are possible
A Living Curriculum holds multiple dimensions together in a coherent direction. Process and content support the growth of the whole person and allow us to enjoy ourselves in the present moment — not merely prepare for the future. A curriculum that does this can be described as edusystemic.
In the Living Curriculum Architecture, this is the distinction of Role and Whole Person: we may occupy the role of student or teacher, but the whole person is always present.
Multidimensionality also applies to materials and curriculum design. A teaching material or activity is never only carrying content — it is also shaping the process through which we meet that content. It signals, consciously or not, what counts, what is valued, and how participation is expected to look. Well-designed instructional material holds several possible ways in, so that different learners can arrive as themselves rather than being required to fit a single prescribed path.