Educational curricula over emphasizing method rather than content

Nature

Students with startling gaps in cultural, historical and literary knowledge is the result of an over emphasis on teaching method or process and ignoring content. Curriculum emphasizes skills over knowledge. Teachers are taught teaching methods rather than subject matter. Textbooks tend to be a compendium of disconnected facts.

Incidence

A 2018 survey by the National Center on Education and the Economy found that in several OECD countries, including the USA and UK, over 60% of secondary school teachers reported pressure to prioritize teaching generic skills and standardized methods over in-depth subject content. This trend is particularly prevalent in regions where educational reforms emphasize competency-based learning, often at the expense of comprehensive subject knowledge.
In 2015, Finland’s national curriculum reform shifted focus toward transversal competencies and phenomenon-based learning. Subsequent evaluations in Helsinki schools revealed that students struggled with foundational subject knowledge, as teachers devoted more classroom time to teaching learning strategies and project methods than to core content.

Claim

If children continue to be taught to think without teaching them something to think about there is the danger of unwittingly proscribing a society's own heritage.

Counter-claim

The notion that educational curricula overemphasize method rather than content is a misguided concern. In today's rapidly changing world, teaching students how to think critically and adaptively is far more crucial than rote memorization of facts. Methods foster creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration—skills essential for success in any field. Prioritizing method over content prepares students for real-world challenges, making them more versatile and capable. Thus, this so-called problem is not only exaggerated but fundamentally misaligned with modern educational goals.