Why I Started This Blog: Connecting Curriculum and Instruction and OPPA

Throughout my career in education, I have always been driven by the question: “How can learners study more effectively?” While pursuing my Ed.D., I reaffirmed the importance of deeply considering both curriculum—the design of what should be learned—and instruction—the methods for making learning happen.

When we talk about curriculum, one important issue is the balance between what can be changed and what must remain constant. Every educational system has core knowledge and skills that are considered essential for all students to master. These elements represent the foundation of a curriculum and should not be easily altered. At the same time, other parts of the curriculum—such as the choice of examples, the order of topics, or the integration of local issues—should remain flexible. Teachers need the professional freedom to adapt these parts so that lessons connect meaningfully with their students’ lives. A well-designed curriculum, therefore, has both fixed elements that guarantee academic rigor and adaptable components that allow instruction to stay relevant and engaging.

Equally important is the recognition that curriculum must not be imposed in a way that ignores the learner’s understanding. Even when we emphasize the “unchangeable” aspects, educators must be careful not to treat them as commands handed down without context. Instead, the focus should always be on student comprehension. A lesson that simply transmits knowledge, without considering how students process and internalize it, risks becoming an empty exercise. True learning requires that even the most fundamental parts of the curriculum are explained, questioned, and discussed in ways that help students actively make sense of them.

One metaphor that helps explain this relationship is the image of a coin. On one side is the curriculum itself, along with the instructional methods chosen by the teacher. On the other side is the way students actually interpret, understand, and give meaning to what is taught. Both sides are inseparable—one cannot exist without the other. Yet in practice, many schools focus heavily on the “teaching side” and far less on the “learning side.” To bridge this gap, I have been especially interested in the One-Page Portfolio Assessment (OPPA) method. OPPA is designed to investigate how students perceive, reflect on, and internalize what is taught. By analyzing students’ own words, diagrams, or reflections, OPPA reveals the hidden “other side of the coin.” It shows how learners transform curriculum and instruction into personal understanding.

This is why, in this blog, I plan to share not only theoretical discussions but also practical findings from my research with OPPA and related approaches. My hope is that by examining both sides of the teaching–learning coin, teachers can create classrooms where students are not passive receivers of knowledge but active participants in building their own understanding. Ultimately, curriculum and instruction are not ends in themselves; they are means to support learners in developing critical thinking, empathy, and the ability to engage meaningfully with the world. Sharing experiences, challenges, and successes in this area may help all of us reflect more deeply on how to make education both rigorous and humane.