The spiral curriculum is a curriculum design concept introduced by psychologist Jerome Bruner in his 1960 book The Process of Education, built on his claim that any subject can be taught in some intellectually honest form to a learner at any stage of development. Rather than teaching a topic once and moving permanently on to the next, a spiral curriculum revisits the same core ideas repeatedly across a student's schooling, each time at a greater level of complexity and abstraction, so that earlier, simpler treatments of a concept lay the groundwork for later, more sophisticated ones. The approach has shaped curriculum design across many school subjects, particularly mathematics and science, where foundational ideas such as number or energy are deliberately reintroduced and deepened at successive grade levels rather than taught in a single, self-contained unit.
Facts
Core ClaimIntroduced by Jerome Bruner (The Process of Education, 1960): a curriculum revisits the same core ideas repeatedly across schooling, each time at greater complexity and abstraction. 1 FAQs
Does a spiral curriculum leave students to work things out alone?
No. Teachers guide students with scaffolding each time an idea returns.
No. Jerome Bruner believed strongly in guided discovery learning, where the teacher helps students uncover patterns, relationships and meanings. Teachers provide scaffolding, which is temporary support such as offering examples or hints, breaking complex ideas into manageable steps, or encouraging students to think critically and make connections. That support lets students handle more complex material when they meet the same ideas again later in the spiral.
Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikimedia FoundationJerome Bruner, Developmental psychology sectionQuote, Jerome Bruner, Developmental psychology section
Bruner proposed the spiral curriculum, a teaching approach in which each subject or skill area is revisited at intervals, at a more sophisticated level each time.
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