The interest in the spiral curriculum, Big Ideas and network planning has existed for many years. It is only now, however, beginning to have an impact on syllabus structure and textbook writing. You might like to look individually, or as a subject department, at the syllabus and textbook you work with. Do they reflect some of the ideas discussed here? Or would you need to produce some plans of your own to make the Big Ideas clearer? Students need routes through a topic or subject. If students come to class in the middle of studying, say, ecosystems or the structure of the Earth, and have no idea what will be covered in coming lessons then they will find connecting up different ideas and concepts difficult.
In answering Question 6, the focus has been on the structure and content of the subject. The argument is that subject teachers need to be much more explicit about this and not just rely on the syllabus or textbook in an implicit way. The next question, Question 7, will focus on how your knowledge of the subject and your knowledge of how the subject can be used at different levels of the curriculum can be linked to pedagogy generally and the teaching methods you choose to use.