Instructional Design Philosophy: CORE

The CORE Framework (Concise, Organized, Relevant, Engaging) provides educators with a clear path to streamline and elevate learning. Yet, some of the most effective, research-backed learning strategies can initially appear to conflict with CORE principles. After all, what could be “concise” about intentionally making learning harder? Or what seems “organized” about mixing up content in unexpected ways?

The truth is that these evidence-based approaches do not contradict CORE—they enrich it. By weaving in strategies such as desirable difficulty, interleaving, and generative learning, instructors can build deeper, more durable learning experiences that align with the very goals CORE is designed to achieve.

Robert Bjork and Elizabeth Bjork’s work on desirable difficulties shows that learning is often stronger when students must struggle productively. Techniques like spacing practice, recalling information from memory instead of re-reading, or tackling varied problem types may feel less efficient in the moment, but they improve long-term retention.

• The CORE connection: Conciseness and clarity remove unnecessary barriers, but desirable difficulties introduce purposeful barriers that strengthen mental pathways. By framing these challenges in an engaging and supportive environment, educators can help students persist through the discomfort that leads to genuine mastery.

Instead of blocking practice (e.g., completing 20 of the same type of math problem in a row), interleaving mixes different types of problems or topics within a single session. While this feels disorganized to the learner, research consistently shows it improves the ability to discriminate between concepts and transfer knowledge to new contexts.

• The CORE connection: Interleaving may look less “organized” on the surface, but in fact it represents higher-order organization. The sequence is carefully structured to optimize long-term learning rather than short-term fluency. Interleaving within a CORE-informed curriculum helps students not only learn material but also learn when and how to apply it. 

Generative learning strategies—such as self-explaining, summarizing, or teaching others—require learners to actively generate their own connections rather than passively receive information. Richard Mayer and Logan Fiorella’s research shows that when learners create, they remember more deeply.

• The CORE connection: Conciseness ensures learners are not overwhelmed, and relevance fuels their motivation. Within that streamlined framework, generative activities provide the engagement mechanism for students to construct meaning, solidifying both understanding and purpose.

At first glance, these approaches may seem to contradict CORE:

• Desirable difficulties don’t feel concise.
• Interleaving doesn’t feel organized.
• Generative learning asks students to do more, which doesn’t seem efficient.

But in practice, they work with CORE by clarifying what matters, structuring experiences for growth, and keeping students authentically engaged. The key is intentional design. CORE sets the foundation, and strategies like desirable difficulty, interleaving, and generative learning build the scaffolding for long-lasting knowledge and skills.

• Concise: Strip away the noise, but leave room for productive struggle.
• Organized: Build logical progressions, but integrate interleaving to challenge retrieval and transfer.
• Relevant: Connect tasks to real-world meaning, so difficulty feels purposeful.
• Engaging: Encourage active creation and reflection, not just passive consumption.

When CORE is applied with these strategies in mind, the result is not an easier curriculum but a smarter one. Educators who adopt this balance create conditions where students not only learn for today but retain, apply, and thrive for tomorrow.