In a recent Educational Leadership article, Arthur Costa and Rosemarie Liebmann discuss how process is as important as content. Knowledge is doubling every five years and will be doubling every 73 days by the year 2020. We cannot anticipate future information requirements. There are several reasons content-driven curriculum is no longer feasible. The disciplines are being replaced by human inquiry that draws upon generalized, transdisciplinary bodies of knowledge and relationships. As our world becomes more global our curriculum will need to reflect richer views of how humans construct meaning. When content is presented as an existing body of knowledge the student is deceived into believing that they cannot construct meaning for themselves. Too often, the purpose of learning separate disciplines is passing a test rather than accumulating wisdom and personal meaning. When students learn individual parts of content they lose the beauty of the whole picture. "our challenge as educators is to illuminate that which, at first, might seem impossible to comprehend but that, on further inquiry, can be joyfully understood."

Real life demands processes and content - including the need for communication, decision making, systems thinking, teamwork, and lifelong learning. Costa and Liebmann feel there needs to be a shift from valuing knowledge acquisition to valuing knowledge production. Since we need something to process, content should be seen as a MEANS rather than an END. They quote Parker and Rubin’s book Process as Content: Curriculum Design and the Application of Knowledge: "Process...is, in fact the highest form of content and the most appropriate base for curriculum change. It is in the teaching of process that we can best portray learning as a perpetual endeavor and not something which terminates with the end of school."

Costa, Arthur L. and Rosemarie Liebmann. 1995. "Process Is as Important as Content". Educational Leadership. 52(6). pp 23-24

Parker, J.C., and L.J. Rubin. 1966. "Process As Content: Curriculum Design and the Application of Knowledge". Chicago: Rand McNally and Company.