From Information Transmission to Meaning Construction: The Cognitive Stabilization Scaffolding Theory in Curriculum Design

Abstract

Traditional curriculum theory conceptualizes knowledge as transmissible, discrete packets of information, thereby ontologically neglecting the embodied and generative characteristics of cognition. Utilizing the three-layer cognitive structure of “Soma-Emotion-Meaning” established in Zhang Xusheng’s Knowing and Speaking (2026) as the core analytical framework, and integrating the “Progressive Weakening-Compensation Principle” from Wang Dongyue’s The Theory of Universal Evolution (2009), this paper presents a systematic philosophical critique of the information transmission paradigm and establishes the core concept of “concept as cognitive stabilization scaffolding.” Within this ontological horizon, a concept is no longer a passive label, but a dynamic structural unit through which the cognitive subject actively compresses experiential differences, maintains judgmental consistency, and supports subsequent actions. Based on this
ontological reconstruction, this paper argues that the core task of curriculum design should shift from the linear arrangement of information to the construction of an internal cognitive scaffolding system. This system activates learners’ deep meaning construction through the three-dimensional synergy of the RID cognitive generation model (Discover-Imagine-Regulate). By placing this framework in theoretical dialogue with Bruner’s discovery learning, Ausubel’s meaningful learning, Biggs’s deep learning, and contemporary social realism in curriculum epistemology (Deng, 2025), this study provides a solid philosophical foundation for curriculum design, calling upon educational practice to transcend simplified transmission models and genuinely respect the generative nature of cognition.