In current secondary education and teacher training, human behavior seems to be ‘everywhere and nowhere’ in the curriculum. In many educational standards internationally, reflections on human behaviors and their consequences, and responsible behavior change towards valued outcomes, are often core aims and implicit threads throughout, but there seems to be relatively little emphasis on exploring and applying the core concepts and principles of behavioral science, including of contextual behavioral science, themselves. 

Research indicates that current curricula and teaching practice may in fact reinforce understandings of human behavior that can be considered unhelpful for developing psychological flexibility, such as in biology and economics education. 

While psychoeducation has been shown in numerous studies to be a worthwhile approach to fostering psychological flexibility in certain contexts, much less focus has been on informing and supporting K-12 curriculum design. 

To close this gap, we have developed an educational design concept that aims to put the theme of human behavior, as well as the core concepts and principles underpinning the contextual behavioral sciences, into the center of instruction across subjects. 

In this workshop we present our international educational work around this design concept, explore concrete examples, and discuss the opportunities, challenges, and room for improvement regarding the role that the contextual behavioral science community might play in informing future curriculum design in K-12 education.