What Does It Mean to “Unpack” a Core Concept?

Core concepts are sometimes called “big ideas.” As such, each core concept is built up from a set of component ideas. Thus, understanding a core concept—being able to use it to solve a problem—requires an understanding of each of these smaller components. We have referred to the process of deconstructing a core concept into its critical components as “unpacking,” and the result of unpacking is a conceptual framework.

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