The main goal of the 5IN curriculum design is not content transfer, but rather the intentional familiarization, practice, and internalization of practical habits of mind and industry best-practice work processes. Students are measured by their ability to successfully utilize the skills and tools given to them. The role of our education is to provide pertinent and interesting problems to them, and guide and facilitate them towards their own innovative solutions. Our program is designed around teaching and training habits of mind, work skills and processes, and the ability to use digital tools that are essential for all contexts and goals, whether academic, professional, or social.

The 5IN curriculum structures each semester’s topic in a way that guides students to understand social norms and realities, reflect on their own current values and beliefs, and decide on changes or goals they feel is the direction they would like to move in. Each topic and activity forces students to consider their own personal roles, responsibilities, and effects on the environment around them. Not only will students better understand themselves, they will be given active assistance and guidance to shape themselves into the people they want to be.

At 5IN, students do not act as passive or reactionary actors in a life that is “happening to them”. Students should not wait to be told when to act, when to think. Instead, 5IN students spend the majority of their waking lives as active enquirers, instigators, and shapers of their own growth and education.

Through a continuous process of interactive thinking, discussion, and hands-on production, 5IN transforms student perceptions about what education is and their own role in the classroom and in the world, creating active, curious, and engaged individuals. 

Large sections of curriculum missions, goals, and activities have been designed to be highly team-oriented, with success only achievable through the combined effort of differently-skilled individuals working together as a single unit. Teachers coach and support students to work together for common goals. 

Program targets, pacing, and procedures incorporate mandatory and meaningful student input, making an educational experience truly belonging to the students themselves. 

The most important growth during adolescence is not in academics, it is in the development of an individual's personality and identity. Therefore, 5IN believes that a re-imagining of the bilateral relationship and interaction model between teachers and students is necessary. The two parties should not interact with each other solely during designated “class times”, which suggests that learning only occurs inside the classroom or during specific times.

At 5IN, there is no “teachers’ office”. Instead, all teachers are permanently stationed in classrooms with the students, spending every interactional minute of the learning day together. 5IN teachers teach, plan, play, eat, and "live" in the same space as the students they work with. By accompanying the students for the full course of each day, teachers are able to observe their pupils in their natural state in a variety of real situations. The "real" character of each student becomes clear. Each and every opportunity to provide guidance, feedback, and instruction is made available.

Additionally, each class has two dedicated homeroom teachers who accompany the class for the full three years of junior or senior high. The level of understanding, trust, and rapport that becomes possible in this arrangement creates a "home away from home", in which students are given the attention and support that they need.

Traditional education sees students learning for a few very specific outcomes: good grades, testing well, and entering the next stage of education. This has been the case for much of modern education up until this point, but 5IN believes that this narrow list of final goals will not help prepare today’s youth for the world of the future. It is no longer sufficient to prepare students for a set goal. The speed of change necessitates that today’s students must be prepared for any goal.

We believe that more than grades or diplomas, the real needs for today’s students are a strong sense of self identity, capability to make sense out of complicated and abundant information, ability to set meaningful goals, and the tools with which to pursue those goals. The speed of change of today’s world necessitates an adjustment in the outcomes that education pursues. Students must on a daily basis be trained to interact with real life, to enact tangible change, to influence the surroundings in which they live.

The culmination of 5IN learning therefore, is not a score, a grade, or a piece of paper. The results are actual artifacts of real import. They may be research reports which shed light on existing social problems or point out new approaches to solving them. They may be actual products which are felt, used, or impact real people in society. They may be digital works which communicate with the public regarding opinions and points of view which are worthy of contemplation. Regardless of the form they take, the learning outcomes at 5IN are practical and hands-on experiences in the skills and processes that today’s students will need to succeed and thrive in any and all contexts in the future world.

Instead of measuring students against rigid and meaningless content knowledge requirements or foregoing formal analysis altogether, 5IN uses clear rubrics to reflect progress of student growth by measuring student ability to implement and utilize habits of mind and work processes practiced. Students are also measured against targets and definitions of success that they set for themselves. The most meaningful assessment of all comes from the results that the students are able to achieve in each semester's mission to enact real change and create social influence in the real world around them. At 5IN, meaningful feedback is directly designed into the targets of the learning curriculum itself.

5IN believes that the fundamental understanding of “teacher” is in need of re-analysis and redefinition. If a teacher’s main role is the unidirectional transfer of information from themselves to the brains of students, little more is needed in the classroom than access to the internet. 

The greatest value of a teacher, especially in today's free flow information environment, is not in the content knowledge they possess. It is not even in the core competencies that they may hold. Instead, it is in their ability to act as a role model for how an individual should think, communicate, and behave as a member of society. It is in their ability to share with students differing viewpoints and ways of looking at the world. It is in the experiences that they share, the feedback they give, the support that they provide, the stories they tell. This value is only possible under the 5IN Student-Teacher Universal Involvement Model.

In this model, 5IN students see teachers as supporters and companions, permanent fixtures in life who are accepting of their individuality and personality, able to offer guidance when beneficial, constructive feedback where applicable, and discipline when necessary. The physical proximity, range of daily co-experiences, and learning-career-long relationship between students and teachers at 5IN offers an unparalleled educational experience that will shape not only academic outcomes, but more importantly personal, social, psychological and professional outcomes for the rest of a student’s life.

At 5IN, teachers do not simply teach. They experience, learn, and grow together with the students. Teachers act as windows which expose young minds to new concepts, mentors who elicit and challenge beliefs and attitudes, and companions with which students can experience life and shape their own character and individuality. 5IN Teachers guide students towards achieving worthy and meaningful learning goals, and also setting and reaching personal life goals.

Large portions of the 5IN curriculum are all English, meaning all-English, all-the-time. This is a stark difference from simply holding English classes or from other so-called English programs where teachers teach in English, but students are free to use whatever language they please. The 5IN English policy extends to break time and social time as well, ensuring that language and life are not separated. To provide further support, 5IN teachers are all international teachers who must be equipped with Chinese ability or extensive experience in Chinese-speaking environments, equipping them with the ability to understand the culture and background of their pupils and better provide communication and support.

At the same time, 5IN is not an "English-only" program. Proper respect, development, and opportunities to utilize the mother-tongue of the majority of our students is strategically incorporated into learning activities. Many of our social and industry partners will communicate with us in Chinese. Much of student production will require a Chinese version to meet the communicative needs of our audience. Most importantly, the bulk of 5IN's big issue input comes from the society in which the students live, and will of course require learning and engagement through the use of the mother tongue.