Layered Curriculum® in Tax Education: A Qualitative Inquiry

Tax education poses persistent challenges due to the dynamic nature of tax legislation and the abstract, cognitively demanding nature of its content. Within this context, the Turkish Tax System (TTS) course in the Department of Public Finance exemplifies the complexity of fostering both conceptual understanding and learner autonomy. The course requires an innovative instructional design that enables students to learn how to learn, adapt to ongoing legislative changes, and actively manage their own learning processes. This study examined students’ experiences and metaphoric perceptions regarding the implementation of the Layered Curriculum model in the TTS course. Conducted with 42 third-year students during the 2024–2025 academic year, the research was designed as a basic qualitative study grounded in a social constructivist approach. Data were collected through metaphor analysis conducted with all 42 students enrolled in the course and semi-structured interviews carried out with a volunteer subsample of 20 students drawn from this group. The findings indicated that students perceived the Layered Curriculum as enhancing their participation, analytical reasoning, and self-directed learning skills, offering a flexible and motivating learning environment for conceptually intensive courses such as tax education. The metaphors produced by students further reflected these perceptions.