The Concept Staircase: concept-anchored vertical curriculum design and the semantic floor test

Abstract

The Concept Staircase (Kavram Merdiveni) is a curriculum design method whoseunit of instruction is a single concept, carried within one lesson through afixed sequence of application levels — semantic floors (anlam katları) — fromits lowest form to its ceiling (tavan). Its distinctive component is anoperational gate, the semantic floor test (kat testi), which decides whether acandidate level is a genuine floor or merely a new name for the same thing. The test asks three questions and demands evidence for each: does the ACTOR(özne) change — who uses, reads or calls the concept; does the BREAKAGE(bozulma) change — which new error class becomes possible; does the PRESSURE(baskı) change — which new design decision becomes mandatory. A level counts asa floor only if at least one of these changes categorically: a difference inkind, not of degree, scale, domain or purpose. The short form: nothing thatleaves no trace in the system makes a floor. A level that fails the test is afake floor (sahte kat) and is excluded, with the refusal kept on record. STATE OF EVIDENCE. The method's components are individually evidenced in theliterature; their combination has not yet been tested with learners. Thisdistinction is stated explicitly in the method text and is not softened here.Section 11 of the Guide states the falsification conditions in advance,including the empirical prediction that would refute the method's centralclaim. This deposit therefore functions as a pre-registration of thatprediction. WHAT THE APPLICATION SHOWS. The method has been applied twice, most recently tobuild the first four floors of a Python-and-LLM curriculum in which every floorverdict is backed by a recorded run of a real target system. That applicationis evidence that the method can be applied and that its rules were derived fromfield use — it is NOT evidence of improved learning outcomes, and no such claimis made. Seven independent literature scans are documented in the corpus, including onedevoted to the floor test's own theoretical ancestry. LANGUAGE. English and Turkish core texts are maintained in parallel. Where thetwo diverge, the Turkish text governs, as it is the language of first drafting.Supporting working documents exist in Turkish only.