I just borrowed this book The Third Teacher: 79 Ways You Can Use Design To Transform Teaching & Learning, from my colleague, Guy Larcom, and I have to say that I am very impressed. The basic idea of the book is that a student’s ability to be successful in the classroom is heavily influenced by their surroundings. Although I am in the very early stages of the book, it has already expanded my thinking on what essential needs my students have that may interfere with their learning.
The book begins with the idea of air quality, looking at the amount of Asthma affected students in our schools. Asthma affects “6.2 million children under 18” is an amazing statistic. When you expand this and realize that “American children missed 12 million days of school in 2000 due to asthma” you begin to realize the effect of air quality on our students.
If you have any interest in education as a larger idea than just your content, than I would highly recommend you look into this book. Great read.
Amazon: The Third Teacher ($18.55)
Kyle T. Shack 
I love this book! In addition to being a compelling read, its beautifully laid out and can be skimmed or read in depth, which is something to aspire to in graphic design.
The book doesn’t touch on curriculum at all, but I think its really important that space plays a larger role in education in general. Not only should students learn in a place designed for learning, they should learn about design and the way that their schools, homes, communities & cities are built. I think there is a gap in the scholarship when it comes to approaching design from a learning perspective – and I think this in part because this book inspired me to write my masters’ thesis about it! 🙂
Glad you enjoyed it.
Franny
http://inkandcompass.wordpress.com/