Why integrate curriculum

It is also important to note that CI is different from a thematic approach to curriculum design , quite commonly used in primary schools, where a theme is considered from the perspective of many or all curriculum areas.

However, without developing a conceptual basis to underpin a thematic approach, the learning is likely to lack depth or may even detract from providing an impetus for deep learning where teachers feel pressured to apply it.

CI is different from this thematic approach in that it tends to draw on a more limited number of subjects to connect to a theme or inquiry problem. Moreover, well-designed CI draws on the specialised concepts from carefully chosen contributing subjects. Connections can then be made to other subjects where there are strong links, for example to history in considering how principles of citizenship have been developed over time and provide individuals with civil, political, and social rights.

Connections concerning community could also be made with the arts in considering how music, drama, dance, and visual arts create a sense of community through the diverse representation of people, places, and culture. However, specialised concepts need be utilised to deepen the learning. In the most recent promotion of CI it is strongly linked to inquiry learning, where students follow their own interests to investigate a topic or problem.

We know that unguided inquiry is not an effective learning approach where students do not have sufficient topic knowledge to know where to start their investigation v and this challenge can be exacerbated where the inquiry demands knowledge of several subjects. Teacher guidance in relation to the concepts and content is therefore just as important, if not more important, than teacher guidance of the inquiry process itself. Interviews with the students revealed that, while they found the context for the learning motivating and they gained some insight into being an artist, chef, or designer, there was little connection to the thematic issue driving the project or its underlying subject concepts, and few students appeared to have a strong conceptual grasp of ecotourism and its significance in terms of ideas such as the impact on local and global economies, sustainability, and fair trade vii.

This is an example of a big idea, theme, issue, or topic not being sufficiently underpinned by subject concepts to give it meaning beyond an everyday understanding.

Four interrelated arguments are generally used in support of CI:. Despite these arguments in its favour, CI of itself will not automatically lead to any of these positive outcomes unless it is designed well at the level of subject concepts.

If learning is to move beyond everyday understandings, mapping out the subject concepts contained in the topic and making visible the possible connections between subject concepts in the various subjects is the fundamental first step. Clear evidence for the positive effects of CI on student learning outcomes is hard to find. Going back 90 years, there is evidence from a study carried out in the USA in the s x that indicates CI can help students improve their academic results a small improvement was noted and that there are definite rewards for students in creating a more positive learning environment, perhaps related as much to inquiry as CI.

Research in cognitive science suggests that there is a likely relationship between knowledge that is conceptually structured in other words, as a subject with interrelated concepts, ideas, and theories and the development of human cognition xii. These understandings from cognitive science need to be taken over into curriculum design and planning in a CI context.

The following principles should be considered when undertaking a curriculum integration approach:. Acknowledgement: Thanks to Dr. Alexis Siteine for the identification of subject concepts and content in the Migration in Aotearoa unit. New Zealand curriculum innovation in historical and political context: The Freyberg integrated studies project and parallel projects of the s.

Journal of Curriculum Studies, 23 2 , — Cross-curricular learning 3— London: Sage; Hammond, D. An investigation into the impact of an integrated curriculum on learning in the primary school Doctoral thesis. Durham University.

Class, codes and control: Studies towards a sociology of language Vol. London: Routledge, p. Urban myths about learning and education.

Here are a few steps that need to be considered when developing an integrated curriculum [9] :. By creating an integrated curriculum using service-learning, you are changing the teaching and learning experience for both the teacher and the learner. Integrated curriculums allow students to have a deeper understanding of the course subject matter and how to apply the material that they have learned in the classroom in a real-world situation [10].

This ultimately helps prepare them for their future studies, career and life in general. Meeting Standards Through Integrated Curriculum. United States of America. United States of America, Jossey-Bass. PG Tara brings passion and a deep understanding of service learning, rooted in years of experience, to her training. Her training builds bridges from theory to implementation while generously sharing her resources and knowledge to ensure our success.

Tara works with the whole school administration, teachers, students, and SL leaders to build a sustainable program that is embedded in the curriculum and tied to the mission. She energized a faculty on a Friday afternoon, no easy feat, leaving them with a desire to learn more about SL and to become more involved. I cannot recommend Tara highly enough. You must be logged in to post a comment. What Is Service-Learning.

Pedagogy In Education. Rebecca is a former teacher of middle school through graduate levels. She may be contacted by e-mail at burnsr ael. The Minimalist Teacher Print Book. By Tamera Musiowsky-Borneman et al. Member Book. Meeting Standards Through Integrated Curriculum. About Many schools under pressure to meet new standards of learning mistakenly believe that they must adopt a narrow curriculum that imposes strict boundaries on what students are taught.

Table of contents Acknowledgments. About the authors. Keiko Suda was George's seventh-grade math and science teacher. She was charged with teaching cell biology as part of California's seventh-grade standards. At the ASCEND School , where Suda and I taught together, teachers were encouraged to develop curricular units that emphasized depth over breadth and to teach our students how to transfer their acquired knowledge to other contexts. See this Edutopia. As a culminating project, students wrote, directed, produced, edited, and starred in a movie that answered their guiding question.

One class focused on the social implications of living with HIV, while the other class depicted what happens to the immune system. A skillful teacher must assess an instructional unit while it is under way and afterward, and the evaluation must be based on evidence of learning.

Suda's formative and summative assessments provided overwhelming evidence that students had mastered the science standards. This finding, however, was just the beginning. During that semester, I witnessed students transferring their knowledge of HIV.

In the portable classroom next to Suda's, I taught history and English to the same group of students. Our content for that semester was the bubonic plague, and students explored how the plague transformed the social, economic, political, and religious structures of medieval Europe. When we began the study, a few weeks or so after they'd started studying HIV, one of the first questions from a student was, "Who was scapegoated during the plague?