Integrated Curriculum
Overview
This document describes the meaning, characteristics, approaches, levels and benefits of integrated curriculum.
Introduction of Integrated Curriculum
INTEGRATED CURRICULUM
INTRODUCTION
A holistic approach to education, known as an integrated curriculum, enables children to engage in learning without the limitations imposed by subject boundaries. It emphasizes the interconnectedness of different areas of study, aiding children in acquiring fundamental learning skills. By integrating various subjects and designing complementary learning experiences, this curriculum fosters the transferability of knowledge to different contexts, enhancing the child's overall learning capacity. An integrated curriculum connects different areas of study by cutting across subject-matter lines and emphasizing unifying concepts. Integration focuses on making connections for students, allowing them to engage in relevant, meaningful activities that can be connected to real life.
James Beane, a well-known proponent of curriculum integration, defines it as a form of meaningful learning that revolves around significant topics identified by both teachers and students. According to Beane (2005), this approach to curriculum integration aligns with the principles of democracy.
Definitions
Date | Author | Definition |
1991 | Vars | Integrated curriculum seems to be the best vehicle for empowering students, parents, and teachers. |
1999 | Montgomery | Instructional techniques such as differentiated instruction, constructivism and cooperative learning are often components of an integrated curriculum. |
2016
| Brown
| Curriculum integration “engages students as active learners who make the most of the decisions about what they study” |
2007
| Dowden
| According to a report on curriculum integration in Australian middle schools, the primary objective is to resituate subject matter within relevant and meaningful frameworks. |
1996
| Jensen
| “The brain learns best in real life, immersion style multi path learning, piecemeal presenting can forever kill the joy and love of learning” |
Objectives of integrated curriculum
- Apply critical thinking skills across a variety of disciplines, including , Humanities, arts, Mathematics, Social Studies, Science, Communication and Technology.
- Enhance team working skills
- Acquire skills that prepare learners for lifelong learning
- Possess the appropriate knowledge and skills
- Critically evaluate written and oral communication and express themselves
- Demonstrate ability to think logically about the society and develop investigative skills within their interests.
- Characteristics of an Integrated Curriculum
An integrated curriculum encompasses the following elements:
- Experiences that aim to develop children's attitudes, skills, and knowledge while facilitating connections across different areas of study.
- Activities that cater to a diverse range of abilities.
- Activities that are initiated and guided by both teachers and students.
- Engagement in whole-class, small group, and individual learning experiences.
- Opportunities for critical and creative thinking.
- Assessment conducted by teachers, peers, and self-assessment.
- Opportunities for experiencing learning as a cohesive and meaningful whole.
- A holistic approach that seeks to enhance all aspects of learning content.
- A curriculum that cuts across disciplines to address market needs and demands.
- The integration of all subjects and experiences, where comprehension, for instance, is regarded as comprehension regardless of whether it is taught in a language class or a science class.
- Program learning outcomes that systematically flow down to learning outcomes in each of the educational components, for example, courses, modules, or other units of instruction.
- Educational system components that mutually support the learning of disciplinary fundamentals, and the achievement of desired levels of professional skills.
- An explicit curriculum plan that is adopted and owned by the entire faculty
Components of integrated curriculum
- Focuses on basic skills, content and higher level thinking
- Encourages lifelong learning
- Structures learning around themes, big ideas and meaningful concepts
- Provides connections among various curricular disciplines
- Provides learners opportunities to apply skills they have learned
- Encourages active participation in relevant real-life experiences
- Captivates, motivates, and challenges learners
- Provides a deeper understanding of content
- Offers opportunities for more small group and industrialized instruction
- Accommodates a variety of learning styles/theories (i.e., social learning theory, cooperative learning, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy) and multiple intelligences.
Shoemaker (1991) enlists the following as essential components of an integrated curriculum:
- Core skills and processes: These include basic skills, such as reading and mathematics, as well as social skills and problem solving.
- Curriculum strands and themes: These are the organizing principles around which the curriculum is built. They are broad-e.g., Human Societies-and integrate content from multiple areas.
- Major themes: Each curriculum strand is further divided into major themes, e.g., Environments or Diversity.
- Questions: Questions are used to further define major themes and focus activities.
- Unit development: From the major theme and the questions, knowledge, and skills related to the concepts, teachers plan activities that will lead to the development of knowledge and skills which will answer the questions. Teachers also collect resources and develop actual lesson plans and assessment strategies.
- Evaluation: Through an assessment of student progress the unit is evaluated.
Approaches of integrated curriculum
Approaches of Integrated Curriculum
The interdisciplinary approach calls on educators to structure the curriculum around themes that run through all of the participating areas.
For instance how India got its freedom might include reading on Rabindernath Tagore in language, studying British rule in History, Learning about Swaraj and Revolt of 1857 in social science. Teachers can fully immerse students in the subject by teaching it in all three classes, giving them the chance to explore the links and correlations between various parts.
Multidisciplinary Integration: In a multidisciplinary approach, two or more subject areas are organized around the same theme or topic.
For example teaching about the physical and chemical properties of water in science, an essay on saving water in language, sources of water in social science, concept of measuring liquids in mathematics, and poster on importace of water in creative arts can be used for integrating curriculum using multidisciplines.
Aspects of integrated curriculum
In Beane's work (1993), four dimensions of integration were highlighted, which prioritize addressing important issues while also aligning with democratic principles:
Experiential Integration: This involves combining past and present experiences to facilitate the process of acquiring new knowledge.
Social Integration: It occurs when students from diverse cultural backgrounds participate in shared learning experiences, fostering a sense of unity.
Knowledge Integration: This dimension focuses on integrating concepts from different subject areas by centering them around significant issues.
Curriculum Design Integration: This aspect emphasizes the incorporation of project-based learning and other practical applications of knowledge into the curriculum design
Levels of integration
As one examines the Levels of Integration, an increased understanding develops:
Level 1: Discipline Integration
This is a first step in an integration approach that is actually quite unpopular today. It is inspired from practices that encourage isolated repetition and rote memorization of knowledge.
Level 2: Combined Integration
In this approach to integration, there is an effort to pair up subjects that have an explicit connection.
Level 3: Multidiscipline Integration
A multidiscipline integration approach involves combinations of more than two subjects together. Not only do they connect to each other where connections are explicit, but they also connect through a central theme.
Level 4: Interdisciplinary Integration
In an interdisciplinary approach to integration, the learning becomes much more conceptual and the themes are articulated in the form of deep questioning to reach higher level understanding.
Level 5: Transdiscipline Integration
The transdisciplinary step of integration encourages a curriculum that makes connections between the subjects, not only through explicit and conceptual ties, but also through the personal experiences of the learners. It ties in also the notion of relevance. At this level of integration, concepts are sometimes organized in different types.
Benefits of integrated curriculum
Benefit of presenting curriculum in an integrated way
Before examining the specifics of integration, it is important to consider the potential benefits of presenting curriculum in an integrated manner. Adopting a more integrated approach suggests that in order to engage children effectively, the curriculum should be situated in the "real" world, where subjects and disciplines are not artificially separated.
Here are the benefits associated with curriculum integration:
- Elimination of duplication and promotion of meaningful connections: An integrated approach reduces redundancy across subject areas and encourages valuable connections. Research by Jensen (2005) suggests that more effective learning occurs when such connections are made.
- Enhanced teacher creativity and student agency: Integration allows teachers to tailor their instruction to the needs and interests of their students, fostering greater creativity. Similarly, students have the opportunity to explore and deepen their understanding.
- Development of a community of learners: This approach, as advocated by Meyer, Meinbach, Rothlein, and Fredericks, supports the cultivation and strengthening of a community of learners. Additionally, in an era where the internet offers vast amounts of information, attempting to teach everything becomes futile. Instead, the focus shifts to developing skills in accessing, evaluating, critiquing, and contextualizing information.
- Flexibility: Curriculum integration enables teachers to plan for the development of key skills and understandings that transcend individual strands and subjects, allowing for greater flexibility.
- Building on prior knowledge and experiences: Meaningful connections among subject areas help students build upon their diverse prior knowledge and experiences, supporting a holistic perspective of the world and facilitating more meaningful learning.
- Unifying students' learning: Integration enables students to develop a unified view of the curriculum, extending the context of their learning beyond individual subject areas.
- Reflection of the real world: Organizing the curriculum in a holistic manner better reflects the real world and aligns with how children learn at home and in the community.
- Alignment with students' thinking: Research on brain development supports the idea that younger students assimilate and process multiple pieces of information simultaneously. Teaching ideas holistically, rather than in fragmented pieces, aligns with the natural cognitive processes of young students.
By integrating curriculum, these benefits contribute to a more effective and comprehensive approach to education that goes beyond mere knowledge acquisition.
Students will be able to:
- Recognize the unique characteristics and interconnected components of different subject areas.
- Engage more actively in their learning as the context becomes more relatable and meaningful to them.
- Apply and demonstrate their knowledge, skills, and attitudes in various learning situations.
- Easily establish connections between what they learn in school and their experiences outside of the classroom.
- Develop a clearer focus on conceptual understanding as the content is organized around essential ideas.
Teachers will be able to:
- Recognize the interconnections within and across different subject areas.
- Establish a meaningful learning context that caters to the students' individual needs.
- Evaluate students' skills and comprehension in various learning situations.
- Effectively manage the curriculum's content by addressing outcomes from different areas or key learning skills concurrently and reinforcing them.
- Enhance students' motivation and active participation.