CURRICULUM DESIGN, NEW APPROACHES
By Mehriban Ahmadova
Definition
The integrated curriculum is a great gift to experienced teachers. It's like getting a new pair of lenses that make teaching a lot more exciting and help us look forward into the next century. It is helping students take control of their own learning. (M. Markus, media specialist, quoted in Shoemaker, September 1991, p. 797)
I'm learning more in this course, and I'm doing better than I used to do when social studies and English were taught separately. (Student, quoted in Oster 1993, p. 28)
This teacher and student express an increasingly widespread enthusiasm for curriculum integration. While not necessarily a new way of looking at teaching, curriculum integration has received a great deal of attention in educational settings. Based both in research and teachers' own anecdotal records of success, educational journals are reporting many examples of teachers who link subject areas and provide meaningful learning experiences that develop skills and knowledge, while leading to an understanding of conceptual relationships.
Integrated curriculum, interdisciplinary teaching, thematic teaching, synergistic teaching.... When attempting to define integrated curriculum, it is also necessary to look at related terms. Several definitions are offered here. As this paper is narrowed to K-12 integrated curriculum, definitions from vocational and higher education are not included, although there is a growing interest in both of those areas in the interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum. The reader interested in specifics about interdisciplinary work in those fields is invited to consult the General References at the end of this report.
A basic definition is offered by Humphreys (Humphreys, Post, and Ellis 1981) when he states, "An integrated study is one in which children broadly explore knowledge in various subjects related to certain aspects of their environment" (p. 11). He sees links among the humanities, communication arts, natural sciences, mathematics, social studies, music, and art. Skills and knowledge are developed and applied in more than one area of study. In keeping with this thematic definition, Shoemaker defines an integrated curriculum as
...education that is organized in
such a way that it cuts across subject-matter lines, bringing together various
aspects of the curriculum into meaningful association to focus upon broad areas
of study. It views learning and teaching in a holistic way and reflects the
real world, which is interactive. (1989, p. 5)
Within this framework there are varied levels of integration, as illustrated by Humphreys (1981, p. 59), who describes the following practices:
Dressel's definition goes beyond the linking of subject areas to the creation of new models for understanding the world:
In the integrative curriculum, the
planned learning experiences not only provide the learners with a unified view
of commonly held knowledge (by learning the models, systems, and structures of
the culture) but also motivate and develop learners' power to perceive new
relationships and thus to create new models, systems, and structures. (1958,
pp. 3-25)
Another term that is often used synonymously with integrated curriculum is interdisciplinary curriculum. Interdisciplinary curriculum is defined in the Dictionary of Education as "a curriculum organization, which cuts across subject-matter lines to focus upon comprehensive life problems or broad based areas of study that brings together the various segments of the curriculum into meaningful association," (Good 1973). The similarity between this definition and those of integrated curriculum is clear. Jacobs defines interdisciplinary as "a knowledge view and curricular approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic, or experience" (1989, p. 8). Everett, who defines interdisciplinary curriculum as one that “combines several school subjects into one active project since that is how children encounter subjects in the real world-combined in one activity”, supports this view.
These definitions support the view that integrated curriculum is an educational approach that prepares children for lifelong learning. There is a strong belief among those who support curriculum integration that schools must look at education as a process for developing abilities required by life in the twenty-first century, rather than discrete, departmentalized subject matter. In general, all of the definitions of integrated curriculum or interdisciplinary curriculum include:
Several authors have gone beyond a single definition of curriculum integration to a continuum of integration. Fogarty has described ten levels of curricula integration (1991). The following chart summarizes some of her work. The reader who is interested in a more complete explanation is referred to Fogarty's book, The Mindful School.
The Interdisciplinary Work
One
of the biggest obstacles to implementing interdisciplinary work is the
perception that students exposed to it are no more than guinea pigs. However,
interdisciplinary approaches have a rich history that spans more than a century.
The
historical beginnings of integration of subjects and the interdisciplinary
movement:
Curriculum
integration began in the late 1800s with the Herbartians,
a movement named after German philosopher and educator Johann Friedrich Herbart. Herbart developed the
idea of correlating disconnected subject areas around themes, sometimes
referred to as ‘integration of studies’ (Klein, 2002). In the 1920s, John Dewey
led the “Progressive movement;” (when the term is first used in a special way
in the given article, book or so then it is given in the quotes, next time when
you use this term you do not need it) progressive education placed students’
personal and social concerns at the center of curriculum. The term ‘integrated
curriculum’ also described the project approach in the 1920s, the core
curriculum movement in the 1930s, and the problem-centered curricula of the
1940s and 1950s. In fact, core curriculum and team teaching have been
components of middle schools since their inception around the turn of the century.
During the 1980s and 1990s, ‘curriculum integration’ referred to
multidisciplinary, interdiscip-linary, and transdisciplinary curriculum designs.
Early
childhood educators and proponents of outcome –based education were using
integrated approaches because they believed that students could not attain
higher levels of learning in a separate-subject approach (Klein, 20020. The
National Middle School Association promoted interdisciplinary organization as a
key feature of middle schools (Beane, 1990/1993). The
project approach, advocated by Theodore Sizer’s
Coalition of Essential Schools, and the brain-based approach (Caine & Caine, 1991) also
stimulated resurgence of integrated curriculum.
More
recently, integrated curriculum has been associated with school reform. In one
recent study, three-fourth of ‘restructuring’ schools were engaged in
interdisciplinary programs (Grossman, Wineburg,
& and Beers, 2000). ‘Interdisciplinary approaches have become more
important today because the needs they serve, although varied and even
conflicting, are pervasive’ (Klein, 2002, p.9).
Integrated curriculum in
As it is known because many teachers begin with textbooks, favored
lessons and time-honored activities rather than deriving those tools from targeted
goals or standards. Now we are advocating the reverse: one starts with the
end—the desired results (goals or standards)—and then derives the curriculum
from the evidence of learning (performances) called for by the standard and the
teaching needed to equip students to perform. During the work over the designing such kind of
curriculum the teachers have
difficulties in the covering all part of the plan. For example, they
give a description of the course and paid a small attention to the goals and
objectives. Others bring assessment in the final part of the unit like the
teacher used to do in traditional classroom.
Our team of five people who were in the
Hope these models combined with theoretical part could be nice guide for
the teachers so they will be able to design your own models, implement them and
see outstanding results of changing the spirit of learning. (You may ask about
the book in IREX no sooner than March 2005).
References:
Bloom, B.S.(1956).
A taxonomy of educational objectives
(Handbook 1, Cognitive domain).
Caine,
R., and Caine, G. Making Connections: Teaching
and the Human Brain.
Case R., (1994). Our crude handling of
educational reform: The case of curriculum integration. Canadian Journal of
Education, 19 (1), 80-93
Clark, B. (1988). Growing up gifted (3 rd.
ed.)
Drake, S. M. (2000). Integrated curriculum. A chapter
in the Curriculum Handbook. Association for Supervision and Curriculum
Development.
Erickson, H. L. (2001) Stirring the head, heart and
soul: Refining curriculum and instruction (2 nd
ed.)
Fogarty, R.
Fogarty, R.
The Mindful School: How to Integrate the Curricula.
Good, C.
(Ed.). Dictionary of Education, Third Edition.
Hargreaves, A. (2001). Beyond subjects and standards.: A
critical view of Educational reform.
Hargreaves, A., & Moore, S. (2000). Curriculum integration
and classroom relevance: A study of teacher’s practice. Journal of
Curriculum and Supervision, 15 (20), 89-112.
Horwood, B. (20020. The influence of outdoor education on
curriculum integration: A case study. Pathways, 14 (4), 6-12.
Humphreys,
A.; Post, T.; and Ellis, A. Interdisciplinary Methods: A Thematic Approach.
Markus, M.,
media specialist. Quoted in Shoemaker, B. "Education 2000 Integrated
Curriculum." Phi
Delta Kappan 72/10
(1991): 797.
Martin – Kniep, G. o., Fiege, D.M., & Soodak, L.C.
(1995). Curriculum Integration: An expanded view of an abused idea. Journal
of Curriculum and Supervision, 10 (3).
Muir, M. (2001). What engages underachieving middle
school students in learning? Middle School Journal, 33 (2), 37-43.