Integrated Curriculum Free Essay Example

Defining integrated curriculum has been a topic of discussion since the turn of the 20th century. Over the last hundred years, theorists offered three basic categories for interdisciplinary work; they defined the categories similarly, although the categories often had different names. Integration seemed to be a matter of degree and method. Integration: The unification of all subjects and experiences. There I have defined three approaches to integration

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• Multidisciplinary Integration
• Interdisciplinary Integration
• Tran disciplinary Integration

Multidisciplinary Integration: Multidisciplinary approaches focus primarily on the disciplines.

Teachers who use this approach organize standards from the disciplines around a theme. There are many different ways to create multidisciplinary curriculum, and they tend to differ in the level of intensity of the inteation effort. The given descriptions outline different approaches to the multidisciplinary perspective. The Multidisciplinary Model [pic] The give model of multidisciplinary integration shows, the relationship of different subjects to each other and to a common theme.

Interdisciplinary Integration: When teachers integrate the subdisciplines within a subject area, they are using an interdisciplinary integration approach.

Integrating reading, writing, and oral communication in language arts is a common example. Teachers often integrate history, geography, economics, and government in an interdisciplinary social studies program. Integrated science integrates the perspectives of subdisciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, and earth/space science. Through this integration, teachers expect students to nderstand the connections between the different subdisciplines and their relationship to the real world. Fusion: In this multidisciplinary integration approach, teachers fuse skills, knowledge, or even attitudes into the regular school curriculum.

In some schools, for example, students learn respect for the environment in every subject area. Students begin each week promising to be peaceful, respectful, and responsible. They follow a list of responsibilities and learn about peace in their classes.

In reading, for example, students analyze positive characteristics of people in stories; in social studies, they learn the importance of cultures working together. Service Learning: Service learning that involves community projects that occur during class time falls under the category of multidisciplinary integration. It is motivating for students to be a part of social services. Learning Centers/Parallel Disciplines: A popular way to integrate the curriculum is to address a topic or theme through the lenses of several different subject areas.

In the higher classes, students usually study a topic or theme in different classrooms. This may take the form of parallel disciplines; teachers sequence their content to match the content in other classrooms. Students often experience Pakistani literature and Pakistani history as parallel disciplines. Theme-Based Units: Some educators go beyond sequencing content and plan collaboratively for a multidisciplinary unit. Educators define this more intensive way of working with a theme as “theme-based. Often three or more subject areas are involved in the study, and the unit ends with an integrated culminating activity. Units of several weeks’ duration may emerge from this process, and the whole school may be involved. A theme-based unit involving the whole school may be independent of the regular school schedule. Under this way of working on an event with multistage students, we may observe numerous benefits, such as the following:

• Students exhibited excellent on-task behavior.
• Students worked collaboratively. Multistage teams formed within the multistage classes.
• Students were engrossed both as presenters and as the audience for the half-day performance task presentations.
• Students used a wide range of presentation products, such as video, debate, sculpture, and so on.

Interdisciplinary Integration: In this approach to integration, teachers organize the curriculum around common learning across disciplines. They chunk together the common learning embedded in the disciplines to emphasize interdisciplinary skills and concepts.

The disciplines are identifiable, but they assume less importance than in the multidisciplinary approach. The Interdisciplinary Model [pic] The example of students learning math and core curriculum through clogging and the arts is an interdisciplinary integration. if students are learning skills and concepts beyond the immediate lesson. c)Tran disciplinary Integration: In the Tran disciplinary approach to integration, teachers organize curriculum around student questions and concerns. Students develop life skills as they apply interdisciplinary and disciplinary skills in a real-life context.

Two routes lead to Tran disciplinary integration: project-based learning and negotiating the curriculum. Tran disciplinary Approach [pic] i) Project-Based Learning: In project-based learning, students tackle a local problem. Some times we call it problem-based learning or place-based learning. According to Chard, planning project-based curriculum involves three steps: 1. Teachers and students select a topic of study based on student interests, curriculum standards, and local resources. 2. The teacher finds out what the students already know and helps them generate questions to explore.

The teacher also provides resources for students and opportunities to work in the field. 3. Students share their work with others in a culminating activity. Students display the results of their exploration and review and evaluate the project. Studies of project-based programs show that students go far beyond the minimum effort, make connections among different subject areas to answer open-ended questions, retain what they have learned, apply learning to real-life problems, have fewer discipline problems, and have lower absenteeism.

Higher studies students took on the problem of improving the welfare of the city. This project did not originate in any subject area; students completed project work in a separate time slot scheduled into the working day. After extensive research, students wrote proposals to renew or enhance the city’s welfare and presented the proposals to a group of external evaluators. Student assessment considered teamwork, critical thinking skills, problem solving, and time management. Interestingly, more than one proposal received serious consideration by the city administration. i) Negotiating the Curriculum: In this version of the Tran disciplinary approach, student questions form the basis for curriculum. The Connection of Three Approaches with Each Other The essential difference between the three approaches was the perceived degree of separation that existed between subject areas. Standards-based approaches further blur the boundaries of these categories. Multidisciplinary integration might remain somewhat distinct because the procedures of the disciplines are dominant.

Current thinking, however, suggests that even interdisciplinary projects should include math and literature/media to be rich and vibrant. Interdisciplinary approaches offer an excellent fit for standards when educators approach them through a backward design process. Although teachers might organize Tran disciplinary curriculum around a real-world context, the reality of covering the standards and grading in distinct subject areas quickly brings them back to the disciplines.

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