Why Integrate?

Integrating a curriculum is like putting a puzzle together!

Many teachers are now integrating various disciplines or strands of a discipline together to create a comprehensive curriculum. Integrating a curriculum is very much like completing a jigsaw puzzle. Each discipline or strand in an integrated curriculum is like a puzzle piece that when connected together fits perfectly. There are many ways of integrating a curriculum; some start within their own classrooms, adding small elements of other subjects or strands into the subject they are teaching, while others work with other individuals to come together and create an overarching theme that will be found in each of the participating individuals' respective classes. This theme is usually a pressing real-world issue or event that is broken down into its many components that correspond with the different subjects/disciplines. Thus, students can see the real world connections between the various disciplines and are less likely to ask "Why do I need to learn this? I'm just going to be ____, I won't need it in that!" or "When will I ever use this in real life?". This sense of relevancy is what attracts so many teachers to the concept of an integrated curriculum.

Although I have not had many experiences learning through an integrated curriculum, I have always appreciated learning about various things and how they connect together. In my high school, while I was taking all three sciences, I loved when my teacher in Biology mentioned a concept that I had just learned about in Chemistry. Although, we wouldn't touch on the concept from Chemistry necessarily, the fact that I knew how it worked and how it was connected to another concept in Biology, really did wonders for my understanding of the concept in Biology.

Real world problems are complex and need many people from many specialties to solve. For example, to truly understand and solve a problem like Climate Change, you don't just need environmentalists or biologists in general, it requires scientists from all fields, engineers, historians, librarians, sociologists, politicians,economists, teachers of all kinds, health care physicians, and many other professions. Since many problems affect so many different people, it should make sense that students be prepared to look at problems from many different viewpoints. The integrated curriculum really helps students apply their many different talents into solving or learning about a real world issue. Some possible themes teachers used in their integrated curriculum include the Olympics, Citizenship, Immigration and Assimilation, Building Bridges, Nutrition and Health, the Environment, and Death and Dying. In the integrated curriculum that I am designing currently, we are examining the cause and effects of the Fukishima Disaster.

Drake, Reid & Kolohon (2014) states that students learning in an integrated curriculum are more engaged and enjoy school more, regardless of academic achievement. This definitely makes sense because if all classes seem connected to students, then they are more likely to care more about subjects that they might not enjoy since it might connect back to something in their other classes that they enjoy.

Bogan, McKenzie & Bentwini (2012) mention that in today's global economy there is great emphasis on the development and exchange of knowledge and information. Individuals that are fluent in several disciplines and can look at problems comfortably from different perspectives are valued and prosper. "Creativity, adaptability, critical reasoning, and collaboration are highly skilled values" (Bogan et al, 2012). An integrated curriculum is an extremely effective approach for fostering these skills in our students. It can help students develop and understand the important interrelationships between disciplines in the real world.

Integrated studies are the future. I think that they are the best way to meet the needs of the 21st Century classroom and hold many benefits over traditional teaching models. I hope you will add integrated studies to your classrooms! :)

The following are great videos on Integrated curriculums:
 


                                                                    Works Cited

Bogan, B. L., McKenzie, E. K., & Bantwini, B. D. (2012). Integrating Reading, Science, and Social Studies: Using the Bogan Differentiated Instruction Model. US-China Education Review A, 12, 1053-1060.

Drake, S. M., Reid, J. L., & Kolohon, W. (2014). Interweaving curriculum and classroom assessment: engaging the 21st century learner. Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press.