MODULE 1
CURRICULUM INTEGRATION
Lesson 1 What is Integrated Curriculum
Lesson 2 Spectrum of Integrated Curriculum
Lesson 3 Theories Supporting Curriculum
Integration
Lesson 4 Principles in Integrating Big
Ideas and Strategies.
Lesson 5 Common Elements of an Integrated
Curriculum
Lesson 6 Planning Integrated Instruction
MODULE 1
Curriculum Integration
INTRODUCTION
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.
OBJECTIVES
When you have read this module, you will be able to:
a. demonstrate the ability to integrate two or more core
learning areas;
b. operate as collaborating teachers working on a
common theme;
c. employ theories supporting curriculum integration;
d. appraise principles in integrating Big Ideas and Strategies;
and
DIRECTIONS/ MODULE ORGANIZER
This module presents the function of integrated curriculum.
The meaning support the view that integrated curriculum is an
educational approach that prepares children for lifelong learning
processes. 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.
Lesson 1: Curriculum Integration
Integrated curriculum is described as one that 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.
An integrated curriculum refers to a single course that
contains one or more disciplines. It consist of one set of
objectives and assessment that covers a number of related
disciplines (Johnson and Johnson, 1998) b. An integrated
curriculum is an educational approach that cuts across and
draws multiple areas for learning and instruction. Its
purpose is to realistically link various disciplines into the
study and exploration of certain aspects of the world (Beane,
1992)
An integrated curriculum is a way of teaching a way of
planning and organizing the instructional program. This
enables the discrete disciplines of subject matter related to
one another design that matches the developmental needs
of the learners to connect to their learning's in ways that
are meaningful to their current and past experiences. This is
an antithesis of the traditional, disparate, subject-matter
oriented teaching and curriculum designation. (Kellough,
2003)
CURRICULUM
Lesson 2: SPECTRUM OF INTEGRATED
Level 1: This is the traditional organization of curriculum
and classroom instruction. In this level the teachers plan and
arrange the subject through a specific scope and sequence
which uses a topic outline format.
Level 2: In this level the theme is one discipline are not
necessary planned to correspond with the themes in
another.
Level 3: In this level, the class is studying two or more core
learning areas or subjects around a common theme.
Level 4: Teacher teaching different subjects collaborate on
a common theme and its content.
Level 5: A common theme likewise chosen by a team of
teachers. The content and discipline boundaries are blurred
during the teaching- learning process.
Integration
Lesson 3: Theories Supporting Curriculum
1. Experiential Learning. Carl Roger (2004), the proponent of
this theory, believe that all individual have a natural
propensity to learn. John Dewey (1938), posits that school
learning should be experiential because students learn from
what they experience.
2. Multiple Intelligences. Howard Gardner, affirms that
there are more kind of intelligence that what we thought
before.
Naturalist Intelligence-(nature smart)
Naturalist intelligence designates the human ability to
discriminate among living things (plants, animals) as well as
sensitivity to other features of the natural world (clouds, rock
configurations).c
Musical Intelligence- (sound smart)
Musical intelligence is the capacity to discern pitch, rhythm,
timbre, and tone. This intelligence enables us to recognize,
create, reproduce, and reflect on music, as demonstrated by
composers, conductors, musicians, vocalist, and sensitive
listeners.
Logical-mathematicalIntelligence- (number/reasoning smart)
Logical-mathematical intelligence is the ability to calculate,
quantify, consider propositions and hypotheses, and carry
out complete mathematical operations. It enables us to
perceive
relationships and connections and to use abstract, symbolic
thought; sequential reasoning skills; and inductive and
deductive thinking patterns.
Existential Intelligence (life smart)
Sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human
existence, such as the meaning of life, why we die, and how did
we get here.
Interpersonal Intelligence (people smart)
Interpersonal intelligence is the ability to understand and
interact effectively with others. It involves effective verbal and
nonverbal communication, the ability to note distinctions
among others, sensitivity to the moods and temperaments of
others, and the ability to entertain multiple perspectives.
Bodily-kinesthetic Intelligence (body smart)
Bodily kinesthetic intelligence is the capacity to
manipulate objects and use a variety of physical skills. This
intelligence also involves a sense of timing and the perfection
of skills through mind–body union. Athletes, dancers,
surgeons, and crafts people exhibit well-developed bodily
kinesthetic intelligence.
Linguistic Intelligence (word smart)
Linguistic intelligence is the ability to think in words and
to use language to express and appreciate complex meanings.
Linguistic intelligence allows us to understand the order and
meaning of words and to apply meta-linguistic skills to reflect
on our use of language.
Intra-personal Intelligence (self smart)
Intra-personal intelligence is the capacity to understand
oneself and one’s thoughts and feelings, and to use such
knowledge in planning and directioning one’s life. Intra-
personal intelligence involves not only an appreciation of the
self, but also of the human condition.
Spatial Intelligence (picture smart)
the ability to think in three dimensions. Core capacities include
mental imagery, spatial reasoning, image manipulation, graphic
and artistic skills, and an active imagination.
The nine categories of intelligences presented by Gardner and
Associates
Constructivism.
This theory expounds that development and learning occur
through constructive process and that knowledge is constructed
from experience. Constructivist like John Dewey (1938), Jean
Piaget (1960), and Lev Vygotsky 91934) maintain that children
learn by actually constructing meaning from their simultaneously
embedded experiences. Teaching in a constructivist mode has a
slower pace, uses varied strategies and resource materials, and
provides opportunities for the new creation of new ideas.
and Strategies.
Lesson 4: Principles in Integrating Big Ideas
To ensure effective instruction. Beane (1992) expounds the
significance of the following principles in integrating big ideas and
strategies.
1. Integrate several ideas and strategies.
2. Match content with strategies.
3. Integrate relevant concepts.
4. Integrate big ideas across multiple contents of instructions.
5. Provide opportunities to establish connections.
Lesson 5: Common Elements of an
Integrated Curriculum
Listed below are the common elements of an Integrated
Curriculum as expounded by Lake (2000) .
Flexible student
grouping Flexible
schedules
Sources that go beyond textbooks
Thematic units as organizing principles
Relationships among concepts
An emphasis on projects
A combination of subjects or learning areas
Lesson 6: Planning Integrated Instruction
1. Draw content of instruction in basic education from the
learning competencies.
2. Identify a theme drawn from a core discipline.
3. Identify the related disciplines or learning areas that can
help unfold the chosen theme into instruction.
4. Collaborate with the teachers teaching the identified learning
area addressing the chosen theme.
5. Look for appropriate reading materials.
6. Use an approach to instruction that will facilitate
integrative teaching-learning in the classroom.
