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1. Read through the following answers to Frequently Asked Questions about curriculum integration, or,

2. Ask you own question by sending an email to dean.stanley@lea.co.nz . He will endeavour to find an answer your question as quickly as possible.

Question 1: What is curriculum integration?

Question 2: What are the four stages on the curriculum integration continuum?

Question 3: What is the "immersed model" of curriculum integration?

Question 4: What is the "webbed model" of curriculum integration?

Question 5: What is the "threaded model" of curriculum integration?

Question 6: Where can I get a copy of the curriculum integration video?

Question 7: Who is implementing curriculum integration professional development programmes during 2000?

Question 8: Who implemented curriculum integration professional development programmes during 1999?

Question 9: Who is responsible for curriculum integration in the Ministry of Education?

Question 10: Who is overseeing the curriculum integration professional development programmes during 2000?

Question 11: Who is developing the curriculum integration online materials?

Question 12: How can I contribute materials to the curriculum integration site?  

What is curriculum integration?

Thank you to Pat Nolan and Chris Harwood from the Institute for Professional Development and Educational Research at Massey University who provided the answer to this question. 

Curriculum integration is the process of experiencing and understanding connections and, because of this, seeing things whole.  James Beane (1997) identifies four aspects or meanings of integration thus defined which can and, we would agree should, feature at some point in any programme that might claim to be truly integrative. 

1.      Integration of experience

New experience becomes part of our existing knowledge and ways of seeing things.  We use past experiences to help us understand and solve new problems.  Experience whether “primary” as in gathering data or doing observations, or “secondary” as in processing the data and observations in a data base, is the raw material for developing knowledge and understanding and for developing and applying the skills essential for effective learning.

“Almost everyone has had occasion to look back upon his school days and wonder what has become of the knowledge he was supposed to have amassed during his years of schooling… but it was so segregated when it was acquired and hence is so disconnected from the rest of experience that is it not available under the actual conditions of life”

(Dewey 1938 cited in Beane, 1997, p.6)

2.      Social integration

Here, learners apply the ideas and understandings they have developed to their daily lives and to the lives of others, and they learn by interacting with others.  The curriculum is organised around personal and social issues, problems and concerns identified in, or developed from, the lives of the learners in the world in which they live.  To be integrated socially is to learn socially, and this in its turn requires that the learner understand that “society” is greater than and exists prior to the individuals who live in and contribute to it.  All learning is thus social learning and to learn effectively involves working with others as well as on one’s own.  For this reason too, good curriculum designs are collaborative or “socially integrated” designs.

“The participation of young people in curriculum planning follows from the democratic concept of participatory, collaborative governance and decision making.  The inclusion of personal issues alongside social problems follows from the democratic possibility of integrating self and social interest”

(Beane, 1997, p.6)

3.      The integration of knowledge (and skills)

When students begin to see knowledge, skills and values are connected, they also begin to see the “big picture” of learning.  They can then more easily and readily make new connections and apply their knowledge.  Learning in this (integrated) way contrasts with fragmented learning that inhibits a student’s ability to see how learning tasks might be connected one to the other and then to situations that are real, not only to themselves but also to the community.

The integration of knowledge in this sense involves students making and seeing connections “in their minds” as well as in the reality of projects, tasks and assignments.  To achieve both kinds of knowledge integration, the teacher needs to work with and alongside students, to have conversations in which the students explain and demonstrate what they know and understand.  Teaching in this integrative-conversational sense, involves the teacher becoming the learner, listening to the student, being inquisitive, empathizing in order to understand connections as the students see them and, thereby, more effectively influencing their development.

“A child’s school day should make sense.  It should be about something.  Ideally the various activities of the day should work together, building upon one another for some purpose”

(Simpson 1990, cited in Pigdon and Woolley, 1995, p.4)

4.      Integration as curriculum design

Integration in this sense encourages students and teachers alike to explore, gather, process, refine and present information about the topics they want or needs to investigate, not being constrained by the boundaries of subjects.  These, more often than not, serve to disintegrate knowledge and understanding than to connect or integrate it.  Specifically, a design is integrated when all the individuals involved in learning and teaching an integrated curriculum actively participate in the design processes and achieve consensus about what is to be done and why.  The processes might include, for instance, the identification of an issue, topic or interest to be studied, the clarification of knowledge and skills to be applied and developed with programmes goals sent accordingly, the construction of learning activities and the selection or creation of authentic tasks and assessment procedures.  Consistent with Dewey, Piaget and Bruner, such an approach acknowledges that students (especially when very young) can, and should, be included in the curriculum design process.  When included, the designs for their learning are more likely to be perceived by them as relevant, interesting and personally worthwhile.

There are seven recurring features that define programmes, which are genuinely integrative:

·        Programmes based in topics of substance and significance;
·        An emphasis on students seeing connections in and purposes for learning;
·        Developing big ideas that excited the imagination of students and teachers alike;
·        A desire for the learning process to be active and participatory;
·        Developing skills and knowledge in contexts real to the students;
·        Building on and extending a student’s personal knowledge and experience; and
·        Developing sustained programmes or work in contrast to one-off, unrelated    lessons.

References: 

Beane, J. (1997).  Curriculum integration.  Designing the core of democratic education.  New York and London:  Teachers College Press, Columbia University.

Pigdon, K. and Woolley, M. (Eds) (1995).  The big picture.  Integrating children’s learning.  Australia and USA:  Heinemann.

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What are the four stages on the curriculum integration continuum?

Thank you to Pat Nolan from the Institute for Professional Development and Educational Research at Massey University and Murray Brown from the Ministry of Education whose work on curriculum integration in the late 1980's provided the answer to this question. 

Pat Nolan and Murray Brown developed a continuum for curriculum integration in the late 1980's. They suggested that forms of integration can be shown on a continuum, ranging from a subject-centred model, where integration occurs through the correlation of subject aims and content, to a model where students' interests and concerns determine the focus of an integrated studies programme. See also Curriculum Update 23 and the Curriculum Integration Video.

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What is the "immersed model" of curriculum integration?

Thank you to Pat Nolan and Chris Harwood from the Institute for Professional Development and Educational Research at Massey University who provided the answer to this question. 

This model takes issues, problems and concerns real to the student and real in the community as the essential building blocks (topics for study) of the curriculum.  Students and teachers work together to select the specific topic of interest to them and together they plan how, when, where and why they will pursue it.  The focus is on active student participation and decision making.  Together with their teacher and individually, the students explore or investigate the issue in order to understand it better and to perhaps propose a solution, suggest a new direction and report their results to a significant audience.

Teachers, as enablers and facilitators, focus on helping students to develop essential skills intrinsic to their study and learning.  Key skills may be formulating questions, creating hypotheses, working out ways to collect data, and reporting on what has been learned.  Subject content and knowledge comes into play after, rather than before, deciding what is to be studied and how.

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What is the "webbed model" of curriculum integration?

Thank you to Pat Nolan and Chris Harwood from the Institute for Professional Development and Educational Research at Massey University who provided the answer to this question. 

This model identifies connections between existing subjects using a central theme or topic.  Teachers ask, “What learning activities will contribute to the student’s understanding of this theme?”  At the same time, the activities allow students to represent and develop their ideas in different areas of the curriculum. 

This differs from the thematic approach, which is commonly thought of as being an integrative approach.  A poem about dogs may indeed be a worthwhile learning activity in an English programme, but if it does not contribute to learning significant ideas about dogs, then it does not meet the criteria for integration.  The webbed model helps teachers to plan in ways that maximise opportunities for learners to make connections across the curriculum.

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What is the "threaded model" of curriculum integration?

Thank you to Pat Nolan and Chris Harwood from the Institute for Professional Development and Educational Research at Massey University who provided the answer to this question. 

Thinking skills, social skills, study skills, and/or the Essential Skills “thread” through all learning.  This model of curriculum integration focuses on a meta-curriculum that overlays subject content matter.  For example, prediction is a skills used to estimate in maths, forecast a future perspective in social studies, anticipate the end of a story in English and hypothesise during a science investigation.  The focus for teaching is to help students to learn how they learn.

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Where can I get a copy of the curriculum integration video?

The Curriculum Integration video is available from the publishers who were CWA new media. Their contact details are ....

CWA new media
PO Box 19090
Wellington

Phone: 04 382 6500
Fax: 04 382 6509
Email: educate@cwa.co.nz 

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Who is implementing curriculum integration professional development programmes during 2000?

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Who implemented curriculum integration professional development programmes during 1999?

Auckland College of Education - Lesley Parton and Lyn Barker.
Whitiora School - Christine Charteris
Massey University - Chris Harwood
Muritai and Waterloo Schools - Pete Pointon and Liz Millar
Riccarton High School - Patsy Street

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Who is responsible for curriculum integration in the Ministry of Education?

The curriculum division is responsible for overseeing the curriculum integration professional development and online materials development projects. Murray Brown is the curriculum facilitator with responsibility for curriculum integration projects. The curriculum division can be contacted at ...

Curriculum Division
Ministry of Education
Pipitea Street
PO Box 1666
Wellington 

Phone: O4 471 6044
Fax: 04 471 6193
Email: curriculum@minedu.govt.nz 

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Who is overseeing the curriculum integration professional development programmes during 2000?

The curriculum integration professional development programmes are being overseen by Val Duthie of the Duthie Education on behalf of the Ministry of Education. Val can be contacted at duthiebv@actrix.gen.nz .

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Who is developing the curriculum integration online materials?

The online curriculum integration materials are being developed by LEA on behalf of the Ministry of Education. Materials are largely sourced from schools involved in the curriculum integration professional development programmes and are reworked for publication on the web. Dean Stanley has responsibility for this project. The aim is to prepare materials for publication on the web throughout 2000 and the early parts of 2001. The materials are available through TKI and through LEA.  

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How can I contribute materials to the curriculum integration site?

Materials are accepted in a range of formats. Our preferred format is MS Office 9X or 2000. Digital images are best if received in jpeg format. Files can either be emailed to dean.stanley@lea.co.nz or can be posted to ...

Curriculum Integration Online 
LEA (NZ) Ltd
PO Box 14181
Freepost 3333
Wellington

Phone: 04 801 5637
Fax: 04 801 5638
Web: www.lea.co.nz 

A hard copy of all materials would be appreciated even if the files are sent electronically.

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