LESSON INTEGRATED CURRICULUM

WEEK 1-4
LESSON 1. Analyses the essence of curriculum integration across all
OBJECTIVES disciplines.
2. Interview teachers in the field to share their expertise in
integrating content in their lessons.
3. State the importance of integration in the curriculum across
disciplines.

What is Integration?
 Integration-is the act of bringing together smaller components into a single system that
functions as one. In education, it is a combined and applied in order to facilitate integrative
and interactive learning process in the classroom
 Johnson and Johnson (1998) defined integration as the process of linking together prior
learning’s to present and different parts of learning to each other.
Integrated Curriculum
 It was expounded by Beane (1992), Johnson and Johnson (1998) and Kellough (2003). It
refers to a single course that contains one or more disciplines. It consists of one set of
objectives and assessment that covers a number of related disciplines.
 It is designed to meet the developmental needs of the learners. It is always of teaching,
planning, and organizing instructional program. It ‘allows students to experience authentic
and holistic learning with real-world meaning, creating connections and enhance subjects
beyond their individual scopes.
 It is also a collaboration t between different key learning areas (KLA) to make learning
relevant and engaging. This synergy provides students with a greater sense of agency.’
 This type of curriculum goes across academics, arts, physical education, extra-curricular
activities, and support service program. Kellough stipulated that integrated curriculum is the
opposite of the traditional, subject-matter oriented teaching and curriculum designation.
 An integrated curriculum allows children to pursue learning in a holistic way, without the
restrictions often imposed by subject boundaries. There are varied meanings associated
with curriculum integration which varies from source to source. Integration is also done
through varied ways dependent upon the schools and the teachers.
 According to James Beane (2005), a prominent advocate for curriculum integration, it
involves meaningful learning organized around issues important to teachers ‘ and students
so that it promotes democracy.’ Real-life problems are also presented to enhance their
knowledge of the KLAs
Integration in Basic Education
 In early childhood programs it focuses upon the inter-relatedness of all curricular areas in
helping children acquire basic learning tools. It recognizes that the curriculum for the
primary grades includes reading, writing, listening, speaking, literature, drama, social
studies, math, science, health, physical education, music, and visual arts. The curriculum
also incorporates investigative processes and technology.
 It emphasizes the importance of maintaining partnerships with families; having knowledge
of children and how they learn; and building upon the community and cultural context.
Integrated teaching and learning processes enable children to acquire and use basic skills in
all the content areas and to develop positive attitudes for continued successful learning
throughout the elementary grades
Spectrum of Integrated Curriculum
 Level 1: This is the traditional organization of curriculum and classroom instruction. In this
level the teacher’s planned 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.
Theories Supporting Curriculum Integration
1. Experiential Learning. Carl Rogers (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. The nine categories of intelligences presented by Gardner and
Associates
1. Linguistic intelligence
2. Logical-Mathematical Intelligence
3. Spatial Intelligence
4. Musical Intelligence
5. Interpersonal Intelligence
6. Intrapersonal Intelligence
7. Naturalistic Intelligence
8. Existentialist Intelligence
9. Bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence

3. 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.

Principles in Integrating Big Ideas and Strategies 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.
Common Elements of an Integrated Curriculum Listed below are the common elements of an
Integrated Curriculum as expounded by Lake (2000)
1. A combination of subjects or learning areas
2. An emphasis on projects
3. Relationships among concepts
4. Thematic units as organizing principles
5. Sources that go beyond textbooks
 6. Flexible schedules
 7. Flexible student grouping
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.