APPROACHES TO CURRICULUM ORGANISATION

I) INTEGRATED APPROACH

The concept of integrating curriculum is nothing new. It’s been around, in fact, since the 1800s and was advocated by such well-known educational theorists as John Dewey and Meredith Smith. It has gained recent attention, however and more and more educators think that it is the best way to teach. It is a curriculum in which subject matter boundaries are ignored, all subjects being taught in a relation to broad areas of study and in relation to one another as mutually associated to some genuine life relation.

Curriculum integration can be described as an approach to teaching and learning that is based on both philosophy and practicality. It can generally be defined as a curriculum approach that purposefully draws together knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values from within or across subject areas to develop a more powerful understanding of key ideas. Curriculum integration occurs when components of the curriculum are connected and related in meaningful ways by both the students and teachers.

Integrated curriculum is a way to teach students that attempts to break down barriers between subjects and make learning more meaningful to students. In its simplest conception, it is about making connections. The integrated approach aspires to help pupils obtain a coherent view of science by establishing numerous links between the various branches of science. Integrated science integrates the perspectives of subdisciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, and earth/space science. Through this integration, teachers expect students to understand the connections between the different subdisciplines and their relationship to the real world.

Integrated curriculum requires accessing knowledge from all of the traditional subjects without labeling them as such. In addition, integrated curriculum adds problem-solving, real-world application and social consciousness to the learning process, making it a more comprehensive way of educating and of learning.

In general, all of the definitions of integrated curriculum or interdisciplinary curriculum include (Lake, 1994):

a combination of subjects;

an emphasis on projects;

sources that go beyond textbooks;

relationships among concepts;

thematic units as organizing principles;

flexible schedules;

flexible student groupings

Why Integrated Curriculum is Effective

Integrated curriculum is an effective way to teach and learn because it corresponds with the way our brain works physiologically. Rather than separating knowledge into discrete partitions, the brain creates a complex web of information that recognizes patterns. Moreover, learning within a known context or experience helps the brain remember information more effectively. In fact, the physical structure of the brain changes as a result of experience, and it grows and develops more in an interactive environment. Integrating curriculum is a way to capitalize on these existing features of the human brain and work with, rather than counter to its natural function.

Besides being compatible with brain function, there are other reasons integrated curriculum makes sense. First, it teaches concepts that help students approach any situation or problem, rather than facts which have limited application. When you think about how knowledge has grown, but classroom time has not, you can see how this way of approaching education is more beneficial to the student in the long run. We can’t teach every fact, so it’s better to teach how to think about facts.

Finally, there is no particular rationale for the way things are done currently. The current system is, in fact, somewhat counterproductive, as it does not encourage teacher-teacher communication or resource-sharing. With integrated curriculum, however, these kinds of communications are an indispensable part of the process. They ensure that information is not repeated, and that teachers help each other teacher, rather than working at odds with each other.

Benefits of Curriculum Integration

• Allowing for flexibility: Through curriculum integration, teachers can plan for the development of key skills and understandings that transcend individual strands and subjects.

• Building on prior knowledge and experiences: Choosing meaningful connections among subject areas helps students build on their diverse prior knowledge and experiences, supports their holistic view of the world and ensures more meaningful learning.

• Unifying the students’ learning: Curriculum integration enables students to develop a unified view of the curriculum to broaden the context of their learning beyond single subject areas.

• Reflecting the real world: When curriculum is organized in a holistic way, it better reflects the real world and the way children learn at home and in the community.

• Matching the way students think: Brain research supports the theory that younger students take in many things and process and organize them at one time. Teaching ideas holistically, rather than in fragmented pieces, better reflects how young students’ brains process information.

Curriculum integration enables teacher to:

• identify the connections within and among the content of subject areas

• provide a relevant context for learning, based on the needs of students

• assess students’ skills and understandings in a variety of learning contexts

• manage the content of the program of studies more easily because outcomes from different areas or key learning skills are both addressed at the same time and reinforced

• Increases student’s motivation and participation.

II) INTERDISCIPLINARY CURRICULUM

An interdisciplinary curriculum combines several school subjects into one active project or is organized to cut across subject-matter lines, bringing together various aspects of the curriculum into meaningful association. It focuses on broad areas of study since that is how children encounter subjects in the real world—combined in one activity. In the interdisciplinary curriculum, the planned learning experiences not only provide the learners with a unified view of commonly held knowledge (by learning models, systems, and structures) but also motivate and develop learners’ power to perceive new relationships and thus to create new models, systems, and structures. Interdisciplinary curriculum involves using the knowledge view and curricular approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic, or experience. In inter disciplinary science curriculum science is treated as one discipline, a combination of separate disciplines such as physics, chemistry, biology.

iii) CONCENTRIC AND SPIRAL APPROACHES

The whole curriculum is spread over a number of years.  a general treatment of almost all the topics are attempted at the beginning and it is developed in successive years according to the mental development of the pupils.  In the beginning of the course, the whole aspect is given to pupils in a simplified way.  In the next year more and more details of its parts are added.  It follows the maximum of teaching, such as from whole to part, simple to complex, easy to difficult etc. Among educationist of modern times, Burner is the main exponent of the approach is maintained.  Sometimes this approach is referred to as concentric approach.  But the term “spiral approach” is preferred to the other.  The term spiral gives the additional implication that while attempting gradation the linkage too is taken care of and the continuing of the topic concerned is never broken.  While conceiving it as concentric only the widening of the scope is indicated but the linkage is not taken care of.

IV) NATURE STUDY

            Nature study is defined as “learning to be really alive to the world around”.  The use of the word study implies that independent work must be done by the pupil, and while books, pictures and models are valuable aids in the teaching, the subject matter is nature herself.

            Aim of Nature study:-

a)The cultivation of interest in the world around.

b)The development of habits of careful observation and later on coherent reasoning.

c)The cultivation of the power of expression

d)The free development of individuality of the pupil.

(V) NATURE RAMBLING

            The main criteria are the experience of the child.  Child is considered as the rambler in his environment.  The materials the child is likely to meet with the scientific situations be likely to face with are chosen and arranged in the science course. Accordingly the science course of the first year may contain the elementary study of planets, trees sun, moon, birds, stars, and rain. In the second year the study of rock, different kinds of rock, kinds of water, purification of water, solar system, seasons and like.  In the third year the study of sand, minerals, atmosphere, soil, eclipse and shadows.

            It lays foundation for advanced studies because all natural science is specialised forms of nature study.  It develops the power of observation reasoning and it establishes good relationships between the child and his environment.

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