Integrated Curriculum

Integrated curriculum is an educational approach that seeks to connect and unify various subject areas, offering a more holistic learning experience compared to traditional, subject-centered curricula. By linking multiple disciplines, such as the arts, sciences, and humanities, an integrated curriculum emphasizes broader themes and issues rather than isolating subjects into distinct silos. This method encourages collaboration among teachers and allows students to see the relevance of their studies in real-world contexts, thereby enhancing engagement and retention of knowledge.

Historically, the movement toward integrated curricula gained traction in the U.S. educational reform efforts beginning in the late 1950s and became more pronounced in the 1990s, responding to the need for a more interconnected understanding of knowledge. Despite its potential benefits, empirical evidence on the effectiveness of integrated curricula remains limited, with much of the research being anecdotal or based on specific case studies rather than large-scale studies. Nonetheless, proponents argue that this approach fosters essential skills such as critical thinking, problem-solving, and collaboration, preparing students for the complexities of modern life and work environments.

Integrated curricula can be effectively applied across all educational levels and content areas, promoting a student-centered instructional practice that accommodates diverse learning styles and encourages the exploration of topics through various lenses.

Published in: 2023

By: Merritt, R. D.

Subject Terms

Integrated Curriculum

Abstract

This article discusses the origin and use of an integrated curriculum in the public schools. The use of an integrated curriculum in schools contrasts with the traditional subject-centered curriculum that has been historically applied in U.S. public education. An integrated curriculum bridges and links different disciplines, emphasizes all academic subjects and integrates objectives from multiple curricula and instructional areas. Curriculum integration became a key element of educational reforms in the U.S. as early as the late 1950s and the 1960s. The later educational reform movements of the 1990s demanded the integration of school subjects, and integrated curricula were seen as a means to massively overhaul and restructure education. The bulk of the research literature on the effectiveness of an integrated curriculum is in the form of specific case studies that summarize the experiences of particular schools, but there is a paucity of broad-based empirical evidence supporting the use of an integrated curriculum.

Overview

An integrated, unified, or fused curriculum is the key element and focus of an integrative education. It is an innovative curriculum design, a multifaceted concept and model, an intercurricular approach and method, and a more natural form of education, which encompasses both a method of teaching and a philosophy. Specifically, an integrated curriculum design follows experimentalism, an educational philosophy that focuses on things that work and in which the world of experience is central (Webb, Metha, & Jordan, 1992).

The conventional subjects-centered curriculum is differentiated and hierarchically organized (Little, 1992). It is subdivided into divergent disciplines and distinct, isolated, separate subjects by artificial disciplinary boundaries. Instruction is based on these isolated disciplines and separate subjects.

With curriculum integration, subjects are not taught in isolation as a single course separate from the rest of the subjects (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1988). An integrated curriculum is one that is coherent and whose parts are unified and connected with a sense of the whole (Beane, 1995). In its most basic sense, an integrated curriculum is most often used in the context of combining standard subject areas from within the same discipline (Littke, 2004; Webb et al., 1992). It can also refer to combining content from separate disciplines or branches of study, allowing a more dynamic and engaging learning experience ("Implementing an integrated," 2021). Thus, an integrated course is one that is formed by integrating two or more subjects both within and across disciplines (Webb et al., 1992). An integrated curriculum bridges subjects and links different disciplines. Concepts from disciplines as divergent as the sciences, the arts, and the humanities are integrated. Contributions, skills, and knowledge from different curricular areas are interwoven.

The primary focus of an integrated curriculum is not on the disciplines themselves but on the themes, the issues, or the phenomena (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000). The thematic approach is used to integrate curricular content by common topical areas or themes into interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary units of study.

In an integrated classroom environment, courses, studies, learning activities, and experiences are combined to emphasize all academic areas and integrate objectives from multiple curriculum and instructional areas (Ediger, 1996). The accent is on broader educational goals. Although there are varying degrees and amounts of integration that are possible, an integrated curriculum can be applied to all content areas and grade levels. The strategies related to and the terminology associated with integrated curricula, instruction or teaching, and learning are presented in Figure 1.

History. The educational reform of the 1950s focused on mathematics and science (Groff, 1991). From a historical perspective, interdisciplinary teaching and learning, and curricular integration became key elements of reforms of middle-level education in the 1960s (Lounsbury, 1992). In the late 1960s, academic and vocational education was integrated in some states as a means to facilitate secondary to postsecondary transition (Bragg, 1999). Some fields, such as environmental education, have been described as interdisciplinary and integrated since their emergence, meaning that they seek and require contributions from other fields of study, for example, from science for environmental education. The many international conferences on environmental education in the 1970s focused on the interdisciplinary and integrated nature of the field (Papadimitriou, 2001). While some fields were founded as integrated fields of study, others have become more interdisciplinary and integrated as they have transformed over time.

There were many attempts made by educators in the 1970s to integrate mathematics instruction into the social studies curriculum, but these efforts were generally unsuccessful. Curriculum integration, in some cases, only proved to be successful when other innovations came along to spur transition and advancement. Mathematics and social studies, particularly history, awaited the much later application of spreadsheets to the task of making valuable natural connections (Hollister, 1995). In the early 1980s, the spectrum of the educational reform movements broadened across the curriculum to all areas and levels of planning and policymaking (Groff, 1991). However, curriculum integration did not receive any concerted impetus or ascendancy onto the forefront of national educational reform efforts until the 1990s.

The 1990s saw a renewed interest in curriculum integration as an important, if not critical, component of educational reform strategies. The subjects-centered curriculum design had led historically to the proliferation of separate courses, and the emergence of the integrated-curriculum design had been in response to this unchecked multiplication (Webb et al., 1992). Recommendations from various educational reform efforts advocated that curriculum in the schools no longer be presented as separate, discrete, and independent blocks.

In the early 1990s, a number of U.S. high schools made pioneering efforts in curriculum integration (Association for Career Technical Education, 1997; Bresler, 1995; Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, 1998). The reform movements demanded integration of school subjects involving a conceptual convergence and melding of the social and behavioral sciences and humanities with the natural sciences, mathematics, and technology into a coherent whole (Hurd, 1991). The reform of educational systems in the 1990s was given impetus by changes brought about by technological innovations, demographics, and the global economy (Scruggs, 1996). It became clear that a different educational model was needed if students were to be prepared for the new world of work and that there would be increasing social, economic, and political consequences to the continued use of a traditional or conventional curriculum model. In fact, it has been asserted that an important factor in arresting the development of middle schools in the U.S. may have been the failure to widely adopt the integrated curriculum (Dickinson & Butler, 2001).

Further Insights

Curricular Organization. Schools have traditionally taken the world's vast repository of knowledge and unraveled it—dissected it, pulled it apart, and stored it in separate "boxes" called subjects (Littke, 2004). Courses were built and learning was viewed in a linear mode going from the concrete to the abstract (Anderson, 1990). Following this discipline-based curricular approach caused important historical, thematic, and other nondiscipline-based goals and knowledge to be neglected (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000). In contrast to the traditional approach, an integrated curriculum is a holistic learning approach that conceives knowledge as whole, not divisible (Silver, Strong, & Perini, 2000).

According to Ornstein and Hunkins (1988), integration refers to the horizontal organization of curriculum experiences so that they are unified with respect to the other elements of the curriculum being taught. The horizontal relationships among various content topics and themes are emphasized with integration (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1988). The organization of subject matter and the sequencing of learning aids students' integration of knowledge (Ediger, 1996). Integrating the myriad learnings that students encounter at a particular curricular level is a problem of scope (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1988). Curriculum organization, however, needs to provide not only for the scope but also for the continuity, sequence, and integration of knowledge (Kowalski, 1981). All these factors working effectively together can create curriculum coherence.

At any given level of curriculum organization, the parts must make sense with respect to the whole and vice versa to have curriculum coherence (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000). The parts of an entire curriculum must be internally coherent if the whole is to have coherence. The content of lesson plans, course outlines, and curricula are expected to conceptually form a coherent whole. However, the curriculum as a whole is not guaranteed to be internally coherent even if the component parts are (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000).

Curricula can be referred to as being integrated even when it is actually not (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000). Courses may be considered to be "integrated" even when the content of two or more disciplines is still recognizable as identifiable separate "chunks" (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993). Traditional approaches to integrated curriculum design have involved an "intermingling" of disciplines (Rolan & Kimpston, 1991). Authentic and meaningful curriculum integration does not constitute a random combination of disciplines (Relan & Kimpston, 1991). In a truly integrated curriculum, something other than the disciplines themselves determines how content will be organized (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000). Effective curriculum integration occurs when content from one field is related meaningfully to content from another field (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1988). Authentic curriculum integration requires a conscious, systematic effort to make the relationships among disciplines explicit (Relan & Kimpston, 1991).

Content can be integrated at a high level of generality—within a single domain. To many educators, for example science educators, the integration relationship is confined largely to disciplines within science: life science, earth science, and physical science (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993). This type of integration can be referred to as intradisciplinary, or between areas, within disciplines. To other educators, the integration relationship may involve almost any disciplinary areas—for example, music and math, art and science, or social studies and economics (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993). Integration is interdisciplinary in the sense that there is coordination among separate disciplines. Following an interdisciplinary integrated curricular approach, there must be assurance that the learning goals of the disciplines continue to be achieved (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000).

Curricular Applications. Curriculum can be integrated across fields and disciplines by organizing around important cross-cutting themes, interesting phenomena, or serious social and environmental issues. Courses may be integrated around topics and issues that cut across many disciplines (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000). This approach results in not only an integrated curriculum but also a problem-based curriculum. Curriculum integration provides a means to incorporate content from subjects that are often relegated to the sidelines of educational programs, for example, art, music, physical education, technology, consumer and family science, career education, and world languages (Reeves, 2004). After all, science depends on math, social studies depend on economics, and history and writing depend on language (Littke, 2004).

Academic subjects such as social studies, science, mathematics, and language arts are commonly integrated. Table 1 provides examples of integrated content for integrated courses in these academic subject areas. Integrated curricula have likely been utilized in social studies because its subject matter is naturally integrative and lends itself to integration around the teaching of real-world issues (Vogler, 2003). Social studies subject matter has been integrated to form curricular courses under labels such as "world studies" or "American studies" (Vars, 1968). Other courses in schools have been integrated under the title of "humanities."

Reading across the curriculum and writing across the curriculum are good examples of the effective use of an integrated approach (Webb et al., 1992). The arts have also been integrated across the curriculum with students at all grade levels, K-12. At the middle-school level, for example, the arts—visual, music, dance, and theater—have been integrated with the language arts, math, science, and social studies (Annenberg Media, 2005). An integrated curriculum has also been used that links the study of modern art and social problems (Munro, 1937). Even music has been integrated into other subjects at every grade level (Silverman, 1997).

In the twenty-first century, employers seek to hire individuals with strong soft skills who are able to adapt and succeed in a rapidly changing environment. Integrated curriculum encourages the development of the creative problem-solving skills needed for this type of work ("Implementing an integrated," 2021).

Teachers in music, art, physical education, language arts, and social studies can collaborate and effectively integrate a curricular unit that crosses disciplinary boundaries and utilizes engaging activities involving such diverse subject areas as geography, history, literature, writing, vocabulary, song, and dance (Reeves, 2004). Physical education activities can be integrated with language arts in early childhood programs (Collins, Miller, & Yates, 2005). Movement experiences in physical education can be linked to academic curricula based on the integrated teaching and interconnected learning of the theme and concept of "space" (Kalyn, 2006). Physical education, music, and art teachers are able to integrate math in unique and effective ways. For example, art teachers work on perspective and representational art that makes explicit use of scale; music teachers implement activities in which related musical rhythms are revealed in whole, half, and quarter notes; and physical education teachers allow students to choose to run either ten meters or one kilometer (Reeves, 2004).

Many researchers provide examples of integrated curriculum use in the actual classroom:

An integrated curricular approach can be used for an in-depth unit on rainforests that integrates social studies and foreign language content at the second-grade level (Rosenbusch, 1994; Stegelin, 2003).
An intensive integrated unit can be done on the study of canals (Khourey-Bowers, 2002).
An integrated social studies and science unit on China can focus on silkworms as an important resource and as a tool for teaching life cycles and animal classification (Sorel, 2005).
A topic of interest to all students—candy—can be used to develop lessons for elementary students that integrate the subject areas of economics, mathematics, history, and language arts (Wiest & Morris, 1998).
Kaczmarek (1991) describes an example in which the novel The Andromeda Strain was used to integrate science and English subject matter in three different ways:
The science teacher speaks to the English class;
The science teacher and the English teacher collaborate with the former teaching the scientific perspective and the latter teaching the literary perspective; and
The science and English teachers plan an integrated unit working together.

A thematic unit on the novel can integrate different science subject matter areas—biology, chemistry, physics, and earth sciences—with current events in a real-life context (Kazmarek, 1991).

In some instances, content from different disciplines or branches of study are integrated to form a new field of study. Multicultural education, for example, integrates content from psychology, sociology, history, and anthropology (Ornstein & Hunkins, 1988). Futuristics integrates knowledge from education, economics, sociology, political science, mathematics, statistics, and a variety of other fields (Webb et al., 1992).

Statistics is one of the most inherently integrative subject areas in the curriculum because its concepts can be applied to practically any study area (Heaton & Mickelson, 2002). Statistics has even been applied in the elementary curriculum to develop students' basic statistical knowledge and help them learn how to apply the process of statistical investigation to problem-solving in diverse subject matter areas (Heaton & Mickelson, 2002).

Instructional Practice. Knowledge and skills are integrated when subjects are connected and different classes work together, support each other, and reinforce students' learning (Littke, 2004). Real integration succeeds when subjects of the curriculum meld naturally, different classes talk and work together, and connections—ecological, physical, social, and other—are readily apparent to students (Littke, 2004). By emphasizing the common ground between subjects, teachers can address learning goals in both subjects without compromising either of them (Royce & Wiley, 2005).

Integrated curricula are most effectively integrated utilizing interdisciplinary teaching teams. Teachers give up control and ownership of their own content areas and form cooperative teacher teams for common planning. The integrated curricular unit-planning procedure involves the collaboration of teachers from all grade levels and all relevant subject areas (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993; Castanos, 1997). The pedagogical approach of interdisciplinary team teaching, integrated teaching, or thematic teaching is compatible with individualization and the use of activity or learning centers. Learning styles and multiple intelligences can be seamlessly integrated into curriculum, instruction, and assessment (Silver, Strong, & Perini, 2000).

At one time, a number of separate subjects were taught for short periods at the elementary level (Webb et al., 1992). However, in that depth of knowledge is not as essential at the elementary level, an integrated curriculum design has been traditionally practiced and has been more widely accepted. Subjects are integrated into "subject areas" and are taught in longer blocks (Webb et al., 1992). A movement toward a more fully integrated elementary school curriculum has grown (Rosenbusch, 1994).

Integrated Curriculum in the High School. The discipline-mastery bias at the secondary level continues to support a subjects-based or subjects-centered curriculum design, which dominates secondary school curricula (Webb et al., 1992). The 50-minute class period schedule at the secondary level has been an important factor in a subjects-based and subject-centered teaching approach in discrete, separate, and unrelated "mini-units" (Castanos, 1997). The multi-period class schedule has produced a fragmented high school curriculum. The adoption of block scheduling and block-length class periods is conducive to and compatible with an integrated curriculum design. Because a number of secondary schools have not adopted block schedules, however, the integrated curriculum has not experienced full success at the secondary level (Webb et al., 1992).

Four distinctive curriculum configurations for high school grades 9–12 have been described by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000), and are displayed in Figure 2.

In a discipline-based curriculum organization, subjects can be taken either in a series configuration or in a parallel configuration.
In a series configuration, target subjects are taken in turn one after another every day for a semester or a year.
In a parallel configuration, target subjects are taken more or less simultaneously (theoretically) but are actually taken concurrently in a planned arrangement that alternates rapidly from day to day and week to week.
In a thematically integrated curriculum, the disciplines become essentially indistinguishable since subject matter sequence is truly parallel (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000).

Student Learning. Although single-subject courses should provide opportunities for students to relate new ideas to other subjects, this does not necessarily occur (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000). According to Littke, the conventional curriculum and traditional modes of instruction have failed to respond to the ways in which students actually learn (Littke, 1992). Student learning needs are best met by interrelating content to create rich integrated learning experiences and activities (Annenberg Media, 2005; Ornstein & Hunkins, 1988). The fact that knowledge is interconnected and that these connections enrich students' learning experiences is intuitively obvious (Littke, 2004). However, legitimate interdisciplinary applications, learning experiences, and activities must be found that truly excite students, help them to understand, and help them make connections (Hellwege & Sell, 1990; Hoachlander, 1999). To improve knowledge retention, instruction generally should:

Relate ideas to students' own experience;
Draw students' attention to similar ideas in different subjects; and
Allow students to exercise the ideas in a variety of contexts (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000).

According to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2000), students cannot always be counted on to make useful cross-connections of knowledge by themselves and can only learn to apply ideas in novel situations if they repetitively practice applying them in novel situations. Integration best allows students to construct and reconstruct their own knowledge bases. Integrated learning continuously interrelates seeing, hearing, speaking, experiencing, and doing (Hellwege & Sell, 1990). Integrated curricula assist students in reflecting, reconceptualizing, and transferring knowledge (Kalyn, 2006).

An integrated curriculum is metacurricular in the sense that it involves learning skills useful in developing the capacity to think and learn independently and to acquire the content that is being taught (Jacobs, 1989). Students' use of both deductive reasoning (from the general to the particular) and inductive reasoning (from the particular to the general) skills are vitally important to their integration of knowledge. Synthesizing of deductive and inductive reasoning methods leads to optimal student learning and achievement (Ediger, 1996).

Curriculum integration is a student-centered instructional approach that makes extensive use of active-learning techniques, students' learning styles, multiple intelligences, and multisensory attributes. It accents experiential and discovery learning associated with real-world experiences and community involvement. Integrated studies succeed in developing students' creativity through the practice of independent, inquiry-based processes. Basic skills, process skills, research skills, and problem-solving skills are highlighted as student teams work cooperatively and collaboratively on integrated-learning projects (Ast, 1995). In addition, curriculum integration improves students' social development, leadership skills, and other affective dimensions of the curriculum (Pettus, 1994). It is a useful way to teach personal and social values including moral responsibility (Kalyn, 2006). As students examine, discuss, and debate various perspectives attendant to their integrative learning, it becomes an effective aid to the development of lifelong learning skills.

Viewpoints

Research. Significant curriculum research and experimentation efforts toward integration in secondary schools took place as early as the late 1950s. Harmer (1960) argues that research into adolescent growth and development had preconceived an integrated curriculum as being of superior worth for the learner.

The research literature at least anecdotally supports the use of an interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum so as to provide students with less fragmented, more relevant, and more stimulating learning experiences (Furner, 1995). Deliberately involving and integrating seemingly peripheral subjects into school curricula has been theorized to improve academic results for all students (Reeves, 2004).

There is, however, little qualitative and quantitative research data on the effectiveness of interdisciplinary, integrated instruction. Much of the research on the effectiveness of interdisciplinary, integrated instruction is in the form of specific case studies summarizing experiences of particular schools (Furner, 1995). Empirical evidence is scant in preferentially supporting either a discipline-based curriculum or an integrated curriculum. There remains a paucity of research on student learning in integrated settings, and there is sparse evidence to show that students have the ability to put ideas from different courses together (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000).

Although various changes have been incorporated to support interdisciplinary integrated education, the actual implementation of it continues to fall short of its full potential (Lounsbury, 1992). Some educators question whether students gain much in their subject- or discipline-based knowledge using this approach (Pettus, 1994). It is commonly asserted that integrated curricula create positive effects, but Carter and Mason (1997) conclude that research comparing integrated and traditional curricula showed no significant differences. According to George (1996), many research claims concerning integrated curricula are unfounded or unsubstantiated and the use of an integrated curriculum may not contribute any more to educational outcomes than a traditional curriculum.

It is unclear how or if the wide emphasis on assessments supports the use of integrated curricula (Vogler, 2003). Drake (1998) contends that standardized tests cannot be used to effectively measure the success of the integrated-curriculum approach. However, Reeves (2004) claims that explicitly involving subjects in the curriculum that are frequently and systematically disregarded in traditional accountability systems can make schools more successful. From an accountability standpoint, teachers are less interested in the fact that math scores are low overall than that they need to give more emphasis to one area or another; for example, subscale scores may reveal that more work needs to be given to the "fractions, ratios, and measurement" standard. According to Reeves (2004), this type of holistic analysis of accountability data leads to the cross-disciplinary integration of subject matter and curricula by teachers.

Restructuring a content-separated curriculum into an interdisciplinary, integrated one is a formidable task. Curriculum integration that is authentic, meaningful, rigorous, and sustained is difficult to practice. Integration makes demands of time, resources, and expertise that are beyond the capabilities of most teachers. Integration reduces the amount of time that can be spent on specific learning goals in discrete subject areas. And some researchers argue that an integrated curriculum provides only a cursory knowledge of a given subject (Hoachlander, 1999; Lounsbury, 1992; Royce & Wiley, 2005; Webb et al., 1992).

Terms & Concepts

Curriculum Coherence: Characteristic of a curriculum in which the parts make sense with respect to the whole and vice versa.

Curriculum Integration: The coordination and interrelation of knowledge and skills across various disciplines.

Discipline-Based Curriculum: A traditional or conventional curriculum model or design based on the teaching of disciplines in separate subject courses of study.

Experimentalism: An educational philosophy and a process of inquiry that focuses on things that work and in which the world of experience is central (Webb et al., 1992).

Holistic Learning: Learning that is whole by virtue of the fact that it draws from the knowledge of various disciplines.

Integrated Curriculum: Also unified curriculum or fused curriculum; a curriculum model, design, or configuration that combines content from subjects within the same discipline or from two or more disciplines.

Integrative Education: Instructional practice based on the implementation of an integrated curriculum.

Interdisciplinary: Also intercurricular; an integration relationship in which there is coordination and interrelationship among different disciplines.

Intradisciplinary: An integration relationship that is confined largely to disciplines within a single domain (e.g., science) but may also bring in information from closely-related disciplines.

Multidisciplinary: An approach to curriculum integration that connects and pulls content from two or more disciplines such as social studies and science and that focuses on broad concepts and ideas.

Parallel Configuration: A plan of curriculum organization in which target subjects are taken more or less simultaneously (theoretically) but are actually taken concurrently in an arrangement that alternates rapidly from day to day and week to week (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000).

Subject-Centered Curriculum: A curriculum model or design based on the acquisition of a specific and certain body of knowledge from a single discipline.

Thematic Approach: A method used to integrate curricular content by common topical areas or themes into interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary units of study.

Transdisciplinary: A type of curriculum integration in which there is no division between the disciplines and information and skills are shared across disciplinary boundaries.

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