Integrated Curriculum
 
    Integrated curriculum is the overlapping of disciplines and therefore, the removal of barriers that prohibit the unification of conceptual themes. The integrated curriculum model supports the idea that educators must consider the current knowledge and experiences that students bring to the class. Once this has been established the educator can then present ideas that the students can easily relate to and connect the new ideas to those which the student has brought from prior knowledge and experience (Bybee,1997).
 
                                        
 

    James A. Beane makes a comparison of old and new approaches to the idea of curriculum integration. The old view has the subjects still separated from one another. The material is still taught in a way that may relate to one another in some small way. However, the students "still begin and end with subject-based content and skills."  In the new approach to integrated curriculum the students "move from one activity or project to another , each one involving knowledge from multiple sources (Beane,1997)."
  A popular approach to understanding the concept of integrated curriculum has been presented by Susan Kovalik, founder of ITI (Integrated Thematic Instruction ).Kovalik believes that teaching educators about the biology behind learning will create dynamic new initiatives that will eventually benefit the student in more ways than just helping them understand the standard -based concepts. “Their product-producing and problem-solving capacities will be greatly enhanced by this model (Kovalik,1998)”. In conclusion, the idea of integrating key concepts can and should incorporate many disciplines together with the opportunity for social interaction to practice problem-solving strategies in a non-threatening environment.
 
 
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