Integrated
VS Differentiated Curriculum
Here we
keenly discuss the differentiated and integrated curriculum and first of all we
discuss differentiated curriculum
Differentiated Curriculum
Adapting the
curriculum to meet the unique needs of gifted learners by making modifications
in complexity, depth, or pacing. It may include selecting rather than covering
all elements of a curriculum, depending on the individual needs of students.
Differentiation
is not a recipe for teaching. It is not an instructional strategy.
It is not what a teacher does when he or she has time. It is a way about
teaching and learning. It is a philosophy. As such, it is based on the
following set of beliefs.
Students who are
the same age differ in their readiness to learn, their interests, their styles
of learning, their experiences, and their life circumstances.
The differences
in students are significant enough to make a major impact on what students need
to learn, the pace at which they need to learn, and the support they need from
teachers and others to learn it well.
Students will
learn best when supportive adults push them slightly beyond where they can work
without assistance.
Students will
learn best when they can make a connection between the curriculum and their
interests and life experiences.
Students will
learn best when learning opportunities are natural.
Students are
more effective learners when classrooms and schools create a sense of community
in which students feel significant and respected.
Differentiation
must be a refinement of, not a substitute for high quality curriculum and
instruction. Expert or distinguished teaching focuses on the
understanding and skills of a discipline, causes students to wrestle with
profound ideas, help students organize and make sense of ideas and information,
and aids students in connecting the classroom with a wider world.
Principles of a
differentiated curriculum for high-ability learners include some or all of the
following:
·
Presenting content that is related to broad-based
issues, themes or problems.
·
Integrating multiple disciplines into the
area of study.
·
Presenting comprehensive, related and
mutually reinforcing experience within an area of study.
·
Allowing for in-depth learning of a
self-selected topic within the area of study.
·
Develop independent or self-directed study
skills.
·
Developing productive, complex, abstract
and/or higher level thinking skills.
·
Focusing on open ended tasks.
·
Developing research skills and methods.
·
Integrating basic skills and higher-level
thinking into the curriculum.
·
Encouraging the development of products that
challenge existing ideas and produce "new" ideas.
·
Encourage the development of products that
use new techniques, materials and forms.
·
Encourage the development of self understanding.
·
Evaluating student outcomes by using
appropriate and specific criteria through self-appraisal, criterion-referenced
and or standardized instruments.
A general
education teacher should differentiate curriculum in response to the learner's
needs, guided by the following general principles of differentiation.
Respectful Tasks: A
classroom teacher ensures that students' learning is respected. The
teacher does this by assessing the readiness level of each student by
evaluating competency in the skills and concepts included in the local
curriculum standards, expecting and supporting continual growth in all students
by providing challenging curriculum, offering all students the opportunity to
explore skills and understanding at appropriate degrees of difficulty, offering
all students tasks that are equally interesting, important and engaging.
Flexible Grouping: Teachers
link learners with essential understandings and skills at appropriate levels of
challenge and interest. This could mean that students are working in
groups on a variety of tasks at the appropriate depth, complexity, and speed
for those involved.
Integrated curriculum
An integrated curriculum is one that is past the boundaries
that are imposed by traditional subject boundaries. It includes the integration
of content with skills and processes. The integrated curriculum seeks to
provide a context for learning processes and skills.
It is important to understand that curriculum integration is
an idea that has a strong historical background. Disciplines were created in an
attempt to organize the world around them; sometimes this was motivated by
political means Educational reform has roots dating as far back as the
progressive era. The philosophy behind educational reform during the
progressive era centered around an emphasis on student creativity, applicable
outcomes, "natural" learning, and student experience This belief
system has been the fundamental base for integrated curriculum. Supporters of
the progressive educational reform believed that the different disciplines
prevented students from making connections between the different subjects.
Therefore, the relevance of the material decreased.
Components of Integrated Curriculum
- Focuses
on basic skills, content and higher level thinking
- Encourages
lifelong learning
- Structures
learning around themes, big ideas and meaningful concepts
- Provides
connections among various curricular disciplines
- Provides
learners opportunities to apply skills they have learned
- Encourages
active participation in relevant real-life experiences
- Captivates,
motivates, and challenges learners
- Provides
a deeper understanding of content
- Offers
opportunities for more small group and industrialized instruction
- Accommodates
a variety of learning styles/theories (i.e., social learning theory,
cooperative learning, intrinsic motivation, and self-efficacy) and
multiple intelligences
Curriculum Integration
Curriculum Integration connects academics across disciplines
and often with technical/career content, incorporating standards, real world
problems and applications, and the individual student needs and interests.
Other terms used include interdisciplinary teaching,
thematic teaching, and synergistic teaching. All these terms…refer to an
educational approach that prepares children for lifelong learning. There is a
strong belief among those who support curriculum integration that schools must
look at education as a process for developing abilities required by life in the
twenty-first century, rather than discrete, departmentalized subject matter. In
general, all of the definitions of integrated curriculum or interdisciplinary
curriculum include:
·
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 grouping
Four steps for Designing Integrated Curriculum Units
include:
- Mapping
Learning Goals
- Brainstorm
Generative Theme
- Create
Activities, Web Diagram, and Time Line
- Evaluate
the Integrated Curriculum Unit
Why do schools adopt integrated
curriculum?
As educators, we are constantly searching for new ways to
help students make sense of the multitude of life’s experiences and the bits
and pieces of knowledge they gain from a traditionally departmentalized
curriculum. Students today continue to move from one discipline to the next
forcing the information to be disconnected to any thing that resembles real
life situations. To lighten some of the fragmentation our students and teachers
experience, holistic and integrated curriculums are being proposed and adopted
by many school districts. A major driving force behind integrated teaching and
learning is the belief that when themes, subjects, or projects are combined
students begin to see meaningful connections between the subject matter.
Material then serves as a vehicle for learning rather than simply pieces of
information. In addition to this, repetition of material from one subject to
the next is essentially eliminated.
How does an integrated curriculum
impact our students?
Integrated curriculum adopts a student-centered approach, by
nature of its definition, it moves further away from the modernist viewpoint.
With an integrated curriculum, a "right" way to complete a task does
not exist. Students are free to reach conclusions on their own and they are
provided with many different perspectives, affording students the opportunity
to question the conclusions of their teachers. A table diagramming the
perspectives of the modernist and the post-modernist is listed below.
What do the critics say?
The benefits for integrated curriculum are rather intriguing
and possible quite accurate. However, the claims and their ultimate outcome are
difficult to measure. Critics of integrated curriculum have formulated several
arguments against the idea. First, it is sometimes appropriate for information
to be taught within the content area. Some concepts run the risk of becoming
confused when connected to unrelated subject matter. Secondly,
most teachers have always been a part of a somewhat modernist method of
teaching. Therefore, implementing integrated curriculum becomes
increasingly more difficult. Third, critics claim that many
teachers may lack knowledge and skills of the various disciplines. Finally, a
key criticism of integrated curriculum is assessment. Schools continue to
struggle with effective methods to assess student achievement in regard to
higher level thinking and deeper understanding. In order for integrated
curriculum to replace traditional teaching styles, the entire structure of the
school needs to change. For example, block scheduling and teaming will need to
be implemented. Frankly, this is a change that many modernist teachers are not
willing to accept.
