The Planning Process
`IGASAR' - A process model for inquiry
Integrated Units

The Planning Process -

A Curriculum Integration Case Study

Introduction

The details of this project are being shared as an example of how some schools are addressing the issue of curriculum integration.

Two schools in the Broken Bay Diocese (Our Lady of the Rosary, Waitara and St Cecilia's, Balgowlah) embarked on a project to develop and implement integrated units of work in each class during first semester 1999. The project was to develop and trial a model of curriculum integration that maintain the subject integrity of each KLA and integrate a set of generic skills.

The schools were supported with funding from their diocese for the project. They worked with a consultant who visited the schools regularly to support the teachers throughout the implementation of the units in Term 2. At the end of Term 2 the schools opened for other teachers to visit and share their experiences and programs. Selections from their programs will also be shared on this website.

The Planning Process

Term 1 Week 5 1999

The two schools combined for a School Development Day. This was facilitated by a consultant who led the teachers through a process approach to developing a unit of work. The main focus was to support teachers in using syllabus outcomes and in identifying the generic skills that could be developed through the teaching/learning experiences.

What is `curriculum integration'?
 
Teachers worked in Stage groups and initially discussed what they understood by the term `curriculum integration' at that point. The statements were recorded. This data would be referred to later in the project as understanding about curriculum integration developed.

'By using integrated subject matter a teacher is able to reinforce what is being taught, because it more closely resembles the way things happen in real life. There is no area that the student must deal with that is totally segregated from another. Integrated, or cross-curricular, lessons help students to learn because they bridge the gaps...'
(Miller, Kathleen A, Curriculum: To Integrate or Not to Integrate, 1995)

Where to start

The members of the group were introduced to the concept of learning being organised around 'Big Ideas', and reminded that it is important for students to be involved in the planning of the unit.

Introduction to generic skills

Working in small groups, teachers were asked to consider the set of skills students need to develop to become lifelong learners.

'It is the concept of transfer that distinguishes a generic skill from a core skill... An alternative approach is to regard core skills not as bolt-ons to the curriculum but as the natural and intrinsic components of the curriculum experienced by students. That is, they are embedded to varying degrees in subject syllabuses, and students acquire them in different contexts as they move through schooling. In this sense they are "built-ins" not "bolt ons".'
(Nuyen, Anh, Theory and practice: the Queensland experiences in testing generic skills, 1998)

 
This was an interesting task and generated a great deal of discussion.

The key skills that were suggested by the teachers were

• literacy, numeracy and social skills; and

• and the core skills of communication, decision-making, problem-solving, technology, research, teamwork and reflection.

The teachers were then introduced to the 'generic skills' identified by a Linkages working party of teachers. These skills can be viewed here. Examples of students working on generic skill development throughout the project will be included at a later time.