IDS560 Integrated Curriculum I: Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations

This first course in a two-course sequence focuses on the idea of curriculum integration in the K-12 schools. In contrast to the traditional arrangement of schooling into separate subjects and time periods of the day, there is an enduring and strengthening paradigm of education which aims for a more holistic, integrated set of learning experiences for students. This initial course focuses on the roots, reasons, characteristics, and politics of the integrated-learning paradigm. Topics include the historical evolution of both the separate-subject curriculum and the various integrated alternatives which have arisen in the past; the theories of learning and human development which support an integrated approach; the socio-political theories supporting curriculum integration; and the key ingredients of classroom curricular integration. The course takes the integrated paradigm as its own, and providing a demonstration of such holistic learning by intertwining the study of above elements, which might ordinarily be taught separately. 3 semester hours