Interest in interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum development continues to increase. However, teachers, who have been given primary responsibility for developing these materials, are often working with little guidance. At present there exists no clear definition of the meaning of integration of mathematics and science. A continuum model of integration is proposed as a useful tool for curriculum developers as they create new integrated mathematics and science curricula or adapt commercially prepared materials. On the continuum, activities range from mathematics or science involving no integration to those activities including balanced mathematics and science concepts. Several examples are given to illustrate the utility of the continuum model for analyzing integrated curricula. The continuum model is intended to be used by curriculum developers to clarify the relationship between the mathematics and science activities and concepts and to guide the modification of lessons.
Interest in interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum development continues to increase. However, teachers who have been given primary responsibility for developing these materials are often -working "with little guidance. A model for developing theme-based, interdisciplinary, integrated curriculum is presented in this article. The model includes two phases, a theme creation phase and an activity refinement phase. Validity criteria from the interdisciplinary curriculum literature are usedto assess the power of potential themes. An integration continuum model is used to facilitate refinement of activities included inthe theme-basedinstruction. The curriculum developmentmodelis usedto clarify the meaning of the terms theme-based, interdisciplinary, and integrated. The model is intended to be used by curriculum developers to facilitate the creation of powerful interdisciplinary lessons.Overthe past 10 years, reform efforts in mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts have redefined the K-12 curriculum. National organizations and various reform documents (National Council of called upon educators to reexamine teaching practice and the curriculum across the disciplines. One aspect ofcurriculum revision receiving particular attention is the role and nature of themebased, interdisciplinary, integrated (I/I) curriculum.The purpose ofteaching an I/I curriculum is clearit provides an opportunity for students to understand concepts in a larger context. Calls for integration of mathematics and science are not new. The earliest reference to integration in A Bibliography of Inte-
If integration of mathematics and science is to occur, teacher preparation programs at colleges and universities must provide leadership in developing and modeling methods of teaching integrated content. This paper describes the development and implementation of an integrated mathematics/science preservice elementary methods course at the University of Connecticut. In planning the course several questions were addressed: (a) What does integration of mathematics and science mean? (b) What content should be taught in an integrated mathematics/science (IM/S) elementary methods course? and (c) How should an IM/S elementary methods course be taught? An important element of the course involved enlisting an exemplary elementary teacher who was released from her classroom one day per week to co‐teach the methods class. Establishing a definition of integration proved to be one of the most challenging aspects of course development. The authors determined that most difficulties in integration of disciplines result from attempts to “force” the integration. As the team struggled with the philosophical, theoretical and logistical problems in the development of the course, it became apparent why integration has not been more widely implemented. It is believed this model can be adapted to allow for integration of all content areas. Plans are currently underway to incorporate social studies into the methods class for Fall of 1993.
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