Implementing an integrated curriculum poses many challenges. According to Ferguson-Patrick et al. (2018), integration is seen as a method of making students aware of a global theme across different disciplines but is not viewed as a multidisciplinary or transdisciplinary approach. According to Gresnigt et al. (2014), one of the most successful outcomes of integration is increased teacher and learner motivation, arising from the understanding that learning is relevant and authentic to their world.
Indeed, teachers have the power to help students develop the knowledge, skills, values, and behaviors necessary to meet global challenges and contribute to building a more just, peaceful, and sustainable world. However, although many of them are motivated, some still do not feel prepared to teach topics related to education for sustainable development and global education. Governments, education policymakers, academics, educators, and teacher educators must work together to meet this need and support teachers in addressing important global challenges in the classroom.
Curricular integration should be well structured. The educational curriculum should be organized and presented around a thematic axis that relates different content areas in a meaningful way. This should be done so that learning becomes more recognizable and understandable for students, responding to their reality and to the specific situations that attract their attention and interest, thereby allowing them to develop a deeper and more authentic understanding.
However, the integrated curriculum refers to a concept that encompasses many nuances and different levels of complexity when establishing relationships among areas of knowledge. Educational institutions should always be looking for initiatives that connect curriculum content around a specific topic. Initiatives should also be pursued to increase the integration and complementarity among subjects (interdisciplinarity).
In many cases, challenges arise because it is difficult to determine precisely where one subject ends and another begins. In addition, teachers often have different approaches, making it essential that all efforts are coordinated. Adopting an integrated curriculum proposal necessarily entails the selection and adaptation of knowledge. There is a need to prioritize and select only the knowledge that truly aligns with the project being developed. This approach will help streamline the curriculum by reducing secondary content that, in many cases, serves merely as filler with limited educational value.
According to Gini-Newman and Case (2018), quality thinking is rigorous thinking that is both productive and reactive, carried out individually and collaboratively. In a real-life scenario, the best possible outcome would be the development of a dynamic that explains the teaching and learning process through dialogue among all participants. This dynamic must view knowledge as a collaborative reconstruction based on relevant issues that extend beyond traditional academic subjects.
References
Ferguson-Patrick, K., Reynolds, R., & Macqueen, S. (2018) Integrating curriculum: a case study of teaching Global Education.
Gini-Newman, G., & Case, R. (2018) Creating thinking classrooms: leading educational change for this century, 1st ed. Corwin.
Gresnigt, R., Taconis, R., van Keulen, H., Gravenmeijer, K., & Baartman, L. (2014) Promoting science and technology in primary education: a review of integrated curricula. Studies in science education. Volume 50. Issue 1.