Lumping and splitting in curriculum design: curriculum integration versus disciplinary specialism
One of my publications is:
Taber, K. S., & Vong, L. T. K. (2020). Lumping and splitting in curriculum design: curriculum integration versus disciplinary specialism. In Bachmeier (Ed.), Curriculum Perspectives and Development (pp. 1-66). New York: Nova Science Publishers.
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Abstract:
This chapter considers how the school curriculum should be organised in terms of subjects, and, in particular, considers the relative merits of seeking to integrate different traditional areas of knowledge rather than organising the curriculum to reflect disciplinary structures. In many national contexts, school curriculum has traditionally been organised around subjects such as mathematics, language(s), science, history, and so forth. However, there has been much variation in the precise range and demarcation of these subjects, including attempts to organise new school subjects by combining cognate areas of knowledge, as for example integrated humanities. There have been shifts between ‘separate’, ‘co-ordinated’, and ‘integrated’ approaches to teaching the sciences, and attempts to subsume science, with technology and mathematics, under the ‘STEM umbrella’ (and even extend this to incorporate others areas, such as the creative arts). Some science courses seek to teach through contexts considered to engage learners (e.g., food, textiles, transport), rather than in terms of traditional academic topics (such as digestion, acids, electromagnetism), and indeed there have been approaches to collapsing the full school curriculum and employing topic based-learning that draw upon diverse areas of knowledge on a ‘need-to-know’ basis. This issue is explored here in terms of a number of themes, including the purposes of education (which provide the rationale for constructing a curriculum), child and adolescent development, learning theories, the structure of disciplinary knowledge, and the supply and development of teachers. This analysis is applied to the example of ‘the science curriculum’ to suggest how judgements should be reached about how and when the science disciplines should be lumped together or split into discrete school subjects.
Contents:
Introduction
Incommensurable Worldviews
Teachers as Conservatives
The Curriculum as a Collection of School Subjects
What Is It Important to Learn?
The Centrality of Values
Education for Society?
Where Do We Teach Transferable Skills?
Education to Support Student Aspirations?
An Authentic Science Education Engages with, But Should not Be Primarily Defined in Terms of, Science Content
Education for Cognitive Development
Cognitive Development Beyond Formal Operations
Science Curriculum for Promoting Intellectual Development
Education for Citizenship
A Liberal Curriculum for Holistic Development
Academic Disciplines
Contingent Disciplines
The Insidious Influence of Custom and Practice
School Science Subjects – Splitting and Lumping
Conceptualising Science as a School Subject
Reflecting Student Development
The Demands on the Teacher
Comparing the National Standards Across a Range of Countries
1. Environmental, Social and Health Issues
2. Integration of Science and Technology
3. Core Ideas
4. Learning as Progression
Overview of Curriculum Content within some National Systems
Brazil
China
Germany
Israel
Japan
Russia
United States
Challenges of Curriculum Design: The Case of the English National Curriculum for Science
Establishing ‘Science’ as a Unitary Curriculum Subject
Rejecting a Reformed Curriculum for Science
Science and the Disciplines
Implications of Curriculum Policy for Teacher Recruitment and Development
Systemic Inertia Resisting Reforms
Interpreting Curriculum Documents
Conclusion
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