Session Objectives:

1. discuss the growing need for interdisciplinary curriculum – in this part, we will be discussing
about the reasons why there is a need to integrate curriculum? We will also be exploring the
two reasons why some failed in attempting to integrate the curriculum.
2. differentiate the types of curriculum integration – in this portion, we will be exploring the
design, characteristics and importance of each type of curriculum integration specifically
multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary curriculum. Moreover, we will be
providing examples in each curriculum.

Analogy. When you are out walking, nature does not confront you for three quarters of an hour only
with flowers and in the next only with animals.

In this analogy, the nature reflects the child’s education. It has multiple and necessary components,
multiple perspectives and should not be confined partially in a certain aspect with specific range of
time.

The common viewpoint of students now in a curriculum is that it is arbitrary divisive, where students
are defining the subject areas as separate bodies of knowledge with little relationship to one another.
Moreover, this fragmented type of schedule in school, where each discipline is assigned in a specific
time, does not actually reflect the reality of life. In context, we never woke up in the morning then do
an hour of math or science. Instead, we encounter problems, which need solutions from different
perspectives. That is why, curriculum integration can bridge this educational gap.

[Back Up Info]
Discipline field - a specific body of teachable knowledge with its own background of education,
training, procedures, methods, and content areas (Piaget 1972)

The starting point for all discussions about the nature of knowledge in schools should be a thorough
understanding of the disciplines. Each discipline asks different questions, a form of knowledge with
separate and distinct characteristics.

According to Hirst and Peters 1974, the advantage of the disciplines is that they permit schools to
investigate with systematic attention to the progressive mastery of closely related concepts and
patterns of reasoning.

This idea of specialization goes back to Aristotle who believed that knowledge should be divided into
three arenas (productive disciplines, theoretical disciplines, and practical disciplines) but we rarely
discuss with children the reason for dividing the day into discipline areas of focus.

However, before any meaningful integrated experience can occur, students need to begin to
understand the nature of knowledge on a level that is clearly appropriate to their age and experience.
As stated by Bruner 1975, the structure of the disciplines is necessary for knowledge acquisition, that
is, a fundamental factor to learn how things are related.
Interdisciplinary - a knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies
methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue,
problem, topic, or experience

According to Meeth 1978, its emphasis is on the deliberately identifying the relationships, the
linkages, between disciplines. It is a holistic approach that comes from Plato’ ideal of unity as the
highest good in all things; distinct but are interrelated.