Curriculum integration: Challenging the assumption of school science as powerful knowledge

Abstract

On the one hand, it is argued that disciplinary approaches to curriculum that include the teaching and learning of traditional, sharply defined subjects, such as physics, chemistry, biology and algebra, provide specialised knowledge that enables rigorous explanation of focused aspects of the world. On the other hand, integrated approaches to schooling are seen to better reflect the realities of students’ experiences outside school by making learning more applied, more critical, more inventive and more meaningful for students. This chapter explores this ‘curriculum tension’ by examining seven issues around which discussion about curriculum integration tends to circulate.