While the primary focus of the Common Core Learning Standards is in improving literacy and math, elements of Social Studies topics and skills are emphasized. Primary source analysis and understanding multiple perspectives are just two examples. This article is grounded in a qualitative analysis of integrated instruction in two elementary…

Education reform over the last two decades has changed perceptions of core curricula. Although social studies has traditionally been part of the core, emphasis on standards-based teaching and learning, along with elaborate accountability schemes, is causing unbalanced treatment of subjects. While the research literature indicates teachers are…

With the increased emphasis on college and career readiness resulting from the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the need for students to be able to read and write proficiently has become well established. Social studies teachers are now expected to teach nonfiction reading and writing skills in their content-area courses. Many…

The University of California-Merced's Core 1 has potential to foster genuine interdisciplinary thinking by asking students to conceptualize knowledge across fields of inquiry. Core 1 introduces students to the range of scholarly inquiry at the university all in the span of one semester-long, writing-intensive, integrated curriculum that encourages…

This article introduces the reader to the Unified Core Curriculum model developed and implemented at the University of Georgia (UGA). Four courses are taught as one course to the juniors coming into the Recreation and Leisure Studies major. An overview of the blended course and sample assignments are provided, as well as a discussion of challenges…

The integration of one's curriculum is an approach to education that ignores subject-matter lines of delineation, thus allowing faculty to bring together the separate pieces of a curriculum into a coherent whole that facilitates meaningful associations across subject matter. Before taking on the challenge of curriculum integration, faculty…

At the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, the painting "El Jaleo"--a canvas spanning 11 feet that features a flamenco dancer--is a popular starting point for getting students to spend time with a work of art. But viewing and discussing the 1882 piece by the American artist John Singer Sargent isn't just a cultural experience. It…

Colleges of business are typically formed around functional divisions like accounting, finance, management, and marketing. This discipline-based structure serves to convey basic information to the students, but it is poorly suited to provide an educational experience that integrates the functional areas into a holistic framework. Efforts to refine…

One shortcoming of the academic curriculum is its tendency to emphasize the integrity of the separate subjects and to neglect, even ignore, connections between and among subjects as well as between students' academic experiences and those beyond school. Unfortunately, evidence indicates that recent high school students, who have completed more…

University innovations relevant to sustainability education do not always come labelled as such. Inspiration can potentially be drawn from a wide range of fields and initiatives. During a 2005 study tour of Canada, seven universities were visited to investigate such programs, focussing on those that comprise more than one subject and that are…

Organizing a school staff to deliver a core curriculum has historically taken three forms: the all-school theme approach, interdisciplinary teamwork, and the block time or self-contained class models. The ultimate in student-centered integrative curriculum is the unstructured core approach, which involves teacher and student cooperation in…

In 1988, the Dutch Parliament adopted a motion that must result in an improvement of quality and in the integration of environmental studies in education for the 5 to 16 age group within the next few years. Within the scope of basic education, certain committees received a commission from the minister of education to pay explicit attention to…

Explores a preservice curriculum in teacher education, based on curricular integration rather than disciplinary separatism, that provides liberal arts students with the structure and knowledge needed to experience teaching success. Different aspects of the curricular integration process are discussed, focusing on the political, programmatic, and…

The director of the Center for Occupational Research and Development (CORD) suggests areas in a technical curriculum that could be improved using an interdisciplinary approach: (1) systems; (2) the electromechanical core; (3) the mathematics/science base; (4) computers; and (5) interpersonal/communication skills. (Author)