Team component: 6 minutes for each team member (teams of two or three) (+/-10%)
Individual component word limit: 500 words (+/- 10%)
Your school is holding a professional development day and the principal, Mrs Gilbert, asks you and other graduate teachers to present about integrated learning to help expand the teaching staff’s range of approaches in this area. Mrs Gilbert would like to also know what you have learned by doing this task and asks you to send her an individual reflection of your learnings. Therefore, this assignment is a combination of a team task (narrated presentation) and an individual reflection.
Part 1: Team component
Teachers are busy people and there will be a lot of professional development opportunities available in the one day at the school. So, to allow all teachers access to your team’s professional learning session on integrated curriculum, Mrs Gilbert asks you to create a narrated PowerPoint to share with them. Your presentation will assist educators with gaining a greater practical understanding and appreciation of integrated curriculum studies through a range of integrated curriculum approaches and theories (past and present).
Remember:
• The objective of this presentation is to help others quickly absorb complex key information and ideas, and access it at a time that suits them. Therefore, do not use too many words on a slide; rather, use audio recordings to present and explain your findings.
• To this purpose, you are required to use course readings, other scholarly literature and visual aids (e.g. diagrams, images, animations and photographs) to inform your response.
To complete this part, you will need to follow these steps:
3. Identify, analyse and evaluate the approaches and relevant theories of integrated learning (refer to Module 1 and 2), and provide examples (past and present) of practice. Refer to Modules 3, 4 and 5 for some examples (system-wide, school- and classroom-based), or consider ideas shared through the Discussion Boards and your own research.
4. Use words and visuals wisely to demonstrate knowledge, understanding, critical analysis and evaluation. Note - Evaluation: In Criterion 1, the evaluation requires your team to discuss possible benefits of the approach, i.e. - its suitability for specific learning objectives, aims, outcomes, cohorts, year levels, so forth. In Criterion 2, it is asking you to evaluate the integrated theories/approaches by connecting them to what it is happening in practical curriculum decision-making these days (in schools, classrooms and system wide with curriculum writing) and considering contemporary 21st century pedagogical approaches and methodologies. For instance, you may want to consider the integrated approaches chosen in light of the inquiry approach (as discussed in Module 1), which underpins the whole integrated studies direction. Remember that by evaluating them, we are not assessing the approaches or pitting an approach against another: we are just contextualising them while presenting how we can apply an integrated approach as teachers, what approaches are there, and when best to use them.
5. Remember to include references and allocate a final slide (or more as required) to the reference list (in APA format).
Based on Fogarty’s models of curriculum integration I have choosed Across subject (Multidisciplinary.
Part 2: Individual component – 500 words Write a reflection of your own learning from working on this presentation. Explain how the findings from your collective research and working with your peers has supported you with gaining a greater practical understanding and appreciation of integrated studies through a range of curriculum approaches and theories (past and present). Also explain what you have learned about the skills required when presenting to an expert (teacher) audience. Add screenshots to evidence your participation in the collaborative process. The reflection requires its own reference list. ( 5 reference)