MVGFC
INSTITUTE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
EDU 219
Building,
Enhancing
New
Literacies
Across the
Curriculum
MODULE 4:
Integrating New
Literacies in the
Curriculum
Welcome to a new era of education! As our world becomes
increasingly digital and interconnected, it's essential that we equip
our students with the skills they need to thrive in the 21st century.
New literacies are the key to unlocking this potential.
By incorporating digital literacy, media literacy, information
literacy, visual literacy, and cultural literacy into our curriculum, we
can empower our students to become critical thinkers, effective
communicators, and lifelong learners. Together, let's create a
learning environment that prepares our students for a bright future.
The Concept of Integrated Curriculum
In retrospect, the introduction of an integrated curriculum
gained greatest support in the 1960s. Based on the essential
organization of content, the design emphasizes the role of diverse
entities called academic disciplines clearly defined in terms of
knowledge, skills and values.
Thus, an integrated curriculum…
Focuses on basic skills, content and higher-level thinking;
Encourages lifelong learning;
Structures learning around themes, big ideas and meaningful
concepts;
provide connections among various curricular disciplines
provides learners opportunities to apply skills they have
learned
encourages active participation in relevant real-life experiences
captivates, motivates, and challenge learners
provides a deeper understanding of content
offers opportunities for more small group and industrialized
instruction; and
accommodates a variety of learning styles/theories (I.e., social
learning theory, cooperative learning, intrinsic motivation, and
self-efficacy) and multiple intelligence.
Hernandez, R. Building, Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum September 2024
MVGFC
INSTITUTE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
EDU 219
Building,
Enhancing
New
Literacies
Across the
Curriculum
Approaches to Integration
The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (2004)
presents three approaches to integration and these are
multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary.
A multidisciplinary approach in curriculum refers to an
educational strategy where students engage with content and skills
from multiple subject areas or disciplines simultaneously. In this
approach, various subjects are taught in parallel, with each
discipline contributing its own perspective and expertise to a
common theme or project. The goal is to provide students with a
broader understanding of a topic by exploring it from different
disciplinary angles, though the subjects generally remain distinct
and are not deeply integrated with each other. This approach
emphasizes the application of knowledge from diverse fields to
enhance learning and problem-solving skills.
However unlike interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary approach is
limited to a distinct characteristics or governing rules among
disciplines. It emphasize that knowledge is best learned through the
structure of the disciplines (a right answer, one truth).
Meanwhile, An interdisciplinary approach in curriculum
involves integrating knowledge, methods, and perspectives from
multiple disciplines to address a complex topic or problem. Unlike a
multidisciplinary approach, where subjects remain distinct and
contribute separately, an interdisciplinary approach blends and
connects different disciplinary insights and techniques to create a
more cohesive and comprehensive understanding.
In practice, this means that students work on projects or
themes that require them to apply and synthesize knowledge from
various fields. For example, a project on environmental
sustainability might incorporate principles from biology, economics,
and geography, and students would learn to apply concepts from
these disciplines in an integrated manner.
The aim of an interdisciplinary approach is to encourage
students to make connections between different areas of
knowledge, fostering critical thinking and problem-solving skills that
are applicable to real-world situations. It often involves collaborative
teaching and learning, where educators from different disciplines
work together to design and deliver the curriculum.
A transdisciplinary approach in curriculum goes beyond
traditional disciplinary boundaries to create new frameworks and
methodologies that address complex, real-world problems. This
Hernandez, R. Building, Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum September 2024
MVGFC
INSTITUTE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
EDU 219
Building,
Enhancing
New
Literacies
Across the
Curriculum
approach integrates and transcends existing disciplines, fostering a
holistic and innovative perspective.
Key Aspects of a Transdisciplinary Approach:
Integration of Disciplines: Rather than just combining or
blending existing disciplinary knowledge, transdisciplinary
approaches create new perspectives that incorporate and
transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries.
Focus on Complex Problems: This approach often targets
complex, real-world issues that cannot be fully understood or
solved within the confines of a single discipline, such as climate
change, public health, or urban development.
Collaborative and Adaptive: It involves collaboration among
researchers, practitioners, and stakeholders from various fields
and sectors. The focus is on adapting and integrating
knowledge to develop new solutions.
Creation of New Knowledge: Transdisciplinary work often
leads to the generation of new concepts, theories, or
methodologies that were not possible within traditional
disciplinary frameworks.
Student Engagement: In an educational context, students
might engage in projects or problems that require them to
apply and synthesize knowledge from multiple disciplines, often
leading to the development of new ideas or approaches.
Comparing and Contrasting the Three Approaches to
Integration
Multidisciplinar Interdisciplinar
Aspect Transdisciplinary
y y
Standards of Interdisciplin
the ary skills and Real-life
Organizing disciplines concepts context
Center organized embedded in Student
around a disciplinary questions
theme standards
Conceptualiz Knowledge Disciplines All knowledge
ation of best learned connected by interconnected
Knowledge through the common and
structure of concepts and interdependent
the skills Many right
disciplines Knowledge answers
A right considered to Knowledge
answer be socially considered to
Hernandez, R. Building, Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum September 2024
MVGFC
INSTITUTE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
EDU 219
Building,
Enhancing
New
Literacies
Across the
Curriculum
be
constructed
indeterminate
One truth Many right
and
answers
ambiguous.
Procedures Disciplines
Interdisciplin
of discipline identified if
Role of ary skills and
considered desired, but
Disciplines concepts
mots real-life context
stressed
important emphasized.
Co-planner
Facilitator
Role of Facilitator Co-learner
Specialist/
Teacher Specialist Generalist/
generalist
specialist
Students
Disciplinary
Interdisciplin questions and
Starting standards
ary bridge concerns
Place and
Know/do/be Real world
procedures
context
Degree of Medium/
Moderate Paradigm Shift
Integration Intense
Interdisciplin Interdisciplinar
Discipline- ary y
Assessment
Based skills/concept skills/concepts
s stressed stressed
Learning to Concepts and essential understandings across
Know disciplines
Interdisciplin
Disciplinary Interdisciplinar
ary skills as
skills as the y skills and
the focal
Learning to focal point disciplinary
point
Do Interdisciplin skills applied in
Disciplinary
ary skills a real-life
skills
also included context
included
Democratic values
Learning to Character education
Be Habits of mind
Life skills (e.g., teamwork, self-responsibility
Backward design
Planning
Standards-based
Process
Alignment of instruction, standards and assessment
Constructivist approach
Inquiry
Experiential learning
Instruction
Personal Relevance
Student choice
Differentiated Instruction
Balance of traditional and authentic assessments
Assessment
Culminating activity that integrates disciplines taught
Hernandez, R. Building, Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum September 2024
MVGFC
INSTITUTE OF TEACHER EDUCATION
EDU 219
Building,
Enhancing
New
Literacies
Across the
Curriculum
Methods of Curriculum Integration
Anchored on approaches to curriculum integration, there are
methods that are processed and devised for this purpose.
1. Project-Based Learning. It entails an output which involves
accomplishing a complex task, performing a presentation and
producing, a project, a craft, or an artifact.
2. Service Learning. It refers to learning that actively involves
students in a wide range of experiences, which often benefit others
and the community, while also advancing that goals of a given
curriculum.
3. Learning Centers/Parallel Disciplines. A popular way to
integrate the curriculum is to address a topic or theme through the
lenses of several subject areas.
In higher grades, students usually study a topic or theme in
different classrooms. This may take the form of parallel disciplines
and teachers sequence their content to match the content in other
classrooms (ASCD,2004).
4. Theme-Based. Some teachers go beyond sequencing content
and plan collaboratively and they do it in a more intensive way of
working with a theme dubbed as theme based. Often, three or more
subject areas are involved in the study, and the unit ends with an
integrated culminating activity.
5. Fusion. In this method, teachers fuse skills, knowledge, or even
attitudes into the regular school curriculum. Many schools
emphasize positive work habits in each subject area. Educators can
also fuse technology across the curriculum with computer skills
integrated with in every subject area (ASCD,2004).
It bring positive gains in student achievement resulting from
integrated instruction in the classroom.
Hernandez, R. Building, Enhancing New Literacies Across the Curriculum September 2024
