Potential Benefits and Barriers to Integration, by: Sherry Meier, et. al. 1998.
Conclusions
Tools to success!
Strongly believe that YES integration can be done!
Develop assessmens that measure student competency for mastery.
Adequate/Ongoing Staff development to implemet curricula
Quality materials & methods
Educators need to collaborate to achieve common goals (Education Reform)
Develop awarenes of community for education reform to achieve educational change
Develop teachers' better understanding for integration programs
Give the long term support when addressing change
Address preservice knowledge barriers
Share best practices
Lack of Research
CeMaST developed an Integrated Mathematics, Science, and Technology. Students score higher on open-ended,student-constructed response
Ask that schools asses what major outcomes are desired, not just what is easy to measure.
Berlin and Hillen (1994) report positive cognitive outcomes
related to participation in the Activities Integrating Mathematics and Science (AIMS) program
Teaching Integrated Mathematics and Science (TIMS) finds that "a consistent dose of hands-on activities can make a real difference in student performance"
Shann's research showed increase appreaciation for science when integrated with math/science program.
Little change is carried out, since there is little research on the benefits of integration.
Discussion Questions:
Do I want preservice teachers to understand how to teach mathematics, science, and language arts as separate subjects in their own right
Does our teacher education program prepare prospective teachers to teach in an integrated setting?
Are we modeling an integrated curriculum for these students by coordinating their teaching efforts across departments?
Do teacher education faculty members work in cross-disciplinary teams as a model for their students?
Do we place our student teachers with cooperating teachers who teach an integrated curriculum, and, if so, how do we find enough of these teachers and schools?
Does the teacher education program need to develop inservice programs for the many teachers already teaching who have never experienced (much less taught) integrated curricula?
Do I want students’ pedagogical content knowledge to be interdisciplinary?
Implementation Issues
Assessment and Curriculum Barriers
Staff development for teachers required in order to be successful
Curriculum materials being produced already by National Science Foundation, Systemic Initiatives in Montana Mathematics and Science, IMaST, Maths in Context, and Sixth Through Eight Mathematics
Key to acceptance of any curriculum comes from accepting all materials supporting this reform.
Programs need to be developed that assess both content areas simultaneously
Assessments should match curricula methods and goals
Tests made to measure one content not multiple
School Structure Barrier
Adoption cycle issues for curriculum programs
Acquisition of materials
Teachers not accustomed to obtaining materials
Purchasing systems inflexible
issues with "tracked" students
Labs poorly equipped to handle "lab oriented science"
Student schedule issues
Lack of planning time
Teacher Belief Barrier
Prior beliefs and concerns about integration
Unaware or unfamiliar with integration methods
Time contraints / weak backgrounds
Teachers unwilling to change
Teacher Knowledge Barrier
Lack of commited administration/ teacher
Most programs designed to be taught by team teaching
Teachers have math anxiety
State certification systems cause difficulty to be certified under different subject areas.
Unknown which group is best prepared
Teachers unprepared in content knowldedge
Content Barrier
Would leave wide gaps in math concepts.
Only what fits into integrated unit is studied
Math involved is not challenging but narrow
theme chosen by teacher is usually not math.
Several problems identified include trivializing content, resulting in deficient skills, teacher knowledge, school structure, and assessment
Literature Supporting Integration
Southwell, 1994
Showing relevance of math allos students to see numerous applications outside classroom.
McBride and Silverman, 1991
Deeper understanding could be achieved through math by quantifying and explaining scientific relationships.
Cite close interrelatedness between math and science
The National Science Education Standards, 1995
"Scientific literacy includes the interdependency of science with other subjects such as mathematics and technology."
Association for the Advancement of Science, 1989
"need for students to be scienctifically and mathematically literate"
Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics identifies that every level of K-12 Standards contains the 4 common process standards.
Connections
Reasoning
Communications
Problem Solving
