Curriculum integration, while a commonly used educational term, remains a challenging concept to define and examine both in research and in classroom practice. Numerous types and definitions of curriculum integration exist in educational research, while, in comparison, teachers tend to focus on curriculum integration simply as a mixing of subject areas. To better understand curriculum integration in practice, this thesis details a case study that examines both teacher and student perspectives regarding a grade nine integrated unit on energy. Set in a public secondary school in Ontario, Canada, I comprehensively describe and analyze teacher understandings of, and challenges with, the implementation of an integrated unit, while also examining student perspectives and academic learning. My participants consisted of two high school teachers, a geography teacher and a science teacher, and their twenty-three students. Using data gathered from interviews before, during, and after the implementation of a 16-lesson unit, as well as observations throughout, I completed a case description and thematic analysis. My results illustrate the importance of examining why teachers choose to implement an integrated unit and the planning and scheduling challenges that exist. In addition, while the students in this study were academically successful, clarification is needed regarding whether student success can be linked to the integration of these two subjects or the types of activities these two teachers utilized.

Curriculum integration, while a commonly used educational term, remains a challenging concept to define and examine both in research and in classroom practice. Numerous types and definitions of curriculum integration exist in educational research, while, in comparison, teachers tend to focus on curriculum integration simply as a mixing of subject areas. To better understand curriculum integration in practice, this thesis details a case study that examines both teacher and student perspectives regarding a grade nine integrated unit on energy. Set in a public secondary school in Ontario, Canada, I comprehensively describe and analyze teacher understandings of, and challenges with, the implementation of an integrated unit, while also examining student perspectives and academic learning. My participants consisted of two high school teachers, a geography teacher and a science teacher, and their twenty-three students. Using data gathered from interviews before, during, and after the implementation of a 16-lesson unit, as well as observations throughout, I completed a case description and thematic analysis. My results illustrate the importance of examining why teachers choose to implement an integrated unit and the planning and scheduling challenges that exist. In addition, while the students in this study were academically successful, clarification is needed regarding whether student success can be linked to the integration of these two subjects or the types of activities these two teachers utilized.

Book Summary: Secondary schools are continually faced with the task of preparing students for a world that is more connected, advanced, and globalized than ever before. In order to adequately prepare students for their future, educators must provide them with strong reading and writing skills, as well as the ability to understand scientific concepts. The Handbook of Research on Science Literacy Integration in Classroom Environments is a pivotal reference source that provides vital research on the importance of cross-curriculum/discipline connections in improving student understanding and education. While highlighting topics such as curriculum integration, online learning, and instructional coaching, this publication explores practices in teaching students how to analyze and interpret data, as well as reading, writing, and speaking. This book is ideally designed for teachers, graduate-level students, academicians, instructional designers, administrators, and education researchers seeking current research on science literacy adoption in contemporary classrooms.

This study focuses on curriculum integration for several reasons. Firstly, because there appeared to be no clear definition of integration nor a consensus on what constituted good integration. Secondly, there were few studies on integration and the type of learning involved. I believe that a study looking at an integrated unit in depth should help to shed light on what integration is and how it can be accommodated within the school system. Thirdly, an opportunity existed to observe such a unit within an established middle school. As integration is purported as being "the way" young adolescents should be taught, a middle school setting seemed ideal to me. I thought that this setting should be far enough removed from the content driven senior school to allow for its complete and uninhibited development, especially given the philosophy of this well developed middle school. Fourthly, I am interested in the potential of integration as a way of focusing on learning outcomes rather than curriculum inputs. My own theoretical perspective, with a heavy leaning toward constructivist ideas, caused me to lean towards qualitative rather than quantitative research methodologies and methods. I wanted to do justice to the study by clearly describing the social context of the school and the curriculum. Basil Bemstein's pedagogic code was seen as a way of providing the framework for the development of such a method of description. As this pedagogic code had seldom been used in a study such as this, a complete investigation of its descriptive and analytic power was seen as being of benefit to future curriculum research. The study involved two major tasks. The first task was to develop the framework to a point that it would provide a descriptive language for the recording and analysis of a school culture. / This was done by reconceptualising theories about the sociology of knowledge drawing on research by Bemstein (1971a; 1971b; 1977; 1990; 1996; 2000), Young (1971), Daniels (1987; 1989; 1995; 2001), Morais (1992) and Parker (1994) and modifying the resulting mapping tool developed to suit the complexity of the data gathered. The second task was to apply this framework to the observational data and to derive a description of the culture of the school and the micro-cultures of the two units of study observed within this school. From this description meaning was generated in the form of propositional statements about the development of an integrated unit of study within the culture of a school.

This study has taken the historical development, characteristics and students¡¦ backgrounds and life experiences of Tainan City into consideration. The researcher has chosen the Fogarty¡¦s webbed curriculum integration model to blend in ¡§glocolization¡¨ theme into the teaching curriculum. A ¡§glocolization¡¨ curriculum (consisting of a total of six units) suitable for the fourth grade students was constructed with the hope to help the students to walk out from their own life experiences to re-experience the relationship between global and local living space. A qualitative research was adopted by this study, and the fourth grade students from a class in a certain school that the researcher teaches was taken as the research subjects to implement a year of curriculum teaching. Relevant data were collected through observation, content analysis, interview, documentation, reflective notes, etc., and the data were then sorted, analyzed and cross-examined. After summarizing the research results, the paper has obtained the following conclusions and suggestions: 1. From time-space perspective, the curriculum integration design and implementation outcomes of ¡§The stories of Tainan City¡¨ are: (1) To understand the correlation between the local historical and global events; (2) the teachers must possess the abilities to self-compile and support the historical teaching materials; (3) the effectiveness and limitations on the application of Google Earth software and electronic whiteboard; (4) the use of old photographs, old maps and animation is beneficial to historical teaching; and (5) to adopt multiple assessment method to evaluate the students¡¦ awareness on historical aspect. 2. From environmental perspective, the curriculum integration design and implementation outcomes of ¡§The stories of Tainan City¡¨ are: (1) To combine the environmental issues of ¡§local¡¨ characteristics and ¡§globalization¡¨; (2) as affective are hard to evaluate, they need long-term follow-up observations; (3) field investigation is able to simulate students to care about the environment, strengthen the research depth and further enhance the students¡¦ motivation in learning; (4) to combine the community resources by inviting relevant people to perform cooperative teaching; (5) to blend in the school¡¦s major activities into the curriculum; and (6) the scaffolding learning sheet is beneficial to learners to comprehend, apply and stay focus in thinking. 3. From living perspective, the curriculum integration design and implementation outcomes of ¡§The stories of Tainan City¡¨ are: (1) Tainan¡¦s snacks have its ingenuity and cultural diversity; (2) to introduce a model of transitional Taiwan snack ¡V Zhou¡¦s Shrimp Rolls; and (3) to broadcast and review the advertising images are beneficial to help students to analyze the transformation of ¡§globalization¡¨ to ¡§glocolization¡¨. 4. From cultural perspective, the curriculum integration design and implementation outcomes of ¡§The stories of Tainan City¡¨ are: (1) The students are able to deepen their impressions on local cultural customs through physical exhibitions and sharing of personal experiences; (2) learn to respect the cultural diversity; (3) YouTube, Digital Archives, Council for Cultural Affairs and other Internet resources are beneficial to carry out teaching activities; (4) the local cultures have encountered two major crises; and (5) in response to globalization, we must begin to promote local identity first. Finally, based on the aforesaid research findings, the study has proposed relevant suggestions to educational administrative organizations, teacher training institutes, schools and future follow-up studies on curriculum design and implementation of ¡§glocolization¡¨ theme perspective. This aims to serve as a reference for educators and curriculum researchers to use in developing and integrating the ¡§glocolization¡¨ curriculum.

Master of Science / Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering / Bruce Babin / To keep students engaged in the learning process, educational engineering institutions need to enhance their curricula. Courses within an undergraduate curriculum need to be connected in a way that is meaningful and promotes student engagement through hands-on learning. Courses are currently designed like silos of knowledge with no connection between them, yet, there needs to be a realistic and practical tie between them. Prior research that addresses course integration, hands-on learning and student engagement has guided the development of this thesis. Building on prior research, a Fundamental Learning Integration Platform (FLIP) has been developed that uses a physical object to integrate traditionally mechanical engineering taught courses with the use of a single ubiquitous object. This learning platform has three desired outcomes: 1) it connects the entire curriculum, 2) it creates a physical connection between theoretical and practical engineering concepts, and 3) it engages and includes every student in the learning process. After identifying research to guide the development of the FLIP as well as identifying courses in a mechanical engineering curriculum, a desktop steam engine was developed and is shown that it is applicable to each course. This physical object acts as the FLIP. Ultimately, it will create a physical connection between theoretical and practical engineering concepts while integrating courses together and actively engaging each student in the learning process. Utilizing the same assessment methods used in the identified research, higher retention rates, increased passing rates of the Fundamentals of Engineering exam, and increased student inclusion in the classroom are all desired measurables of the FLIP. The results of this research have provided a well-developed FLIP that utilizes a physical object to increase student engagement while integrating traditional mechanical engineering courses together.

The thesis is made up by four studies, on the comprehensive theme of integrated and subjectspecific science education in Swedish compulsory school. A literature study on the matter is followed by an expert survey, then a case study and ending with two analyses of students’ science results from PISA 2003 and PISA 2006. The first two studies explore similarities and differences between integrated and subject-specific science education, i. e. Science education and science taught as Biology, Chemistry and Physics respectively. The two following analyses of PISA 2003 and PISA 2006 data put forward the question whether there are differences in results of students’ science literacy scores due to different types of science education. The expert survey compares theories of integration to the Swedish science education context. Also some difference in intention, in the school case study, some slight differences in the way teachers plan the science education are shown, mainly with respect to how teachers involve students in their planning. The statistical analysis of integrated and subject-specific science education comparing students’ science results from PISA 2003 shows no difference between students or between schools. The analysis of PISA 2006, however, shows small differences between girls’ results with integrated and subject-specific science education both in total scores and in the three scientific literacy competencies. No differences in boys’ results are shown on different science educations.

This thesis is an explorative experimental study in two parts of different ways of organising Science education in the Swedish context. The first study deals with the question if students attain higher scores on test results if they have been working with integrated Science compared to subject-specific Science i.e. Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The second study concerns the similarities and differences between integrated Science education and Science education in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, especially in the teaching organisation. The introduction describes the nature of integrated curriculum, what integrated learning is, issues about integrated Science education, in what way integration is carried out, between subjects or within subjects, what the opposite to integrated Science is (here named as subjectspecific science education) in the Swedish context and what the Swedish curriculum has to say about integrated Science. Previous studies in integrated curriculum looking at students’ results are referred to, and it is argued for the use of the OECD’s PISA assessment instrument in this study. The thesis consists of two studies, one quantitative and one qualitative, within the above framework. The quantitative study is an attempt to find differences in scores on students’ written results on a large-scale assessment in scientific literacy between students studying in different organisations of Science education. The qualitative study is an attempt to describe differences at classroom level between integrated Science and subject-specific Science. This gives a quite rich description of four schools (cases) in a small town and how they organise their teaching integrated or subject-specific. No differences in students’ results between different Science organisations were found in the quantitative study in this thesis. Possible explanations for the lack of differences in students’ results are discussed in the article. An additional investigation that attempts to test the variable used in the quantitative study is carried out in the thesis, with an attempt to sharpen the teacher organisation variable. This is done to find out if it is possible that there can be found differences with the sharpened variable. The qualitative study gives a glimpse of some differences in the implemented curriculum between schools working with integrated Science education and a school that works subjectspecifically. The teachers do the overall lesson plans in different ways according to which organisation according to integrated or subject-specific Science they work with. When asked in a survey what kind of Science organisation they have, students from the four schools studied answered differently between schools and also, sometimes, within the same school. A further analysis of this second study is carried out by defining a conceptual framework used as structure and a possible explanation for differences between students’ views and teachers’ views on the organisation of Science education. This latter analysis tries to give an enriched description in mainly the two levels of the implemented and attained curricula, and tries to discuss the difference in students’ attained curriculum. A final discussion concludes the thesis and concerns an elaboration of the results of the thesis, problems with the main variable involved in the two studies and the possibility that the teacher actions effects also the magnitude of students’ achievement on tests.

<p>This thesis is an explorative experimental study in two parts of different ways of organising Science education in the Swedish context. The first study deals with the question if students attain higher scores on test results if they have been working with integrated Science compared to subject-specific Science i.e. Biology, Chemistry and Physics. The second study concerns the similarities and differences between integrated Science education and Science education in Biology, Chemistry and Physics, especially in the teaching organisation.</p><p>The introduction describes the nature of integrated curriculum, what integrated learning is, issues about integrated Science education, in what way integration is carried out, between subjects or within subjects, what the opposite to integrated Science is (here named as subjectspecific science education) in the Swedish context and what the Swedish curriculum has to say about integrated Science. Previous studies in integrated curriculum looking at students’ results are referred to, and it is argued for the use of the OECD’s PISA assessment instrument in this study.</p><p>The thesis consists of two studies, one quantitative and one qualitative, within the above framework. The quantitative study is an attempt to find differences in scores on students’ written results on a large-scale assessment in scientific literacy between students studying in different organisations of Science education. The qualitative study is an attempt to describe differences at classroom level between integrated Science and subject-specific Science. This gives a quite rich description of four schools (cases) in a small town and how they organise their teaching integrated or subject-specific.</p><p>No differences in students’ results between different Science organisations were found in the quantitative study in this thesis. Possible explanations for the lack of differences in students’ results are discussed in the article. An additional investigation that attempts to test the variable used in the quantitative study is carried out in the thesis, with an attempt to sharpen the teacher organisation variable. This is done to find out if it is possible that there can be found differences with the sharpened variable.</p><p>The qualitative study gives a glimpse of some differences in the implemented curriculum between schools working with integrated Science education and a school that works subjectspecifically. The teachers do the overall lesson plans in different ways according to which organisation according to integrated or subject-specific Science they work with. When asked in a survey what kind of Science organisation they have, students from the four schools studied answered differently between schools and also, sometimes, within the same school. A further analysis of this second study is carried out by defining a conceptual framework used as structure and a possible explanation for differences between students’ views and teachers’ views on the organisation of Science education. This latter analysis tries to give an enriched description in mainly the two levels of the implemented and attained curricula, and tries to discuss the difference in students’ attained curriculum.</p><p>A final discussion concludes the thesis and concerns an elaboration of the results of the thesis, problems with the main variable involved in the two studies and the possibility that the teacher actions effects also the magnitude of students’ achievement on tests.</p>

Due to the demands of federal legislation, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in particular, social studies instruction has become increasingly marginalized in elementary classrooms (Bollick, Adams, & Willox, 2010; Heafner, Lipscomb, & Fitchett, 2014; Holloway & Chiodo, 2009; Jones & Thomas, 2006; Morton & Dalton, 2007). One possible solution to this problem is to integrate social studies and reading instruction. This qualitative case study examined six third grade teachers’ perceptions of and experiences with social studies and reading as they attempted to integrate the two subjects through the use of economics book clubs in their classrooms over six weeks. The primary research question under investigation was: What impact does integrating economics with reading through book clubs have on six third grade teachers’ perceptions of social studies? The researcher prepared for and led professional development, split into two sessions, to teach the participants about integrating curriculum and book clubs. Then, data was triangulated (Stakes, 1995; Yin, 2003) by using multiple sources which included three focus group interviews, anecdotal notes from weekly planning meetings, two professional development sessions, weekly written reflections from each participant, and weekly lesson plans. The analysis of multiple data sets over time revealed that the participating teachers considered integrating economics and reading through book clubs a positive experience, an effective use of instruction time for both social studies and reading, and a meaningful approach to students’ active learning. While the teachers initially struggled to adjust to an integrated instructional method and many students being pulled out for special need services, upon observing students being highly engaged in learning, the teachers started to develop positive attitudes toward the curriculum integration and perceived the integrated book clubs as a worthwhile strategy to prioritize social studies instruction. The current study contributes to the field of social studies by providing empirical research on elementary teachers’ struggles and efforts with improving the state of elementary social studies instruction through innovative and integrated practices, specifically through the use of book clubs. The study also contributes to the field of social studies and reading content integration by focusing specifically on integrating economics with reading comprehension.