In study after study, researchers have found that students who learn with an integrated curriculum outperform those who don’t. 

What is an integrated curriculum?

An integrated curriculum is one that teaches similar or complementary subjects across content areas. For example, an astronomy lesson where students use math formulas to chart the position of the constellations represents an integrated curriculum-students are applying skills from one subject to gain deep understanding of another. 

Why is an integrated curriculum preferable to one that is not integrated?

Integrated curriculum makes learning more relevant to students. Seeing how they can apply their academic concepts in the real world, fosters permanent learning and understanding rather than memorization. This type of cross-curricular learning also develops students’ ability to look at a problem holistically and develop problem solving skills in order to find a solution. 

If it’s so effective, why aren’t schools developing more integrated learning opportunities?

The short answer-it’s hard. Most schools don’t have the logistical capability to allow their teachers across subject areas to have common planning time. State standards dictate what public schools must teach in a given class and often do not align with one another in meaningful ways. Using an integrated curriculum also requires teachers to possess and utilize a deep understanding of educational theory and curriculum design. With everything heaped on modern teachers’ plates, most just don’t have the time or resources to implement this kind of curriculum at a high level. 

What makes Boluo School different when it comes to an integrated curriculum?

We are not at the mercy of state standards and we don’t have to focus on standardized testing. The only thing we have guiding our teaching principals is student success. Our teachers are not only experts in their particular subjects, they are all experienced masters of the teaching craft with a deep understanding of curriculum design and learning theory. Additionally, we have the freedom to develop our lessons around individual student needs-we can align our lessons with their individual passions or use lessons to target the soft skills students today need. 

What about small group classes?

This summer, we’ve designed our courses to complement one another in their subject matter. The social studies courses will be focused on the Great Depression and WWII and our literature courses will be using novels and short stories from that time period that reinforce the significance of the historic events of those eras. Additionally, our introductory Speech & Debate course will use events from those periods to develop students’ cultural understanding as well as public speaking skills. 

You can find a full list of our summer courses here: https://www.clubboluo.org/book-online

Sources:

https://degree.astate.edu/articles/k-12-education/implementing-an-integrated-school-curriculum.aspx

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2020.00122/full