Implementing Integrated Learning in Your School and District

“Life is integrated. Why isn’t learning?”   —Tom Vander Ark

Charlie Perryman, director of Professional Development with Studies Weekly, posed this question in a recent webinar with curriculum coaches and district personnel.

“Can you think of a single job in the world today our students are going to enter, that doesn’t require integrated knowledge and thinking?” Perryman said.

The word “integrated” can be used to describe many processes — integrating technology, integrating in-class and remote learning, integrating cross curricular subjects and topics, etc.

But effective integrated learning is the experience of making connections between different curricula.

Perryman explained that there are also a lot of different reasons schools and districts choose to integrate. And all of them are good. But most importantly, research suggests that integrated learning is more effective. It’s the way the brain learns.

According to Eric Jensen in his book, Brain-based Learning, “The brain learns best in real-life, immersion-style multi-path learning … fragmented, piecemeal presenting can forever kill the joy and love of learning.”

Using social studies or science as part of an integrated elementary learning environment can drastically improve student learning in all areas.

Social studies may not always be a state-tested subject, but it is quite often used within state reading tests and other standardized assessments. Social studies knowledge and concepts are also embedded in every standardized reading assessment. Additionally, social studies vocabulary is essential to succeed on standardized assessments.

In some states, science is state-tested. Even when it isn’t, though, science skills are often used in standardized reading assessments. The reading and analysis skills taught through social studies and science are also tested constantly in many subjects.

Above all else, Perryman said, you must start with a standards-based curriculum based on deep learning strategies.

“If the resources you’re using are designed to get kids to memorize and regurgitate basic facts and information, you’re killing social studies. And you’re definitely killing integration,” he explained. Additionally, science learning should never be rote memorization either.

In society today, with facts from all over the world stored in the phone in our pockets, students need analytic skills that help with critical thinking, collaboration and communication.

These are the skills taught through social studies and science. The skills that lead to success in reading and writing literacy. The skills that lead to success in examining and solving problems in other subject areas. These are, quite literally, life skills.

Additionally, your social studies teachers need resources that provide primary sources so your students can learn to analyze and think deeply about events and issues. As you evaluate curriculum, standards-based materials that support deep learning are essential.

Then you must identify the teaching skills your teachers need and develop those through effective professional development training. According to the work of Linda Darling-Hammond, this training must:

• • Be research-based
  • Focused on the content
  • Incorporate active learning
  • Support collaboration
  • Model effective practice
  • Provide coaching and support
  • Provide time for feedback and reflection
  • Be of sustained duration

“It isn’t just two hours of a ‘Sit and Get,’” Perryman said, adding that you must continuously train teachers while also allowing them to cultivate their own knowledge with your direction.

Finally, you must have a well-developed action plan for implementation, Perryman said. He used the phrase, “Go slow to go fast,” a principle he learned from his experience as a triathlete.

“Don’t blow yourself up in that first mile, or you won’t make it to the last mile,” he said.

When implementing integrated learning, don’t roll this out across the whole district all at once. You have to start slow with early adopters who are willing to try new things. Often it helps to start with just a small group of hand-selected teachers. Once the majority of teachers see the early adopters succeed with this new process, they are more willing to join.

Speaking from experience as a former teacher and curriculum coordinator, Perryman said, “As we all know, teachers listen to other teachers way more than they listen to us.”