Why Integrate?
Alex Pomson
Faculty of Education, York University
Why
integrate?
Administrative: Most efficient use of
resources and time. With integration, you can achieve many curriculum
objectives at the same time.
Cognitive: Brain-based research
suggests that learning is more effective/meaningful when it is integrated -
embedded in connections.
Epistemological: Integration transcends
artificial distinctions made between disciplines/bodies of knowledge.
Ideological: Promotes the idea that
Judaism is relevant to all aspects of students' lives, and that Jewish lives
are enriched by drawing on worldly wisdom/modernity.
Psychological: Enable children to
develop integrated personalities in which all parts of their school lives are
inter-related.
Practical: In a knowledge-rich
society students are better empowered by the acquisition of skills than by
accumulating greater quantities of material. Skills transcend subject matter.
Theological: God didn't only create
Torah. He created the world. Separating kodesh and chol
diminishes God.
Why not
integrate?
Administrative: Team
teaching/interdisciplinary coordination requires more planning time. It
may also require more than one teacher to work with the same class at the same
time.
Epistemological: Disciplines are
different. Subjects are ends in themselves. Integration undermines their
integrity.
Religious: Integration threatens
the distinct role and status of limmudei kodesh by blurring or
removing the boundaries between kodesh and chol.
Integrate
What?
Concepts
|
M’lacha, Tzedeck
|
Work,
justice |
Culture
|
Judaism |
Modernity |
Identity
|
Being
Jewish (Ashkenazi, Sephardi) |
Being
British/ European/human |
Skills
|
Communication,
Problem solving, etc. |
|
|
Subject
areas/ Disciplines |
Hebrew,
history, prayer |
Maths,
Science |
Values
|
Responsibilities |
Rights |
Making Integration
Work
From Michael
Zeldin, "Integration and Interaction in the Jewish Day School", in
Robert Tomberg (ed.) The Jewish Educational Leader's Handbook (Denver:
A.R.E.), 1998.
Zeldin
writes: “Building a school whose curriculum is suffused with coordination,
integration and interaction is difficult. It is much easier to work in a school
in which each subject is taught in isolation, where teachers do not have to
plan with one another, where parents are clear about what is being taught and
when. Integration in any of its forms requires significant support from the
administration of a school, from its Board, and from parents.” Zeldin suggests
that schools pay attention to four dimensions (frames) if they are to
accomplish their integrative goals.
1.
The structural frame
This involves
paying attention to how the school day is organized and how teaching
responsibilities are assigned. The school leader must seek opportunities in the
curriculum to address different sets of questions simultaneously. The leader
would question that curriculum is defined by the amount of content covered.
2.
The human resources frame
Successful
organizations take into account people's needs for security, satisfaction and
encouragement. For teachers to work effectively they need to feel empowered,
supported and confident in their professional competence. The most important
ways a leader can support teachers are to involve them in decision-making,
support them through training, and recognize their efforts and accomplishments.
3.
The political frame
This stresses that organizations are composed of interest groups that
align themselves with one another to achieve shared goals. Politics in this
sense is not an 'evil' to be avoided but a necessary feature of school life. An
effective political leader builds coalitions in support of ideas and programs,
and provides safe arenas in which conflicts can be resolved without people
getting hurt.
4.
The symbolic frame
This stresses that what an organization means to people affects how they
see the organization and how committed they are to it. A leader can help shape
participants' understanding of an organization by creating symbols and shaping
rituals that express the organization's most cherished values. A school leader
can use public events, which bring together parents, students, teachers and
board members to express the values of the school and to help people bond with
those values.
How to Implement Integration
1.
Help teachers understand the school's goals and
philosophy, particularly as they apply to integration.
2.
Assign general-studies teachers parts of the Jewish studies curriculum
and vice versa.
3.
Design the schedule in such a way that it is possible for two teachers
to be together in the classroom for at least part of each day.
4.
Set aside time in the schedule for Jewish and general studies teachers
to plan together.
5.
Identify opportunities for integration within general studies
disciplines, as well as between general studies and Jewish studies.
1.
Support teachers for taking risks and trying new
ways to integrate.
2.
Provide supervision and coaching for teachers as
they integrate in their classrooms.
3.
Furnish rewards and recognition for teachers who
design new ways to integrate in their classrooms.
4.
Involve teachers in identifying new opportunities
for integration within the school.
5.
Acknowledge how difficult it is for teachers to
change patterns of teaching learned in certification programs or by teaching in
other schools, and provide support for teachers as they learn to integrate.
6.
Locate materials that support teachers' efforts to integrate, and where
none are available commission teachers to develop them in-house.
1.
Develop consensus within the board, faculty and
parent body about the importance of integration.
2.
Educate parents to understand that integration is a
powerful means to help children develop strong Jewish identities, a near-universal
parental concern.
3.
Help parents and teachers understand that
integration uses the limited time available in school in an efficient way, to
accomplish multiple goals simultaneously.
4.
Provide safe arenas for parents and teachers to express concerns about
the school's curriculum.
1.
Shape public ceremonies (graduation, orientation,
etc.) so that they embody the value of integration.
2.
Design report cards and parents conferences so that
they make the importance of integration evident.
3.
Give public recognition to teachers who
successfully create new and interesting forms of integration.
4.
Tell stories about adults who are exemplars of
integration.
5.
Express support for integration in public meetings
with parents, teachers and board members.
6.
Create symbols that express the school's commitment
to integration and find opportunities to display these symbols publicly.
7.
Encourage public displays (in the hallways,
newsletters, etc.), which exemplify integration.