(This document was endorsed by the Board of Studies in 1996.)

This guiding statement is directed to those engaged in developing primary syllabuses and support documents for the New South Wales Board of Studies.
The document reflects an educational philosophy that is consistent with the Board of Studies — document Some Guiding Principles for the Primary Curriculum. It consists of six main sections:

Curriculum integration: A definition
The Board of Studies - definition of curriculum integration

Rationale
The Board of Studies - rationale for curriculum integration

The key learning areas of the primary curriculum
A brief description of each of the primary key learning areas

The context of primary schooling
An overview of the context of primary education with a focus on the needs of learners and teachers in primary schools

Principles for curriculum integration
The Board of Studies - principles for integrating the primary curriculum

Ways of planning a learning program
A summary of common ways teachers integrate the curriculum

Introduction

The formal curriculum of primary schools in NSW is defined in the statutory provisions of the Education Reform Act 1990 and in the requirements determined by the Board of Studies NSW.

The primary curriculum is described in six separate key learning areas:

• English
• Mathematics
• Science & Technology
• Human Society and Its Environment
• Personal Development, Health and Physical Education
• Creative and Practical Arts.

As the statutory authority responsible for the development of curriculum in NSW, the Board of Studies must ensure that primary syllabuses are accessible and useful for teachers. When examined as a whole the primary curriculum should be both relevant and manageable in the context of the primary classroom.

In its capacity as the curriculum authority in NSW, the Board of Studies is responsible for supporting the implementation of its syllabuses through appropriate, timely and relevant support material. In saying this, the Board recognises that the implementation of syllabuses is primarily determined by the policies of systems and individual schools and, in practice, through the professional judgement of teachers in schools.

It is within this set of responsibilities that the Board of Studies has developed this guiding statement for curriculum integration.

Curriculum integration: A definition

The integration of learning areas is a traditional and accepted way of presenting, managing and identifying the primary curriculum. Despite such a tradition, definitions of curriculum integration are many and varied. Synonyms abound. The more common examples describe curriculum as interwoven, connected, thematic, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, correlated, linked, and holistic. It is of little wonder that those involved in education can be confused when such terms are used to describe both similar and different practices under the general description of curriculum integration.

With the development of syllabuses in NSW in defined areas of learning, the practice of integrating the curriculum across and within the key learning areas requires considerable thought and guidance. It is for this purpose that the Board has developed a definition for curriculum integration.

Curriculum integration is the purposeful planning, by teachers, of strategies and learning experiences to facilitate and enhance learning across key learning areas.

Curriculum integration also refers to the demonstration, by students, of knowledge and understandings, skills, and values and attitudes that transcend individual key learning areas.

The division of the primary curriculum into six key learning areas is a useful way of describing the broad nature of K-6 content. The compartmentalising of learning in this manner should be seen as a convenient rather than absolute way of organising the primary curriculum. In this sense, the key learning areas are seen as a means to an end rather than ends in themselves.

Curriculum integration does not abandon the skills and understandings that are specific to the individual key learning areas, but is a means of enhancing those areas that cross key learning areas. To blur the boundaries of learning to the point where specific skills and understandings are lost in the interest of integrating content is as limiting for young learners as isolating activities in explicitly segregated lessons, divorced from the ways in which life exists outside the context of school programs.

It is the professional responsibility of teachers and school authorities to ensure that the curriculum is planned and implemented in the most effective way. There are, of course, many interpretations of what an effective program looks like. In order to support teachers and school authorities in their deliberations, the Board of Studies prefers to use the above definition for curriculum integration. Such a definition, along with criteria determined by the teacher, the school or the system, can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of curriculum integration in practice.

Rationale

Curriculum integration enables teachers and learners to identify and utilise the connections between syllabuses. Its primary purpose is to enhance and maximise learning both within and across the key learning areas of the primary curriculum.

Through curriculum integration, teachers plan for the development of key skills and understandings that transcend individual strands and syllabuses. In practice, curriculum integration enables students to acquire a unified view of the curriculum, broadening the context of their learning beyond single key learning areas.

Curriculum integration is an important aspect of learning because it enables the student to:

• identify both the distinctive qualities and the related elements of the key learning areas
• utilise acquired skills and prior knowledge in different contexts
• demonstrate their skills and understandings in a variety of learning contexts
• make connections more easily between the content they learn in school and their out-of-school experiences.

Curriculum integration is an important aspect of primary curriculum organisation because it enables the primary teacher to:

• identify the connections within and between the content of the key learning areas
• provide a relevant context for learning based on the needs of students
• assess students skills and understandings in a variety of learning contexts
• manage comprehensive programs covering all key learning areas.

An integrated approach better reflects the way children learn at home and in primary school. Through planning and programming integrated learning experiences, primary teachers enable students to make connections and to understand relationships within and between learning areas.

An important task for teachers from Kindergarten to Year 6 is to maintain and enhance the integrated nature of primary education.

The key learning areas of the primary curriculum

The Board of Studies develops a syllabus for each of the six key learning areas. Along with a defined aim, each syllabus has a set of objectives and outcomes, expressed in terms of knowledge and understandings, skills, and values and attitudes.

Each of the six key learning areas provides a means of looking at the world and ourselves. While there are identifiable links and commonality across the key learning areas, there are also distinct areas. This distinctiveness is recognisable in the following descriptions of the primary key learning areas.

English

The English key learning area is concerned with the ways in which we use language for different social purposes in a variety of contexts. English is both a means of learning in all key learning areas as well as an area of learning in its own right. Learning in English in the initial stages of K-6 draws on a student's mastery of spoken language as they learn about, and learn to use, written language. Knowledge, skills and understanding in English are developed through the strands: Reading, Writing and Talking and Listening. Learning in English involves students in actively engaging with a wide range of both literary and factual texts.

Mathematics

Mathematics involves the study of patterns and relationships and provides a means of communication. As well as a body of collected knowledge and skills, it requires observation, representation, investigation and comparison of patterns and relationships in social and physical phenomena. This key learning area aims to develop mathematical power and confidence in students - this includes the ability to investigate, to solve non-routine problems, to communicate about and through mathematics. Knowledge, skills and understanding in mathematics are developed through three content strands: Number, Space and Measurement. All three strands develop students' understanding through gradually formalising their language throughout the primary school.

Science and Technology

Science and Technology is the learning area in which all students learn about natural and made environments. Science is concerned with finding out about the world in a systematic way. Science is both a body of knowledge and a process of investigation. Part of the experience in science must be for students to be provided with the processes and skills required to access this knowledge. Technology is concerned with the purposeful and creative use of resources in an effort to meet perceived needs or goals. It extends beyond the tools and technical inventions of a society and involves the application of human skills, knowledge, techniques and processes to expressive and practical problem-solving situations in all aspects of human life. Science and Technology involves students in investigating, designing and making, and using technology.

Human Society and Its Environment

The key learning area Human Society and Its Environment deals with the interactions of people with one another and with their social, cultural and physical environments as they attempt to meet their needs. These interactions are analysed in this key learning area, drawing upon content and methodology from traditional disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. This key learning area assists students to empathise with others and to understand and evaluate the nature of the society to which they belong, and its environments, from both regional and global perspectives. Learning experiences in this key learning area also assist students to develop a sense of personal and national identity and provide opportunities to develop skills in researching, analysing information, issues and values, and interacting with others to bring about improvements in the quality of society and its environments. This key learning area also includes two elements of Languages Other Than English (LOTE). The core element assists students in learning about the world through languages as well as learning about languages. The optional element assists students in learning and using languages.

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education

The key learning area of Personal Development, Health and Physical Education provides students with significant learning opportunities in each of the strands: Growth and Development, Games and Sports Skills, Movement Exploration, Dance, Fitness and Lifestyle, Personal Health Choices, Safe Living, and Interpersonal Relationships. It is concerned with the development of the whole person and improving quality of life. This key learning area aims to develop the knowledge and understandings, skills, and values and attitudes necessary to adopt active, healthy and fulfilling lifestyles. This is achieved by enhancing students' self-esteem, social responsibility, wellbeing, movement skills, personal fitness and ability to make informed health and lifestyle decisions.

Creative and Practical Arts

The Creative and Practical Arts key learning area includes the art forms of Dance, Drama, Music and Visual Arts. Learning in these art forms provides opportunities for students to develop their abilities to make works and appraise their own works and those of others. Through active experiences in making, students develop their ideas, feelings, and responses to the world. They acquire a range of skills and experience the satisfaction that results from applying these skills in the works they make. They develop their interests and abilities to contribute to, and be a part of, the arts in their society. Through experiences in appraising, students learn to enjoy, value and understand the nature of the art forms in their own and other cultures, and how the arts mould perceptions and influence attitudes and beliefs. They learn to make informed judgements about the qualities of works that are produced and to respond in positive ways to a range of different types of work.

As each syllabus is developed, the distinctive qualities of the key learning areas are as crucial to the overall construction as the connections that assist in determining the total curriculum. As teachers plan their programs from Board of Studies syllabuses, they come to recognise the links and areas of commonality as well as the specific aspects that are unique to each key learning area.

The context of primary schooling

An understanding of the primary curriculum and its relationship to schooling in NSW is best presented through a description of the organisation of students and the organisation of the learning program.

Though there are many theories on how children learn best in primary schools, the most convincing attempts describe learning as complex and individual. In this regard, curriculum integration based on a single, universal learning theory is at best tenuous.

Though it can be argued that young learners do not readily identify content in terms of the legislated key learning areas, learning is not context free. If teachers are to plan for authentic linkages across key learning areas, they must be aware of the skills and understandings within syllabuses and the context in which they can be developed and identified in both planned and unplanned learning experiences in classrooms.

Organisation of students

The organisation of students in NSW schools is diverse. Though groupings are generally age-related, class compositions can span many years in age levels and ability levels. Such diversity, along with the range of socio-cultural experiences that young learners bring to the learning situation, requires detailed understanding of the needs of individual children as well as options for organising learning experiences to best meet their needs.

Primary classes are generally formed on the basis of a classroom teacher for each group of children allocated according to school or system-determined policies. Though contact with other teachers can occur throughout the school day in formal classroom activities and informally, such as in the playground, the majority of children in primary schools in NSW are taught by their class teacher. This means that, in general, the primary teacher is expected to make use of all of the K-6 syllabuses for program planning and assessment.

Organisation of the learning program

The nature of the primary classroom is one in which the development of knowledge and understandings, skills and values and attitudes will be addressed and assessed in both planned and unplanned learning experiences. What appear as clear delineations in areas of learning to some are arbitrary or inappropriate divisions to others. It is primarily for this reason that the manner in which the formal curriculum is delivered through learning programs in primary schools in NSW varies across and within schools.

Some schools and teachers prefer an approach based on the division of the classroom program according to the defined key learning areas. Others prefer an approach in which the division of the classroom program can include individual key learning areas as well as learning experiences based on a clustering of content from key learning areas.

While this document focuses on the role of the teacher in planning effective teaching programs, the nature of the learner is of equal importance within the context of the primary classroom. The young learner brings to the primary classroom a range of skills and understandings developed inthe home and the community. Parents play an important role in the further development of these skills and understandings by assisting their children to apply what they learn at school in new and challenging situations in of the home and the community.

The context of primary schooling in NSW requires the production of syllabus documents that are sufficiently flexible to meet varying approaches and conditions. The Board of Studies is committed to the production of high-quality documents that are firm in content and relevant to the needs of both teachers and learners.

Principles for curriculum integration

Relevant and engaging learning experiences are possible when appropriate linkages are made through the careful selection of content that transcends the defined key learning areas of the curriculum in NSW.

The following set of principles for curriculum integration has been developed by the Board of Studies to guide both teachers in their planning and those engaged in the development of curriculum materials in NSW.

Principles

• The strategies and activities must support children in working towards outcomes in each key learning area.
• The integrity of identified key learning areas must be preserved in the organisation of content, regardless of the dominance of a particular key learning area.
• Outcomes should be assessed in the context in which they are described and defined in each of the nominated learning areas.
• Opportunities to make connections across the curriculum should be utilised where practicable in order to assist students to consolidate knowledge and understandings, skills, and values and attitudes by applying these in a range of contexts.
• The professional judgement of teachers will determine when it is opportune to integrate the curriculum.
• The organisation of the learning environment sets the conditions for curriculum integration.

Schools follow their own or system-determined approaches. For this reason, the Board of Studies seeks to support teachers in the use of its syllabuses through this set of principles for curriculum integration.

Ways of integrating the primary curriculum

Planned curriculum integration should not be seen as a random assortment of activities. Indeed, it should in practice be planned with due regard for the aims, objectives and outcomes of the individual syllabuses. In this regard, curriculum integration should be planned in a systematic way, where linkages and areas of commonality are made explicit. The selection of learning experiences should be based on the extent to which they promote progress or broaden and confirm understanding, rather than whether they cross the boundaries of key learning areas.

The challenge for teachers in planning for integration is to program a total curriculum. Such a program will acknowledge the knowledge and understandings, skills and values and attitudes that operate across key learning areas, and yet at the same time recognise those areas that are specific to key learning areas and strands. One can identify, for example, the distinct knowledge and skills addressed in the learning experiences of the English K-6 Syllabus, as well as the functional applications of the English language in the other key learning areas.

The following brief descriptions summarise some approaches to integrating the curriculum that are compatible with this guiding statement.

Key concepts or processes are used for planning
This is an approach in which significant understandings or skills are used as the focus for curriculum planning. Key concepts or processes are used to address issues, problems and themes as they are developed across the curriculum. This approach can also include a synthesis of skills from one key learning area with the content from another key learning area.

Skills or values common to learning areas are used as linkages
This is an approach in which skills or values that are developed across key learning areas are used as linkages in planning. Skills or values and attitudes that transcend the key learning areas are threaded through learning experiences within a total program.

Overlapping concepts are used as key elements in planning
This is an approach in which concepts that are shared by key learning areas are addressed within a series of learning experiences. Areas of content are used to broaden understandings through a connected program.

In each of the above approaches the development of an integrated program is based on authentic connections. In each case, specific skills and understandings are developed within key learning areas as well as through the approaches outlined above.

Finally, it should be also acknowledged that curriculum integration is not restricted to planned learning programs. When children participate in activities, they demonstrate achievement of skills and understandings that are identifiable within individual key learning areas as well as those skills and understandings which operate across the curriculum. In this sense, the careful observation of children by teachers can result in the identification of both planned and unplanned outcomes as a consequence of learning experiences.

Conclusion

As knowledge and understandings, skills, and values and attitudes are developed from the general organisation of the key learning areas to more specific areas of study, the relationships between learning areas and the development of understandings and skills across learning areas should be identifiable in the construction of syllabuses and support material.

This guiding statement provides a conceptual framework for curriculum integration in NSW. It is intended that this document will be used as a basis for the development of support material for curriculum integration and as a reference point for those engaged in the construction of K-6 syllabuses.