Integration: An approach to Science in primary schooling

Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 2, Issue 1, Article 10 (Jun., 2001)
Peter J FENSHAM
Integration: An approach to Science in primary schooling

Previous Contents Next

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND : THE 1990s
- Thematic integration
Nevertheless, some creative work was done by individual teachers and by some developers of support materials for these new curricula. Their aim was to reduce the diffuseness of the long lists of science learnings by choosing larger themes or real world contexts that would enable a number of the discrete pieces of content to be studied in an integrated way. This is a sense of integration within a science curriculum itself, instead of the other more usual meanings of integration that have a cross-curricular sense. The use of a thematic approach in primary science was an example, at that level, of a curriculum design that had already been promoted in secondary science in the later 1980s. This was termed the "Concepts in Contexts" design. It was promoted because of its potential to present science concepts to students in more meaningful way, as they, with their teacher, explored how science plays a part in broad, familiar and interesting contexts like Transport and Sport (PLON Physics, The Netherlands) or Clothing and Drinks (Salter's Science, England) or Cooking and Keeping Warm (Physics, Australia). The relational nature of science concepts, and their power in being applicable in different aspects of these familiar contexts, would thus be more easily learned and appreciated by students. In turn, the conceptual learning would deepen the students' understanding of the real world contexts. Similar intentions underlay the integrated thematic approach to primary science. I remember visiting a teacher who had achieved enthusiastic and deep learning in his class in a small rural town with the theme, Moving Heavy Objects, that they had been exploring in class and on excursions into the local community for several weeks. Another example of a fruitful theme was Soil, which in the early 1990s was chosen by several primary teachers in different schools who agreed to share their developmental and implementation experiences with each other. Some of questions that were investigated were :

Do seeds grow the same in different soils?

Can we change sandy soil into better soil?

How long does it take for water to pass through soil?

Do different animals live in different soils and why?

How do bugs eat, breathe and move under soil?

Does soil come into some food chains?

There was no problem in spending ten weeks on these mutually-suggested set of investigations. In the process the teachers were able to cover many concepts in the prescribed curriculum list.
The conception of Science that underpinned these integrating themes was still the conceptual one of the curriculum document as a whole. Real world themes that integrate a number of science concepts are also, of course, ones that can provide links with other curriculum areas. Some of those I have just exemplified can be addressed in ways that fit well into the fields of social studies. That is, they have historical, geographical, social and economic significance that may also be relatable to the content demands in these social areas of the primary curriculum. For teachers who went that far there seems again to have been a significant difference between a theme that is initially chosen for science study, and then extended to social study, and a theme that is chosen initially for social study, and later is to be extended for science study. In the former case the maintenance of the science is easier than in the case of the latter.