China Teachers

With the rapid development of information technology and the unstoppable arrival of the era of big data, countries and regions around the world have been carrying out educational reforms based on the judgment of the changing social situation and the analysis of the status quo of education in their own countries and regions, and the curriculum and teaching have attracted a great deal of attention because of their central position in education.

In all kinds of curriculum reform process, curriculum integration is one of the fundamental issues. Curriculum integration has various manifestations, and the one that is currently used more often in primary and secondary schools is thematic curriculum integration.

Thematic curriculum integration is *** there is a theme, generally speaking, there are two or more disciplines teachers *** participate in the design and implementation of the school coordinated by teachers of different disciplines *** participate in the same seminar, to reach a concept *** knowledge, with the help of different skills between the disciplines or different forms of class organization, to give full play to the strengths and characteristics of each discipline, to complete the theme of the cooperation of the horizontal connection The first is to make use of the different skills of each subject or the organization of different types of lessons, to make use of the strengths and characteristics of each subject, and to cooperate to complete the horizontal connection of the topic and the deep understanding of knowledge.

This type of lesson is suitable for the same grade level organization, multi-disciplinary teachers collective preparation, students participate in a wide range. There are three main paths of thematic curriculum integration: intra-disciplinary curriculum integration, multidisciplinary thematic curriculum integration and interdisciplinary thematic curriculum integration.

I. Thematic Curriculum Integration within Disciplines

Thematic Curriculum Integration within Disciplines, i.e., integrating more than two disciplines around a single theme, the theme is generally designed by the teacher, choosing a different course to carry out, and is generally carried out by a single subject teacher.

Generally, thematic curriculum integration within disciplines is designed to focus on one discipline and link the content of other disciplines to implement instruction in that discipline. Themes can be issues, problems, or experiences, or they can be interdisciplinary skills (e.g., thinking skills, social skills) with interdisciplinary concepts (systems, models). Courses involving the integration of science and technology must first choose a theme (either proposed by the teacher or by the students), and the teacher and students then brainstorm a list of content (problems, people, events, concepts) related to the theme, which the teacher then categorizes under certain disciplines. After that, the teacher asks guiding questions to signal the focus, scope and sequence of learning for this thematic course. Finally, teaching and learning activities are designed, and it is desirable to have a variety of forms of teaching and learning activities, such as reading, writing, and debating. However, the choice of the form of teaching activities can be based on the choice of students in different school years, as illustrated by the following examples from two elementary school.

Case 1: Ritan Primary School's National Curriculum "English" Subject

The fourth-grade English teacher designed a lesson based on the Dragon Boat Festival, which is a subject-themed integrated lesson that combines the subjects of English, music, art, and comprehensive practice. The English teacher created a teaching situation before the lesson, and with the help of the comprehensive practical activity program, she made some paper dumplings with the students and arranged them in the classroom, so that the students could enter the classroom and get into the atmosphere of the Dragon Boat Festival. Teachers in the English teaching context of multicultural comparison, with the help of the art discipline to draw the Dragon Boat Festival rowing scenes, accompanied by the Dragon Boat Festival songs, so that the whole lesson is not only the transmission of English knowledge, but also the integration of multiple disciplines, the curriculum content is more thick.

Case Study 2: The Design and Production of Three-dimensional Paper Models at Anhuili Primary School

Wang Xiaosong, an art teacher with a background in mathematics, designed and developed this course as part of the school-based curriculum. With the theme of "designing and making three-dimensional paper models", the teacher integrated and extended knowledge from the national curriculum, such as three-dimensional geometry in mathematics, artistic design in art, and production skills in labor technology.

Second, multi-disciplinary thematic curriculum integration

Multi-disciplinary thematic curriculum integration, aimed at identifying a theme, two or more disciplines around this theme according to the characteristics of the subject and academic skills, teachers choose different curriculum forms *** with the presentation of the theme of the core content. This type of thematic curriculum integration is mostly parallel to the implementation of multidisciplinary participation, based on similar curricular objectives or similar curricular content integration. The theme of integration can be the school's characteristics or the school's philosophy at the macro level; at the micro level, it can be a certain topic. Below is an example of a typical school's approach to sharing their practices.

Case Study: Multidisciplinary Curriculum Integration with Ethnic Characteristics in the Primary Department of the Second Affiliated School.

(1) Defining the theme of specialties

The school has set the goal of "inheriting national culture and nurturing Chinese talents". The school's curriculum is based on the theme of "national culture", with the goal of "diversifying the implementation of the national culture theme curriculum and improving students' learning ability as a whole", and carrying out the design and implementation of multidisciplinary curriculum integration. In the research process, the school took the national curriculum integrated practice, moral and social, music, art, science, physical education, language and calligraphy courses as the focus of the national culture theme courses, teachers of these disciplines from the disciplinary point of view of the search for national characteristics, the development of national theme of the school-based curriculum, the school carried out a multidisciplinary integration of the school-based curriculum under the theme of the practical research.

(2) Research and Development of Specialty Courses

The school level developed the "Ethnic Culture Theme Curriculum Reader" as a compulsory course for the whole school. Music teachers developed "Mongolian music long and short tunes", character and social teachers developed "different styles of housing", language teachers developed "ethnic literature - the story of Avanti", "Dongba script", art teachers developed "dress culture on horseback - Mongolian dress", physical education teachers developed "ethnic sports" and other school-based The school-based courses were developed by the physical education teachers, such as "Ethnic Sports".

(3) Co-existence of multiple curriculum forms with the help of multiple curriculum resources

The school's macroscopic feature is "ethnic culture", and teachers can determine the theme of a certain ethnic group in their micro-practice, and carry out multi-disciplinary integration. For example, the school's integrated practice, art and music three teachers to determine the "Mongolian culture research" theme, so teachers take students into the Chinese National Park Mongolian village, dressed in Mongolian costumes and the local Mongolian villagers sing and dance together, under the guidance of teachers in the disciplines, the scene to do small group research study, and return to school!

The three subject teachers to integrate the same theme of different areas of the curriculum to carry out classroom teaching.

Combined with the school's own national literature book "Dongba script", into the Central University of Nationalities Museum of Ethnic Minorities, a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of the minority characters, national unity education textbook "general knowledge of the nationalities" in the "variety of languages and scripts" of the study.

The school's "national culture" theme curriculum integration reflects the following three characteristics:

First, the same subject, the same ethnicity, different grades "national culture" curriculum integration inquiry. For example, the National Curriculum "Music" subject contains four Tibetan music and songs, three music teachers jointly led students of different grades to do exploratory learning on Tibetan music and culture. Grades 1 to 3 mainly inserted the study of dance into the study of songs, integrating music and dance. Grades 4-6 mainly do music appreciation and chorus of songs, and form class chorus characteristics.

Secondly, the integration of different subjects, the same ethnic group, and the same grade of the "ethnic culture" theme program is explored. Taking Mongolia as an example, teachers of language and music subjects talk about "Mongolian music in short and long tones", teachers of art subjects teach "dress culture on horseback-Mongolian dresses", and teachers of character and society teach "different styles of housing"

Thirdly, the integration of the theme course "national culture" into national curricula is explored.

Thirdly, the national curriculum of "national culture" in the national curriculum integrative exploration of thematic courses. For example, the second grade language textbook "diary two" tells the story of two little girls of Han and Miao, the teacher took the students into the big world of reading, focusing on guiding the reading of children's literature of ethnic minorities. Under the guidance of the teacher, and the "diary" adapted, rehearsed ethnic culture textbook drama "learning etiquette see action".

The integration of the above curriculum themes emphasizes the multidisciplinary presentation of the school's ethnic characteristics, and the selection of multiple disciplines under a theme **** with the participation of the implementation of the curriculum, which is typical of this type of curriculum is that each discipline in the teaching of their own disciplines to carry out the practice.

Third, cross-disciplinary thematic curriculum integration

Whether it is intra-disciplinary thematic curriculum integration or multi-disciplinary thematic curriculum integration, it can be understood as cross different disciplinary thematic curriculum integration.