Curriculum Integration and Lifelong Education

Curriculum Integration and Lifelong Education: A Contribution to the Improvement of School Curricula highlights the need to improve the school curriculum from the perspective of lifelong education. Functions, categories, components, and other elements of curriculum integration are discussed, along with different patterns of implementation under the various categories of integration, their objectives, preconditions, conclusions, and implications. A gradually developed, research validated theory of articulation in education is described. Comprised of seven chapters, this volume begins with an overview of the relationship between lifelong education and curriculum integration, their common purposes, and possible means of mutual support. The discussion then turns to the essential meanings of the concept of curriculum integration and the different ways in which it can be operated; educational purposes served by curriculum integration; and the ways in which curriculum integration affects teaching methods. The principles of integrative learning and the practice of integrative teaching are considered. The effects of integration on school organization and its role in social change are also explored, along with some of the principal problems posed by curriculum integration and its prospects in the educational enterprise. The final chapter evaluates the place of subjects and integration in lifelong education, and views curriculum integration from the larger perspective of integration in life, thus giving it a personal and community focus and not just an educational one. This book is intended primarily for curriculum specialists, educators, and interested researchers.