Integrative Learning Pathways In Competence Based Curriculum

Abstract

The article focusses on a theoretical inquiry of the ways to implement the competence based curriculum (CBC) in the actual postmodern society, with an analytical emphasis on the integrative learning pathways (ILP) that must be designed and implemented in the didactic activity as concrete ways of operationalization of the curriculum paradigm. There are identified various perspectives of defining the competence as an ability construct that determines the architecture of the school curriculum. The competence development is linked with the design of the complex learning situation (CLS) as the specific pathway in CBC to foster original and efficient integrative learning of students as the basis for the development of the competence. Also, the paper links the CLS with the necessity to develop the students’ integrative learning that is viewed as a paradigmatic shift in curriculum development with focus on integrated didactic activities that leads students toward making logical and social-valued connections across curricula.

Keywords: Competence based curriculumintegrative learningintegrative learning pathways

1.Introduction

The postmodern pedagogy affirmed in the postmodern, postindustrial, knowledge society, imposes

a new approach of education, as specific study object, with impact on curriculum design. It promotes a

finalities based curriculum (FBC), designed as a unity of psychological dimension of education - defined

as the competences that must be developed and the social dimension - as the activity domain/basic

contents that are being validated at social level (Cristea, 2016, p. 50).

This way the global and opened character of postmodern education is assured, context in which the

competence based curriculum (CBC) becomes the implementation of the curriculum paradigm as a

specific type of a project, adapted to the actual society. This new model of curriculum design emphasizes

the central role of competence in designing the integrative learning pathways (ILP) that must be

anticipated and implemented in school context.

They are developed as an effect of the knowledge society that promotes the overcoming of the

traditional borders of the disciplines and the raising of an integrated curriculum that must advance a

global and unified education plan with the capacity to promote the integrative learning as personal

aspiration of a new curricular product able of efficient professional and social integration, e.g. the

integrated individual.

As we considered elsewhere (Soare, 2015a, p.975) there will be of a great importance to identify

the methodological landmarks we must rely on in defining the competence: a) the competence is based on

various psychological traits of the students who needs to solve a problem or to act in a specific situation;

b) the competence presents itself as an integrated ensemble of various acquisitions previously acquired by

students (knowledge, skills, attitudes etc.); c) the potential competence manifested in action must presents

a series of indicators of its presence; d) the manifestation of the competence is gradual and related with a

situation or a family of situations , being dependent of the designed characteristics of these learning

situations.

2.Competence Development

The development of competence is based on the identification and valorization in the educational

context of the personality traits that make possible the realization of the student actions and that allows

the solving of the situations they are confronted with. As an expected result on a medium and long time

frame of students’ activity, the competence integrates a series of students’ acquisitions made possible by

involving them in the learning activity. Those acquisitions could consist in knowledge, skills, attitudes,

resolutive/behavioral patterns linked with the designed learning activities. They can group themselves in

integrative ensembles used when students are asked to resolve complex learning situations relevant for

their lives and which exceeds the disciplinary boundaries. The way students approaches the learning

situations emphasizes the competence presence indicators and assures the continuity and coherence of the

process of the development of competences on a medium and long time frame. Also, the competence

manifest itself gradually in the learning activities students are involved and which requests, progressively

and ascending, elements of competence needed for their solving. The indicators that proves the

development of competence are intrinsically linked with the designed learning situation, being dependent

of the specific of the learning activities students are involved in.

These methodological landmarks will lead to the definition of the competence as an ability

construct depending on the context , an assembly of dispositions that facilitate the acquisitions that are

specific of a learning context. Always linked to situations and demands specific to certain areas,

belonging to a very specialized field or a general one, the competence is always linked to a context and is

acquired through learning (Soare, 2014, p.13). As a multidimensional concept that reflects the students’

potential and available personality traits that facilitate the integrated mobilization of the resources

acquired in time in unintended or designed learning situation, aiming at solving complex and significant

situations (Soare, 2015a, p.976), it becomes the ones capacity to mobilize the necessary resources to solve

a particular task in a given context, or a series of more or less complex life situations (Soare, 2015b, p.2).

Thus, the competent processing of contents and situations becomes the indicator of the development and

evaluation of competence (Soare, 2016, p. 28).

3.Complex Learning Situations Design

This concept of competence is intrinsically linked with the designing of the complex learning

situation (CLS) as the specific pathway in CBC to foster original and efficient integrative learning of

students as the basis for the development of the competence. The CLS is based on learning: a) the

decontextualized knowledge and skills through punctual mobilization of resources in structured learning

activities focused on concrete and behavioral learning objectives and b) learning the connections of

punctual acquisitions through reunited mobilization of acquisitions that foster the functional learning

activities which are linked to real life situations (B.I.E.F., 2012, p. 27-29). The competence is developed

when combining the structured learning activities with the functional learning activities in an integrative

learning pathway.

As we emphasized in another context (Soare, 2015b, p.4), these two types of activities become the

main axis of competence development and determines the way CLS are being designed. They will always

combine the interiorizing of knowledge and skills with their use in real-life situations.

Also, as Langa (2016) states, by developing a blended learning system in the initial training

process and continuing education of teachers, consideration has been taken on the creation of a powerful,

interactive learning environment, focused on the students´ needs, in which they should be involved and

motivated, assuming responsibility for the studies attended and knowledge acquired.

4.Integrative Learning Pathways

The process of developing the competence through CLS leads to the development of students’

integrative learning . From Dewey work to Brunner’s we can see this emphasis on the necessity of holistic

and interdisciplinary education that offer students a deeper understanding of the world.

As Dressel (1958) emphasizes, it is important to distinguish between the concept of

integrative/integrating , which are active student-centered processes, and integrated , which is used to

describe an educational context and emphasizes coherence and complementarity of functions. To be

integrative , in Haynes perspective (2002), the connection students make must blend and synthesize

various perspectives. Even the synthesis may be of different points of view or perspectives that are

(inter)disciplinary, or different views outside of the academic context, the learning must come from

multiple perspectives. They can be from academic disciplines, cultures, subcultures, or individual life

experiences (Newell, 2001a, p. 197).

Also, according with Kendall et all . (2005, p. 1), the integration of learning is the demonstrated

ability to connect knowledge across disciplines, and from disparate contexts and perspectives. Its

development is fostered through participation in intentional academic and co-curricular experiences

during school. This perspective is coherent with the global and open perspective of the curriculum

paradigm vision of the postmodern education and which is specific of the postmodern pedagogy.

The pedagogic literature treats integrative learning as presenting a double dimension: cognitive and

non-cognitive . The cognitive dimension considers how different perspectives contribute to an enriched

whole (Taylor Huber & Hutchings, 2004) and the affective dimensions involves student attitudes

manifested in the learning process. Students must have interest and motivation in order to really engage in

the integrative act as the learning could be ego threatening as old understandings are abandoned for new

and more complex ways of making meaning (Alexander, 1997, Baxter Magolda, 1987, Newell, 2001a,

Perry, 1978).

In mapping the integrative learning, other authors focuses on the capacity to bridge the curricular

and co-curricular, to explore connections across the general education curriculum and the major or

between academic knowledge and practice, and to integrate previous learning with new material,

(Brownlee & Schneider, 1991; Huber & Hutchings, 2004; Baxter Magolda & King, 2004; Haynes, 2002).

In integrative learning we can start from redesigning teaching and learning from a delivery,

directing, authority-driven approach to a new model where the teacher becomes a facilitator, mediator or

even a coach that intends to produce teaching and learning, to connect knowledge and skills specific to

various disciplines in a deeper comprehensive understanding of the world. Thus, the intentional teaching

and intentional learning are becoming the keys of integrative learning pathways . Teachers can choose for

alternative application of modern methods of education, thus combining the activities based on individual

effort of the student with the activities centered on group (Petruța, 2013, p. 649).

We can consider integrative learning to be a paradigmatic shift in curriculum development that

focuses on integrated didactic activities that leads students toward making formative and social-valued

connections across curricula. It presupposes the development of the students’ capacity to connect the

skills and knowledge from different disciplinary sources and learning experiences in order to apply them

in complex school and real-life contexts, the implementation of skills and practices in these complex

settings, the utilization of diverse points of view or the capacity to understand issues and positions

contextually. As Boss (2011) explains, the interdisciplinary understanding of things is crucial for

modern-thinking students.

The integrative learning and interdisciplinary understanding of real-life contexts are at the core of

the development of students intellectual skills that are required to integrate diverse perspectives they are

learning in educational settings and that are expected to be developed in the 21st Century. These skills can

contribute to solving many of the problems of the postmodern society.

Integrative learning means focusing on the cognitive processes students are activating when they

approach the curriculum. The emphasis is on the psychological processes involved in the students’

activity rather than on the content. The quality of thinking will foster students’ capacity to identify the

relevant disciplinary insights and integrate them from various subject related discipline, interdisciplinary

curriculum and then, with a deeper understanding of the phenomena, applying them to real-life contexts.

There can be used various pathways to foster integrative learning like Klein (2005, pp. 8-10)

identifies: a) team teaching and team planning, b) clustered and linked courses, learning communities, c)

interdisciplinary core seminars at introductory and capstone levels, d) thematic or problem focus in

courses, e) proactive attention to integration and synthesis, with process models theories and methods

from interdisciplinary fields, f) collaborative learning in projects and problem-based case studies, g)

integrative learning portfolios.

On the other hand, in an experimental study, Leonard (2012, p. 56) promotes the concept of

integrative learning as a four steps process that ranges from least to most cognitive complexity. It consists

in: application, comparison, understanding context and synthesis.

Application means applying an idea learned in school context to a new context that is relevant for

the student. It is foreseen as the first step of an integration process. To compare means to examine the

similarities and differences of various ideas, theories or experiences. Understanding context focuses on

identifying the source of information or knowledge and considering the social or political backdrop of an

idea, different contexts producing different perspectives. Synthesis is about blending different perspectives

to improve understanding.

Designing a competence based curriculum focused on creating relevant complex learning situations,

using experiential learning, creating portfolios or writing reflectively facilitates the engaging of students in

personally relevant curricular activities that leads to self-knowledge and understanding, identifying

multiple perspectives, encountering conflict, and reconciling conflict, thus, integrative learning and

integrative students are produced (Leonard, 2012, p. 57).

5.Conclusions

The postmodern pedagogy promotes a curriculum centered on educational finalities defined as a

unity of psychological dimension of education - reflected by the competences that must be developed -

and of social dimension defined by the activity domains/contents validated by the actual postmodern and

knowledge society. This kind of competence based curriculum will represent the operationalization of the

curriculum paradigm (as the theory of postmodern education) that emphasizes the central role of

competence in designing the methodological integrative learning pathways.

The competence is conceived as a multidimensional ability construct that depends on the context,

and reflects the integrated mobilization of the resources acquired in time by students, aiming at solving

complex and significant life situations through a competent processing of contents and situations as the

indicator of the development and evaluation of competence.

In this context, the complex learning situation becomes the specific pathway to foster original and

efficient integrative learning and interdisciplinary understanding of real-life contexts of students as the

basis for the development of the competence. Thus, the integrative learning becomes a paradigmatic shift

in curriculum development that reflects a new aim of the education systems that reorients toward an

integrated individual and a more intentional teaching and learning environment.

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