INTEGRATED LEARNING – IN TWO DIFFERENT COINS

This is one side of the coin - circumscribing it.

Twice or more, I’ve been to several International Schools including Intentional Kindergartens just to observe the learning environment. Each of these institutions must conform to a standardized curriculum - to keep going; to keep a good reputation; to earn more eventually.

To those who could not afford such an education are threatened financially – in short, it’s very expensive. And lucky are those who could take this challenge in their desperate desire to give the best education for their kids.

Good for you!

And those who could not get into such an institution should learn to be content – in other words integrated learning is way expensive. Aside from sounding fancy and unaffordable, every poor individual has no room for such a thing.

That’s reality!

Every time I happened to pass by any of those prestigious schools, I couldn’t help but ask my self “Why these people are always having the best thing in life?” So back off, and so threatened my self as well. Sad to say though, but if one has no sufficient wealth education is always in the limit.

Integrated learning is a very good thing so to speak, but it will take a lot of money to indulge in such education and to have such an educator.

And this is the other side of the coin – not circumscribing it.

I could demarcate more by giving all the disadvantages for such a learning strategy but I prefer not to – no benefit anyway. And if I did, it would only trigger a thing. Maybe I’d end up believing that integrated learning is only for the rich.

But I don’t think so!

For even poor kids deserve such kind of learning. This always goes back to the teacher himself or herself. Working for this unsustainable organization always put me to the limit - financially wise. I have big dreams and a lot of good programs for the kids. But I am always challenged on how to implement everything just to give them the best education.

Not anymore. I figured out many good things in the process. After designing and redesigning the curriculum, they too can now have an integrated learning. Happy to say, even the less privileged kids can now study this standardized program without leaving the center.

The second two pictures above are explicit example to this. Instead of learning new vocabulary in a very old-fashioned way or remembering all the words through a spelling, I had them used the word factory. As I say the word, the first player picks the letter to form the word. If one picks the next letter wrong, another player continues. So on and so forth. When one forms the letters correctly, he/she gets the point. And then I explain the meaning of the word and its proper uses.

This breaks the norm.

Playing UNO for instance – this is one way to help learners remember colors; even learn to follow sophisticated instructions such as draw four, reverse, skip, change color, say UNO, pick a card, etcetera. Instead of doing the norm like present the vocabulary, you can do a twist or a change. And then assured that an integrated learning takes place.

This is when learning aside from banking method strategy or a traditional way becomes fun.

I believe that familiarity or mastery is one of the goals in integrated learning. And there are like hundred ways or more to attain this goal. And this is what I usually do to my kids – creativity.

This time I followed the amazing race strategy. It’s a corporate task finding each clue and doing every order. Instead of doing a normal routine reviewing previous lesson, I had a shift (as always). For example, in one of the tasks given was to explain each part of speech. But the leader must see to it that each member in the team had understood the lesson by heart before performing the task corporately.

Again, instead of giving a usual worksheet, I had them do it by group (one of the tasks in the amazing race) so they will learn to contribute ideas among themselves. Most importantly each one can learn from each one specially these new kids at the center.

It helped a lot. But I leave it to you to predict the rest of the benefits for they are too obvious. This is when learning aside from rote style or memorization becomes absorbing.

Well, I don’t need more highlights to give my defense. This is not my intention!

For now, I would like to encourage each educator that integrated learning is not always associated with sophisticated technology, with an air-conditioned room, with International schools, and the like. You can use whatever simple resources you have in your hand right now. Nature for instance - it’s free but you can take a wonderful lesson experience out of it. That’s what it makes an integrated learning.

Which of these coins would you prefer? Up to you!