Abstract:
This study \Alas initiated in response to the Junior
Division Review (1985) publ ished by the Ministry of
Education for the Province of Ontario.
Curriculum integration is an element used within the
educational paradigm designed by the Ontario Ministry
of Education. It is a term frequent1y verbal ized b>'
educators in this province, but because of 1 imi ted
resource support regarding this methodology, it was
open to broad interpretation resulting in an extreme
v ar i at i on i nit simp 1 eme n tat i on • I n de ed, the Min i s try
intimated that it was not occurring to any significant
degree across the province. The objective of this
thes is was· to define integration in the junior
classroom and de-:.ign a meas.ur·ement in-:.tr-ument which
would in turn high 1 i gh t indicators of curriculum
integration.
The :.tudy made a prel iminary, field-based survey of
educa tiona 1 professionals in order to generate a
relevant description of integrated curr-iculum
programm i ng as def i ned in the j un i or classroom. The
description was a compilation of views expressed by a random selection of teachers, consultants, supervisory
officers and principals.
The survey revea 1 ed a much more comprehens i ve vi et·<,l of
the attributes of integrated programming than tradition
would dictate and resulted in a functional definition
tha t was broader than past prac t ices. Based on the
information generated by this survey, an instrument
ou t 1 in i ng
program
cr iter i a of
was devised.
an integrated junior cla~·sroom
Th i s measuremen t i nstrumen t ,
designed for all levels of educators, was named uThe
Han~.son I nstrumen t for the Measuremen t of Program
Integrat ion in the Jun i or Cl assroom". It refl ected
five categories intrinsic to the me thodol ogy of
integration: Teacher Behaviour, Student Behaviour,
Classroom Layout, Cl as~·r oom Environment and
Progr amm i ng. Each category and the items therein were
successfully tested in val idi ty and rel iabi 1 i ty checKs.
Interestingly, the individual class was found to be the
major variable
programming in
in the measuremen t
the j un i or d i vis i on •
of
The
integrated
instrument
demonstrated potential not onl)' a~· an initial measure
of the degree of integrated curriculum, but as a guide
to strategies to implement such a methodology.
