Baština (Jan 2020)
Integrated teaching in modern primary schools
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to study and analyze integrated teaching, its teaching and organization methods and its significance for today's elementary school teaching. Given the fact that there has been an ongoing need to include interdisciplinary knowledge (which is based on integration and synthesis) in modern primary schools, this topic then becomes very relevant and interesting for professionals of different fields. Integrated learning and understanding of the world are the basis for the development of students' intellectual abilities, necessary for the integration of different perspectives they face in education, the development of which is an imperative in the 21st century, as stated by certain experts studying this topic. Integrated teaching is an innovative model which interconnects learning content from multiple subject areas. It provides more dynamics and interdisciplinary connections in teaching a certain topic, which then brings more quality, more meaningfulness and more creativity to the teaching process. Thanks to its didactic values, integrated teaching in primary school enables the application of a developmental model of education based on students' in-depth learning, development of creativity and individual authenticity, as well as the development of their divergent thinking. This teaching and learning model prepares students for lifelong learning, since they are expected to engage in additional activities in order to build relationships which would encourage them to act and find new solutions. All the models and levels of integration that we have explained in the paper can be successfully achieved in primary school, both at the class teaching and subject teaching level. Teachers who use their didactic and methodological competencies to assume significantly altered roles (consultant, helper, facilitator, educator, etc.) are an important prerequisite for effective implementation of integrated teaching. In addition to teachers' competencies and to preparing students for active participation in learning activities, an important prerequisite for the quality and effectiveness of integrated teaching are certainly teamwork and rational use of knowledge arising from both the theoretical and empirical research of this complex system of teaching. This paper has conducted a systematic analysis of integrated teaching from the aspect of: its characteristics and significance, current state and issues that occur during the actual teaching process, and the results of previous studies. As is evident from the paper, the results of the studies presented show that the most common shortcomings of the practical use of integrated teaching are the lack of time to plan it and implement it carefully, and the insufficient methodological competence of teachers, which indicates the need for professional development in this field.
