Integrated Programmes in Education: A response to the changing needs of students
Human life in the 21st century is very complex and multidimensional. The dawn of this century has experienced a wider change in many spheres of human civilization, that is, economic, political, religious, social, technical, and many more. This article explores how integrated education has responded to the changing needs of students.
The sphere of education is not an exception to the change. To meet the changing demands of the students and many other stakeholders of education, the education systems of different nations of the world are in the process of continuous paradigm shifts in their curriculum, methods of instruction, management, evaluation process, and other related components. Integrated programmes in education may be considered as a kind of crop of these paradigm shifts.
Integrated programmes allow the learners to pursue a holistic learning without the restrictions imposed by subject and/or level of learning boundaries. Therefore, these programmes help individuals to be equipped with the skills to cope up with the changing lifestyle of the 21st century, as mentioned in the National Education Policy (2020).
The main purpose of integrated programmes is to bridge the gap between knowledge provided in classroom situations and the applicability of the knowledge in real-life situations. The purpose for moving towards an integrated course design stems from the relationship between the classroom and the increasingly complex world of today. Trends towards global interconnectedness, the increase in pace and complexity, and the rapid expansion of knowledge have brought with them mounting concerns over classroom relevancy and the lack of connections between education and real-world issues.
The integrated course design provides a solid response to these challenges by facilitating the application of knowledge, encouraging multiple disciplinary perspectives, enhancing relationships between in-class content and out-of-class realities, encouraging depth and breadth in understanding complex issues, and enhancing student engagement through experiential and active learning.
Article details:
Integrated Programmes in Education: Development and Current Status
Krushna Chandra Patra, Tapan Kumar Basantia
First Published April 24, 2021 Research Article
DOI: 10.1177/23476311211010018
Higher Education for the Future