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Integrated studies can be defined as "bringing together various curriculum areas using a theme or topic" (Coburg North Public School, 2018). Brady (2014) further explains that the curriculum can consist of multiple learning areas where students are required to use a broad range of thinking strategies.
Integrated studies impacts on teaching and learning in various ways and includes many benefits and limitations that either prompt teachers to use or avoid the approach.

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The Benefits of an Integrated Curriculum

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The Benefits of an Integrated Curriculum

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According to Drake (2018), fundamental change is occurring in every aspects of life including jobs and education. An integrated approach can address many uprising issues such as:
- Increasing the relevance for learners when they are given 'real-life' contexts and applying this learning to skills required in the 21st century
- Allowing students to gain different perspectives, as opposed to having one basic window to one disciplinary area at a time
- Children experience a 'comprehensive treatment' of the topic at hand and can learn about many aspects of the area in different ways (Grant & Paige, 2007).
- An integrated approach encourages students to work in preferred areas of interest, therefore giving them options and choice where they can learn about a topic from a broader perspective (Tytler, 2004).
- Murdoch (1998) emphasises that an integrated curriculum is not a 'one-size-fits-all' framework and furthermore, is an approach that encourages thinking and conversation.

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The Limitations of an Integrated Curriculum

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The Limitations of an Integrated Curriculum

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Although integrated studies have evidently displayed a form of a successful teaching strategy in Australian schools, there are some limitations that impact students and teachers.
Grant & Paige (2007) argue that an integrated curriculum is too busy for a student and that each discipline 'operates under fundamentally different ways of knowing.' Tytler (2004) further supports this statement by emphasising that one of the main disadvantages of an integrated approach is that one of the mixed learning areas is trivialised. Therefore, the 'Fragmented Model' (the traditional design for organising the curriculum with distinct disciplines) appears to be in favour when discussing the limitations of an integrated curriculum, where each discipline is taught separately and distinctively (Fogarty, 1991).

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Making valuable connections while learning

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Making valuable connections while learning

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Fogarty (1991) makes a point of various models that gives school facilities a foundation for designing the appropriate curriculum that will assist students in making valuable connections while engaging in learning.
The Shared Model overlaps two disciplines that can be shared and taught as partners (Fogarty, 1991). For example, a mathematics teacher and a science teacher use the same learning themes such as graphing, data collection and prediction, and although are teaching the same units, demonstrate different uses for the similar skills.
Another model used in conjunction with an integrated curriculum is the Integrated Model where a cross-disciplinary approach is used (Fogarty, 1991). All disciplines raise a central idea where students can work on the topic from a variety of directions (Grant & Paige, 2007). An example of this is in 'reading groups' where students shift from activities that incorporate a variety of skills such as reading, writing, listening, speaking.