Integrated learning promotes professionalism among teachers as they work together to raise student achievement. Teachers are often subjected to top-down instructional mandates and left to implement them in the isolation of their classrooms. In integrated learning, teachers collaborate in developing engaging, meaningful lessons, activities and experiences for their specific students. Acting as decision-makers rather than conduits for prepackaged curricula, these teachers connect with each other as members of a professional team and with the community as they develop courses related to students' lives. Integrated learning builds parent and community support.
Parents care about their children, and employers have a vested interest in education.
This involvement also convinces students that high school experiences are important. The approach laid out in this paper illustrates the fundamental elements of our consideration for teaching in an integrative fashion, one in which teaching for meaning and understanding is paramount. This approach may be viewed as a metamorphosis, and as we all know, change is challenging. This endeavor must be undertaken with careful study, planning, and most importantly, passion and clear focus. We are busy seeing with new eyes, and rekindling the flame of learning in order that we may reach and teach our students in ways that facilitate their achieving higher levels of performance.