The Principle Problem of the “Integrativeness” of Integration Curriculum

With a Reference to Fumio Shiromaru’s Theory of “Generalization of Learning”

Abstract

 According to an overview of the history of postwar educational methodology, “integration curriculum” is a general term for efforts to address current school education issues through curricular reforms that are not bound by subject boundaries.  Although it became widespread after World War II, Fumio Shiromaru’s principled criticisms were directed at it during the “ integration curriculum controversy” of the 1970s.  However, with the placement of “Period for Integrated Studies” in 1998, it spread nationwide, and in the 2000s, the curriculum administration adopted the concept of “integrativeness” as its basis.  However, the validity of this overview is questionable, since it assumes “integrativeness” as a given without responding to Shiromaru’s principled criticisms.  Therefore, we will examine the concept of “integrativeness” by taking “generalization of learning” as a clue, which is the essence of Shiromaru’s criticism, but it becomes clear that the validity of the concept is not found.  However, the understanding of “generalization of learning” in previous studies also overlooked the “action” and “discipline function of knowledge”.  Therefore, when Shiromaru’s argument is reviewed again, it is that there are two “generalizations of learning,” each of which is associated with curricular and extra-curricular activities.  It also becomes clear that the concept is to teach knowledge as a “way of seeing and thinking” in the subject education.  In light of this, it is appropriate to summarize Shiromaru’s criticism in the “integration curriculum debate” as a proposal for a curriculum based on the concept of “action” and subject lessons that teach “ways of seeing and thinking” in inquiry-based learning activities. “Period for Integrated Studies” can only be a meaningful theoretical and practical development if, apart from its abolition, it is conceived in close connection with the subject lessons that teach “ways of seeing and thinking”.