Have you examined the power
that comes when a teacher
carefully integrates
two subject areas?

If you said YES
and you are a teacher
responsible for several subject areas,
then NLU has the program
you have been waiting for!

Teaching for Conceptual Integration (TCI)
is a unique graduate program;
there is no other program like this anywhere.

TCI focuses on how student learning can be enhanced
when a teacher uses instructional methods
that help students integrate concepts and processes
from several subject areas of the curriculum.

It is intended for teachers who teach multiple subjects
to the same group of students in grades K-6.

Framework

Outcomes

Teaching for Conceptual Integration (TCI) centers on the systematic examination of teaching to build conceptual understanding in each of the major subject areas of the elementary school curriculum (Reading/Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science) through deliberately integrating subject areas two at a time. In TCI classes, a pair of instructors (one from each of the two subject areas) uses principles derived from Conceptual Integration Theory to focus on how student learning and understanding can be enhanced when the classroom teacher intentionally weaves together teaching methods, concepts, and process from those subject areas. Conceptual Integration Theory has been used in cognitive science, psychology, and linguistics to understand the processes by which humans take seemingly disparate information and blend the ideas into a new, coherent, and fundamentally different whole.

TCI is a concentration within the Curriculum and Instruction program and leads to either a Master's Degree (M.Ed.) or a Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) for those who already have a master's degree. Intended for K-6 teachers, the TCI courses help teachers:

• examine and create curricular activities and units that exemplify the power of integrating concepts and processes across subject areas,
  

• become knowledgeable about principles of designing and modifying curricular materials to promote conceptual integration for all students, and
  

• develop understanding of and competence in instructional methods that foster conceptual integration.
  

Collaborators in Program Development

In the developmental stage for almost two years, the TCI program is a collaboration among faculty from the specialized subject areas of Reading and Language, Mathematics Education, Science Education, Social Studies Education, and Curriculum and Instruction. Its roots go back to a host of rewarding collaborations among NLU faculty from different areas.

• Drs. Jane Moore, Alan Rossman, and Roger LaRaus from Math, Science, and Social Studies, respectively, designed and team taught sections of a course on integrated methods of teaching these subject areas.

• Dr. Susan McMahon from NLU's Reading and Language program worked with teachers in Wisconsin elementary schools to develop and implement an integrated Reading/Language Arts and Social Studies program.

• Drs. Arthur Hyde and Marilyn Bizar taught a course integrating Mathematics and Reading and also worked with Reading Specialists to enhance their ability to help classroom teachers use strategies from writing and reading comprehension in mathematics.

• Another significant collaboration across subject areas by NLU faculty was the book, Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in US Schools by Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde.

These projects led a group of faculty to begin to develop a full Master's and CAS program based on the careful integrating of subject areas.

The faculty has conducted focus groups on TCI and has gathered feedback from various groups of teachers and administrators. The consensus has been that the program responds to a genuine need of elementary teachers who daily face the challenges of responsibility to cover too much content in their curriculum. In addition, a Teacher Advisory Group has been established and has provided feedback on the program.

FAQ's

We are frequently asked questions about TCI, such as:

What can be integrated across subject areas?

• Methods of teaching

• Processes of students' thinking

• Concepts from the subject areas

What do we mean by concepts, processes, and methods?

• Concepts: ideas of the curriculum that children should understand and be able to use.

• Processes: the kinds of student thinking that build an understanding of concepts.

• Methods: the actions that teachers take to help students engage in those processes.

Does everything have to be integrated? NO.

• Some parts of the curriculum are best dealt with as one subject at a time.

• Some parts of the curriculum can have more power when integrated across two areas.

• But which is which?

Does the program advocate interdisciplinary or thematic units? NOT NECESSARILY.

• Some things are best dealt with as one subject at a time; we need to know what they are.

• If one does not know how to integrate two subjects effectively, how can one integrate four?

Why attempt Conceptual Integration?

• Students build strong understandings when they make many connections among ideas.

• Teachers save time because they don't always have to do separate units.

• More student understanding means less reteaching.

• Teachers differentiate instruction by encouraging multiple representations and processes.