**1. Introduction**

Currently, active discussion of curriculum integration (CI) is taking place in Finland, because a new core curriculum for comprehensive schools has been implemented since 2016 [1]. For the first time, the new core curriculum presents CI normatively as a compulsory element of schoolwork. Earlier curricula have presented CI as a general objective to be considered by teachers in planning their teaching. At present, every comprehensive school in Finland is planning and implementing its own integrated learning modules.

The change is demanding, especially for secondary school teachers, who are specialized in teaching one or a few subjects, yet now are expected to create integrated learning opportunities

> © 2016 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2018 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

by connecting a number of subjects. This chapter acknowledges the current challenge for Finnish teachers and provides some suggestions for schoolwork and teacher education for how teachers can better meet the demands of CI. The aim is to provide concrete answers to the following research questions: (1) what kind of knowledge does CI require of teachers, and (2) how should teacher education be developed to give teachers better readiness for CI?

a long social process involving struggles with curriculum content [9]. CI can be seen as an alternative way of organizing schoolwork. Sometimes a school subject has a scientific discipline as a background, such as biology, although the science of biology is divided into many subcategories. A school subject can also be a cluster of many fields of knowledge. An example is environmental studies, which in Finnish primary school is a combination of biology, geog-

Teachers' Knowledge of Curriculum Integration: A Current Challenge for Finnish Subject Teachers

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.75870

121

For example, in the Finnish system, students in grades one to six are given environmental lessons; by grades seven to nine—lower secondary school—environmental studies change to more specific science subjects. The older the students become, the more subject-based the schooling becomes [1]. This is significant both from the students' and from the teachers' points of view. In Finnish primary schools, teachers are usually giving instruction in the majority of the subjects, but in secondary schools, only one or a few subjects. In this chapter, the main emphasis is on secondary level education and the challenges CI presents for subject

CI is generally seen as a process of teaching and learning that crosses the unnecessarily strict boundaries of school subjects, making connections among them. Integration can cover both content and/or process of learning [11, 12]. Content is integrated when contents of different subjects are in some way connected. How deeply the subjects are integrated can be described as a continuum, starting with studying subjects in parallel in order to view a theme simultaneously from multiple perspectives; the integration can also go as far as the complete abandonment of school subjects [13, 14]. In turn, process integration occurs, for instance, when the cognitive side of learning is entwined with the experiential. The Finnish *National Core Curriculum for Basic Education* describes the purpose and process of CI in the

*The purpose of integrative instruction is to enable the pupils to see the relationships and interdependencies between the phenomena to be studied. It helps the pupils to link knowledge of and skills in various fields, and in interaction with others, to structure them as meaningful entities. Examination of wholes and exploratory work periods that link different fields of knowledge guide the pupils to apply their knowledge and produce experiences of participation in the communal building of knowledge. This allows the pupils to perceive the significance of the topics they learn at school for their own life and community, and for the society and humankind. In the learning process, pupils are supported to structure* 

The core curriculum mixes CI to some extent with inquiry learning. However, each can be realized independently. Furthermore, it presents CI as a way to enhance the social function of education. The issues of the community, the society or the humankind are usually socalled wicked problems, such as city planning, poverty or climate change. The concept of wicked problems refers to complicated issues that are hard to define, do not have a single solution, and are usually studied in various scientific fields. Planning of a school curriculum is in itself one example of a wicked problem [15]. The answers to fundamental questions of our age or of individuals seeking guidance in living must be sought in multiple sources. In schools, this can be called a didactic process, if mere adoption of knowledge is coupled with the aims of *Bildung*, i.e., creating personal significance and continuously developing a

raphy, physics, chemistry, and health education.

teachers at this level.

following way:

worldview [16].

*and expand their worldview ([1], p. 32).*

This chapter offers a theoretical contribution to pinpointing the challenges of implementing CI in schoolwork from the subject teachers' perspective. Lee Shulman's theory of teacher's knowledge [2, 3] is used to identify the challenges of CI for teachers in the context of the new Finnish core curriculum. Shulman's theory is useful here, because it describes categories of teachers' knowledge required for successful teaching. In this chapter, the most relevant Shulman's categories are briefly described, followed by a discussion of how these categories change in integrated contexts. Finally, some concrete suggestions are provided to include CI in teacher education programs.
