**3.2. Curriculum knowledge**

Thus, Shulman's assumption about the relation of disciplines and school subjects seems to be inadequate. Direct transformation of a scientific discipline into a school subject is hardly a reality, even with subject teachers who have received a disciplinary education. It would be practically impossible for a teacher to know a discipline so thoroughly and coherently that s/he could simply transform it into a school subject [25]. For example, a subject teacher who graduated as a history major might have strong content knowledge of the Cold War period, but only fragmented knowledge of antiquity. However, history as a school subject should cover all relevant historical periods, not just those in which a teacher has specialized. Thus, the content to be studied is more than or different from teacher's disciplinary knowledge.

Shulman [3] is aware of how teachers' content knowledge is not equally distributed to cover all aspects of a subject. He shows an empirical example of how teaching becomes different when instruction based on good content knowledge changes to subject content with which a teacher is not well acquainted. Rich, versatile teaching then turns into rigidly planned, inflexible pedagogy. Thus, the better content knowledge a teacher has, the better chances there are to develop a good level of pedagogical content knowledge. This is why it is worth spending a

The most common assumption about the origin of knowledge for teaching is the one Shulman presents, namely, that scientific disciplines are transformed into school subjects [25]. This is the case in teacher education programs, such as in Finnish subject teacher education, in which student teachers study scientific disciplines at the university level and are educated as specialists in certain disciplines and then equipped with pedagogical knowledge. However, Lopes and Macedo [8] claim that there is not necessarily a relationship between scientific disciplines and school subjects. They represent school subjects as autonomous communities that are socio-politically constructed and constantly mutating. The social objectives of school

If the content of content knowledge does not come directly from scientific disciplines, then content knowledge should be considered as leaning on other sources, such as a curriculum, textbooks, teachers' guides, and media. It is beyond dispute that scientific disciplines and school subjects are somewhat symmetrical and that part of teachers' content knowledge comes from specific disciplines, especially the deeper knowledge of alternative views and competing theories within a discipline. However, to answer the question of why some things are worth knowing, for instance, one might look for very different explanations in school

According to Deng [26], an integrated curriculum distances school subjects from scientific disciplines. If subjects are integrated into broader clusters, the new integrated subjects might create their own fields of knowledge without a corresponding scientific discipline. Deng uses science and technology studies as an example of a commonly integrated subject. However, Deng does not point out that disciplines can also be integrated into a form of interdisciplinary science. It is not rare to find interdisciplinary science programs combining natural sciences and technology. Thus, CI might find correspondence in interdisciplinary science projects. Another question is how these kinds of studies affect teacher education and the development

of teachers' content knowledge. We will return to this question in the last section.

bit more time to consider what content knowledge really is.

124 Contemporary Pedagogies in Teacher Education and Development

subjects are viewed differently than the objectives of science.

contexts as opposed to the contexts of scientific inquiry.

By curriculum knowledge, Shulman means teachers' broad comprehension of school subjects and an understanding that the current one presents only one way of constructing a curriculum. Curriculum knowledge includes awareness of various instructional materials, teaching procedures, and learning objectives. Teachers commonly use different kinds of curricular materials from which to pick suitable tools. It is important that teachers realize that they could pick other tools as well, that alternative learning methods are available, and that there are different ways to structure a course or a curriculum, for example, in an integrative way. This *knowledge of alternative curriculum materials* is the first of three different forms of curriculum knowledge Shulman explains. The other two are *lateral* and *vertical curriculum knowledge*.

By *lateral curriculum knowledge,* Shulman refers to teachers' ability to know what the students are learning in various subjects simultaneously. Here Shulman makes a general assumption by stating that he expects professional teachers to be aware of what students are doing outside of a teacher's own classes [2]. He also points out that for comprehension of their own subject matter, teachers would need to know how the concepts are related to other school subjects as well [3]. These are admirable objectives, but it can be asked how far this ideal is from the current reality of schools and teacher education. If the content of subjects that are not one's own is alien to teachers, then it can be posited that there are no means of knowing what is being learned in other subjects, especially simultaneously. In addition, Rogers [28] stresses teachers' profound identification with their own subject subcultures, including their particular beliefs, norms, and practices. These aspects are usually in the form of tacit knowledge, which guides everyday work, yet is not simple to express. Without knowledge of these subcultures, crosscurricular coordination can be restricted.

Lateral curriculum knowledge makes high demands of subject teachers and requires sharing information within schools. Yet, such knowledge is one prerequisite for CI in its many forms. *Vertical curriculum knowledge* in turn refers to teachers' knowledge of what has been previously taught in one's subject(s) and what will be taught in the future [2]. Such knowledge is a starting point for integration within a single subject with the goal of making the content of one subject more interconnected and experienced as a whole in students' consciousness. With history once again as a simplified example, vertical curricular knowledge includes comprehension of how certain historical phenomena intertwine and ultimately create a new phase in history, such as industrialization together with globalization, which serves as a pathway to modernity. If lateral and vertical curriculum knowledge are applied together to integrate the curriculum, the process can advance step by step, beginning with studies of force in physics, metalwork in crafts, continuing with historical and economic significance of the steam engine followed by geographical understanding of urbanization and the development of logistics leading to globalization, then drawing the conclusion historically—the birth of the modern world.

implemented as a collaboration between subject teachers, but is more often concentrated on

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

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

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When CI is implemented with the methods of inquiry learning, the learning process and the content might not be securely in the hands of a teacher, if the students decide a theme. Then the content is not known beforehand, and building of pedagogical content knowledge can be seen as a challenging task because the content part is missing. Shulman claims that in student-centered learning, the importance of the teacher's grasp of the study content becomes even greater than in teacher-centered approaches. Shulman notes that the student-centered approaches require a strong capacity for sympathetic interpretation and transformation of content into representations [3]. In student-centered approaches, a teacher needs a deep understanding of what is being learned to enable the learning process to progress in an indeterminate direction. That being said, we can conclude that if CI is implemented in a way that a theme is selected about which teachers do not have enough content knowledge, there is no chance of developing adequate pedagogical content knowledge, and therefore, the process is likely to fail. Accordingly, if the process of CI is to be actualized successfully, then even more

Shulman claims that normative and theoretical knowledge of ends, purposes, and values of education is perhaps the most important part of teachers' scholarly knowledge. This includes images of what is possible, of how a well-functioning school might look, what the students should become, and what can be understood as comprising a good education [3]. The Finnish core curriculum stresses the holistic growth of students as ethical persons. For teachers to cultivate moral and social awareness in students, the prerequisite is that teachers have a good understanding of educational values and purposes. In addition to general educational values, subject-specific values can be recognized [30]. Accordingly, CI can be seen as having its own,

The need for an integrated curriculum frequently emerges from ethical or social issues. It can even be directly aimed toward solving problems of the society or the local community. For example, CI is now popular in Finnish schools as a means of teaching what climate change means and what can be done to stall, if not reverse it. In addition, CI can serve as a form of democratic education [31, 32]. Altogether, it can be said that the strength of CI is that it can have a strong purpose, a pedagogical mission. Therefore, CI can be seen as an idealistic form for a curriculum [10]. However, for CI to be successful, the purpose has to be fully comprehended by teachers, a situation that might not always be the case in Finland, where CI has not

**4. Finnish subject teacher education and curriculum integration**

Teacher education has a decisive role to play in developing teachers' *integrative pedagogical knowledge*. In this last section, the challenges identified by applying Shulman's categories of teachers' knowledge are discussed in the framework of subject teacher education with

using special education teachers as partners [29].

focus has to be put on development of teachers' content knowledge.

**3.4. Knowledge of ends, purposes, and values of education**

although varying value base.

had a stable role in teacher education [33].

## **3.3. Pedagogical content knowledge**

The third kind of pedagogical knowledge essential for CI is teachers' ability to make content comprehensible to students. However, mere comprehension is not enough; according to Shulman, true learning is also linked to judgment and action [3]. This is what is called *pedagogical content knowledge*. It includes examples, metaphors, analogies, illustrations, activities, assignments, and demonstrations that make the content more accessible. This kind of knowledge also means understanding what makes learning of certain kinds of content difficult and what the common misconceptions are. Such pedagogical methods are always content-specific so they cannot necessarily be transferred to other contexts [2].

Shulman argues that pedagogical content knowledge is the area that separates a teacher from an expert in a given scientific discipline [3]. An expert might have a great deal of content knowledge, but a teacher knows how to present the information in a suitable way for school learning. However, as noted above, the substance of the content knowledge of an expert and that of a teacher are probably different, because scientific disciplines and school subjects are not constructed identically.

The relation between content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge is not one-way. In addition to content knowledge that is refined into pedagogical content knowledge, the content of school subjects can be constructed on pedagogical bases. Content may be designed for certain age groups, as happens in the Finnish school system: the integrated subject taught as environmental studies in primary school is differentiated into natural sciences in secondary school. This is an example of how CI serves as a form of pedagogical content knowledge. A school subject is designed as an integrated whole with the aim of making the content more comprehensible to young students.

Often CI means studying contents of several subjects in connection. This means that the understanding of pedagogical content knowledge cannot be bound only to subjects, but also involves building bridges between subjects. At that point, it becomes *integrative pedagogical content knowledge*. A teacher has to have in mind demonstrations or activities that show how different subjects are interrelated or even build on knowledge from other disciplines, as in the above-mentioned example of the birth of modernity. Another possibility is to use the methods of co-teaching, collaborating with other teachers, who combine the special pedagogical content knowledge of their respective subjects. Then communication and shared understanding between teachers becomes crucial. However, the challenge for integrative co-teaching is that, in Finnish schools, it has been seen mostly as an instrument for inclusive education rather than being considered primarily in the context of CI. Research shows that co-teaching is rarely implemented as a collaboration between subject teachers, but is more often concentrated on using special education teachers as partners [29].

When CI is implemented with the methods of inquiry learning, the learning process and the content might not be securely in the hands of a teacher, if the students decide a theme. Then the content is not known beforehand, and building of pedagogical content knowledge can be seen as a challenging task because the content part is missing. Shulman claims that in student-centered learning, the importance of the teacher's grasp of the study content becomes even greater than in teacher-centered approaches. Shulman notes that the student-centered approaches require a strong capacity for sympathetic interpretation and transformation of content into representations [3]. In student-centered approaches, a teacher needs a deep understanding of what is being learned to enable the learning process to progress in an indeterminate direction. That being said, we can conclude that if CI is implemented in a way that a theme is selected about which teachers do not have enough content knowledge, there is no chance of developing adequate pedagogical content knowledge, and therefore, the process is likely to fail. Accordingly, if the process of CI is to be actualized successfully, then even more focus has to be put on development of teachers' content knowledge.
