What is the Integrative Education Programme?
The Integrative Education (IE) Programme allows young people to engage directly with their learning. It provides the opportunity to choose something the young person is interested in or passionate about and to build an independent project around their choice which is flexibly assessed, supported throughout by a tutor and a mentor and carries with it an accredited qualification.
The IE qualifications also offer development in critical and creative thinking skills, an integral module on personal, social and learning skills, as well as an integrative approach to learning the more traditional subject areas such as English, maths, digital futures and performing arts.
IE is an inclusive system, because it uses a fairer, wider range of assessment such as portfolios, presentation and performance. It doesn’t rely on summative exams and is much more flexible and able to work with students’ needs and strengths.
The courses run at both Level 2 and Level 3 and are accredited by Ofqual. Each module at Level 2 has the same Guided Learning Hours as a GCSE. The Level 3 programme carries UCAS points.
Integrative education is open to Home Education families, enabling young people to learn online, with qualified and dedicated tutors, opportunities for face-to-face meet ups and cultural enrichment experiences.
What is Integrative Education?
Integrative Education (IE), in its most recognisable form, is where the student’s learning experience crosses the boundaries between traditionally divided subjects. This is sometimes called transdisciplinary, cross-curricular, or inter-curricular learning. Students develop a range and combination of skills, across several subject areas. For example, a project making musical instruments might combine musical, mathematic, physics and craft skills.
This reflects the realities of life. Day-to-day living is not neatly divided into subject silos; by reflecting the reality of the world around them within the student’s learning experience, we lose artificial categories and learning makes more sense and is more relevant.
IE also encourages an integration of intellectual, emotional, physical and social skills within the young person. It integrates them with the world in which we live; the societies fluctuating around them and the planet which so desperately needs more understanding and support from humanity.
Education that is integrative is for many young people more engaging, more enlightening and more meaningful. They have the chance to love what they learn and apply it wherever it is most needed in their lives.
Why IE?
What advantages can this way of learning produce for the learner? Arguably, IE:
- Better prepares young people for a swiftly changing world, one that isn’t divided into subjects.
- Allows young people to come up with better ideas and solutions, when looking at a project or problem as a whole, rather than by dividing their thinking.
- Encourages young people to apply their skillsets in a fluid and dynamic way, rather than trying to approach something with a fixed mindset.
More broadly, humanity is facing some serious challenges, with increasing numbers of crises threatening us at every level. Things have to change and education is a crucial part of that. Young people need to function happily, healthily and or sustainably in the world.
For more information on IE contact hello@katoeducation.
