The 1990 and 1998 Perkins Act Amendments and the 1994 School-to-Work Opportunities Act encouraged academic and occupational integration. Thousands of high schools and community colleges took this challenge by implementing some form of integration: career academies, clusters, majors, Tech Prep, or a combination of these approaches. Teachers employed in these comprehensive reform settings are often expected to integrate, coordinate, and articulate on a regular basis. However, educators are often not sure how to start this type of process or may not be familiar with some of the models that will lead to these integrated, coordinated efforts.

The title of this article contains the phrase "imaginary boundaries" because we feel that is exactly what they are: imaginary. As educators, we create imaginary boundaries that isolate us, but no one has told us not to talk with colleagues or interact with others outside our disciplines. Somewhere along the line, we have adopted this mindset, and now it is time to open the lines of communication and share ideas. In this article, we present basic guidelines and ideas for initiating curriculum integration and coordination among academic and occupational faculty at the community college using the linked course model.

Initiating and Creating Collaborative Relationships

Marcus Harris facilitated an integrated project that cut across both occupational and academic subject areas. Either the occupational or academic faculty member can initiate the steps that he discusses. This process of linking courses is one of the more basic models of curriculum integration, yet it can lead to very positive outcomes for both students and faculty.

The process follows these steps:

• Define the project.
  
• Define the key players.
  
• Determine overall goals and timeline.
  
• Set individual objectives.
  
• Discuss individual objects with group.
  
• Plan overlapping instruction.
  
• Implement the project.
  
• Showcase the project.
  
• Evaluate and determine what can be improved.
  
• Report results to foster faculty involvement in future projects.

Define the project. Often when educators try to create collaborative projects, they meet and try to think of things that tie the various disciplines together. This approach often leads to frustration and not much success. A better strategy is to choose a project or some type of product that one of the teachers already uses and build on that. In education we tend not to think in terms of multiple disciplines; instead, we divide and isolate them. Implementing a curriculum that utilizes "real world" principles and projects, on the other hand, can lead to more student buy-in.

Recently, Marcus met with an art teacher at Parkland College whose sculpture class was beginning a mobiles and kinetic balancing sculpture unit. At the time, he was teaching a basic welding course and wanted his students to use their welding skills in a real-world application instead of in artificial practice. Marcus and the art teacher decided that the art students would design the sculptures and create models, which the welding students would then attempt to build. This gave the welding students an opportunity to apply their skills, and allowed the art students to work with an artistic medium (metal), for which they had neither tools nor skills. It also created a dialogue between the artist and the fabricator. The art students had to be very clear in their instructions and the welding students had to frame technical questions in a language the artist could understand.

Define the key players that will participate in the collaboration. After deciding on a project, think of what educational pieces are needed to create the product. Often this is difficult for educators because they are experts in a specific field and do not clearly see potential ties with other disciplines. Sending a letter to colleagues describing the project and asking for ideas on how this project ties into their curriculum is a good method of initiating discussion and collaboration, discovering who else should become involved. Marcus and the art teacher decided they did not know enough about physics to help the students with the balance part of the sculpture so they enlisted the aid of the physics instructor.

Determine the overall group objective as well as the timeline for completion. This is an important initial step; without clear direction, no one can move forward. An example of an objective statement would be: "Students will work together to create a sculpture project constructed of steel not to exceed a certain size, using a certain amount of materials." At this point, it is important to create a timeline for the project and to make everyone involved aware of what tasks need to be completed and when. This will facilitate individual faculty scheduling and planning.

Determine the individual objectives for faculty. The project should allow each instructor to teach the concepts, ideas, and processes of his or her own course through the media and strategies of the collaborative project. Faculty should define additional objectives to be covered and suggest ways that their particular disciplines tie into the overall project. Collaborating teachers should think broadly in terms of what they want their students to learn. What concepts do they hope to reinforce by having the students participate? Often a project such as this lends itself to the application of a skill and not specific facts.

Discuss and explain individual faculty objectives to the group. After the key faculty have defined their educational objectives, they should discuss how the project ties into their objectives. It is important that the participants have a good understanding of what the other instructors are doing. During this phase more advanced integration can take place. It will not be uncommon to find that teachers have overlapping objectives and that instructional plans can accommodate these objectives. An example of this is presented in the next step.

Plan how instruction will overlap and how faculty will facilitate each other’s objectives. The instructors must decide what collaboration needs to take place. For example, Marcus taught the art class about the different materials students would be using, the mechanical properties of steel, machining processes that could be conducted in the welding lab, and what skills that welders possess. The art teacher, in turn, taught the welding class artistic terms, processes, materials, and the overall artistic goal of the project. Marcus also attended the art class when the students designed their sculpture to answer questions related to what was possible and not possible in terms of the welding aspects of the project. The welding students attended the art class to begin communication with the art students. The physics instructor talked to both classes about how to find the center of gravity, using a physics formula and methods of calculation to balance their sculpture. The physics teacher also served as a facilitator to aid students with the specific formula.

Implement the project. All members of the collaboration needed a clear schedule for the project. Lines of communication needed to be open so that, if there were a change in the schedule, everyone knew about it. It was important to be as flexible as possible with other instructors because often instructors’ styles can clash during collaboration projects. Students may also feel uncomfortable with the project, because this is not a type of instruction to which they are accustomed.

Showcase the project to the public. For the sculpture project, the logical venue would be to have an art exhibit showing the sculptures. All the students who helped with the creation of the project should be on hand to meet and greet viewers. Have students complete a debriefing/wrap-up exercise to reinforce educational objectives and understand each other’s roles in the project. It is important to show students how other subject areas related to what they study; seeing these connections is where the true learning occurs. In the sculpture project, the art students might review for the welding students how they completed their part of the design. The welding students might describe some of the difficulty they had in creating the sculpture.

Evaluate what worked, what did not, and what could be done to improve. If an integrated project involves real-world applications, it will include real-world problems, such as delay, miscommunication, setback, and sometimes failure to complete. Students should therefore be evaluated on the process, as well as the product. In the sculpture project students were rated on design, communication, collaboration, and presentation of information—not solely on how the sculpture turned out. Alternative forms of evaluation like peer evaluation could be used. The artist could evaluate how the fabricator communicated. The welding instructor could evaluate the quality of construction of the project. The art instructor could evaluate the model and design.

Complete and distribute a report to other faculty to foster more involvement in future projects. As faculty begin to see these collaborative efforts taking place across different disciplines, more will become interested in participating. Reporting on the project gives a sense of closure and satisfaction to those involved.