Curriculum integration: The case of social sciences and pre-vocational education textbooks

Abstract

Curriculum materials are integrated horizontally, connecting various curricula by demonstrating concepts, principles, and laws to contribute to a comprehensive understanding and sustainability of the learned material. This approach is valid in the case of the National and Civic Education (NCE) curriculum, which can assist in overcoming the vital issues of vocational orientation in Jordan. This study aimed to explore whether the NCE curriculum contextualizes vocational education concepts facilitating students’ right selection of career paths and orientations. The researchers analyzed three NCE textbooks (8th, 9th, and 10th grades) to determine whether these textbooks included concepts relevant to vocational education and vocational guidance. The results showed that (NCE) textbooks include some valuable concepts; however, there is an absence of key concepts related to vocational education orientation and vocational guidance. The study concluded that NCE textbooks in upper primary education include essential concepts that could be out of interest to the students; however, the textbook can be integrated with more concepts to support students’ knowledge of vocational and technical education.