Curriculum Integration and Learning Motivation of the Secondary School Students

Abstract

Abstract Starting with the 2017-2018 school year, secondary school students benefit from a new curriculum framework and new subject curricula, which facilitate curriculum integration. During the literature review, we noticed that the results of some international studies show that curriculum integration contributes to increasing school motivation. Through our research, which took place during the 2019-2020 school year, we aimed to identify the impact of curriculum integration on the school motivation of secondary school students and their perception regarding curriculum integration. For this, we designed a questionnaire with 16 closed items that we applied at the beginning and the end of the school year to a sample of 117 students from three Bucharest schools. The results of our research show a positive change in the reasons why students learn and in four of the nine behaviors associated with the characteristics of school motivation (curiosity, active engagement, and persistence). Thus, interest in multiple disciplines increased and all persistence behaviors improved. Regarding the students’ perception regarding the curriculum integration, from the six monitored aspects, there was a positive change in the students’ interest in the disciplines with which the teacher makes connections during the teaching of the current discipline.