Chapter 5: Student Perceptions of Curriculum Integration and Community: “Always Give Me a Chance to Shine”

For well over a century, educators in the United States have been concerned with the education of 10-to 14-year-olds, organizing schools as far back as 1896 with the express purpose of providing “appropriate educational programming for early adolescents” (Lounsbury, 1984, p. 6). Attending to the intersection between middle schoolers’ unique developmental needs and the pedagogy employed in schools is critical. The degree to which those two entities “fit”—the middle level learner and the middle level school—has the potential to directly impact students’ motivation, interest, performance and behavior (Eccles et al., 1993; Wigfield & Eccles, 1994).

The middle school reform movement of the past few decades has been predicated on this need for a strong fit between learners’ developmental needs and schooling practices. Advocates have identified integrative curriculum and teaming, in particular, as cornerstones of a developmentally responsive middle school (National Middle School Association, 2003). Yet what happens when learners on a multiage team engage in an integrative curriculum model? How can one be sure the “fit” is strong, without consulting the students themselves? How do students perceive the team’s approach as meeting, or not meeting, their academic and social needs?