ABSTRACT
The aim of this chapter is to examine the concept of integrated curriculum, the educational models and process for integrated curriculum and knowledge integration from an Islāmic perspective. In the context of this chapter and the book as a whole, curriculum integration may be defined as a fully synthesised transdisciplinary delivery of knowledge between psychology sub-disciplines and Islāmic studies across all the years of an undergraduate or postgraduate psychology programme. There are several pointers that can be used to integrate the existing curriculum to develop a new curriculum. The aims of faculty development would to focus on the purpose of an integrated programme and identify the barriers and the faculty’s roles and responsibilities in the teaching/learning programme. It seems that the scope and level of integration may vary from module to module or even within a module and would depend upon the aims of the curriculum, the organisational structure, staff and resources and assessment process. The use of both vertical and horizontal integration is recommended. The emphasis is on the integration across several sub-disciplines of psychology from the beginning to the end of the course programme. Al-Faruqi proposed a number of steps to achieve the objectives of Islāmisation of knowledge, and these objectives are also relevant and applicable to knowledge integration. Ragab identified three approaches to understand the nature of the process of the methodology in knowledge integration. Malkawi suggests that the process of epistemological integration has two dimensions: a productive, scientific, creative dimension and a consumptive, pedagogical, applied dimension. Part of that dimension is the constructive process in order to produce a new epistemological integration.
