CURRICULUM INTEGRATION IN THE DECISION SCIENCES: AN EVALUATION*

Recent interest in curriculum integration in the decision sciences has led to the proposal that topics in computer science, statistics, quantitative methods, operations research, and possibly mathematics might be integrated into a single unified set of courses. Such a unification may reinforce the learning process of the student and form the basis for the eventual synthesis of tools topics with functional area decision making. This integration proposal and speculation is examined using research in learning and motivation theory, and concludes that the integration of tools concepts with functional area topics is much more promising than the integration of tools topics alone. A pair of example course integrations is provided to illustrate in detail the application of learning and motivation principles to tools-into-functions curriculum integration.