“Interdisciplinary teaching differs from discipline- and field-based teaching in that it does not necessarily carve out spaces for each individual subject area, and instead, connects content and consciously identifies the relationships between these subjects.” (Coffey, n.d). Whilst creating this interdisciplinary connection map it became extremely apparent that teachers use a range of sources, people and expertise to help students learn. The term ‘It takes a village to bring up a child’ comes to mind when reflecting on what I have outlined on my map.
A focus point for interdisciplinary connections I have seen as an area to be improved on would be the connections between year levels and technologies. More collaboration on programmes is necessary to create 21st-century learners and problem solvers. It is important to create a school curriculum based on the ideas that are fresh and relevant each year to engage our students. Including the technology teachers into our programmes will make the learning experiences real-life and personalized. As Andrews (1990) defines interdisciplinary collaboration as occurring "when different professionals, possessing unique knowledge, skills, organizational perspectives, and personal attributes, engage in coordinated problem solving for a common purpose" (cited in Berg-Weger &. Schneider, 1998).
How would we do this?
Our staff would need to meet to formulate the planning, decision making and goal setting for the overall curriculum. From here there would need to be by in from all staff members involved to make sure this idea functions effectively. Teachers would meet weekly to track how the programme is going. Student voice collection would also be helpful to formulate next steps and further planning. Constant teacher reflection is a must. The idea is for our students to get the most from their learning over core curriculum areas in an engaging and motivating way.
Why is this important?
It encourages our students to take an invested interested in their learning. It also gives them opportunities to investigate personal interests. Students can show their strengths and can communicate their findings to small or large groups of people. Allowing for goal setting and monitoring these as they progress through their chosen idea.
As the Ministry of Education (2007) states we must create students “who will be confident, connected, actively involved, and lifelong learners.” Integrating an interdisciplinary way of teaching into our classroom programme is the way of the future.
References
Berg-Weger, M., &. Schneider, F. D. (1998). Interdisciplinary collaboration in social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 34, 97-107.
Coffey, H. (n.d). Interdisciplinary Teaching. Retrieved from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/5196
Ministry of Education. (2007). The New Zealand Curriculum. Retrieved from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum
No comments:
Post a Comment