Week 31

Crossing Boundaries and Creating Connections

Jones 2009  states that the benefits of interdisciplinary teaching as;

• Higher order thinking
• Problem solving
• Collaborative
• Inquiry skills
• Relating to real world situations

Duerr. (2008) states the learners “cognitive development allows them to see relationships among content areas and understand principles that cross curricular lines. Their psychological development gives them the ability to understand people and to look at situations from various viewpoints”

This is all good and well, but it not all curriculum areas fit that easily into a thematic approach. The video clip showing the theme “What is Power” and sub question…... To find the area and perimeter of the carriages that carried the prisoners of war was a pretty far stretch at including mathematics. In fact I thought a little perverse. This is where I think inquiry planning has to ensure yes, it is authentic and useful and would you able to use it again.

The benefits for me to work in a more interdisciplinary environment is that in our team we all have our strengths as teachers  and we should utilise these more. We often integrate our science with our literacy to ensure that we are motivating our writers with  an exciting stimulus.

A weakness as that we have a rigid timetable, as we have an interchange for maths. Also we that we have a number of teachers within our school who find it hard to even consider interacting/connecting with other teams.

So to create  connections within the school, I am planning school Marae visit, but not as teams, but in buddy classes, therefore everyone experiencing a meaningful and real life situation.

Another problem is with planning and this is with each teacher’s interpretation of the plan, how much do they have in background knowledge, interest or understanding. Therefore in a single cell classroom situation, how do we ensure consistency and quality of what is being taught , even though it may have been planned collaboratively.

My two goals

I would like to continue to use Google + as a way to be connected and to see what the world of educators are saying. I have found it an excellent tool while studying and I can see the benefits it will have to keep me connected with my fellow Mindlab students and to also keep me up to date and relevant in educational thinking.

My second goal is the possibility of more study, not this year, but I think that if I was to do it  it needs to be sooner than later. It take a while for this brain to get back into the academic way of thinking and writing. (Much prefer blogs) I am still having an internal debate in my head about this goal.  Watch this space.

References:

Jones, Casey (2009) "Interdisciplinary Approach - Advantages, Disadvantages, and the Future Benefits of Interdisciplinary Studies,"ESSAI: Vol. 7, Article 26.Available at: http://dc.cod.edu/essai/vol7/iss1/26

Duerr, Laura L., 2008. “Interdisciplinary Instruction, Educational Horizons.”

http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/3e/0c/3a.pdf