An elementary environment would seem to lend itself more closely to interdisciplinary studies or approaches, however often what develops is a thematic approach, short on depth and/or authentic connections and long on "cute." Use of interdisciplinary studies would involve high levels of restructuring, collaboration, and reflective planning - all of which require time, the most difficult resource to manufacture. There is no doubt that many activities in classrooms touch other disciplines and cannot be so neatly and tidily assigned a singular content speciality, however accountability standards and school structures do not truly support interdisciplinary studies or approaches.
Math, Reading, Writing, Science, Social Studies, Art, Music . . . all disciplines have their own content standards and grade level expectations. National organizations (National Council for Teachers of Mathematics, National Science Teacher Association, National Reading Association, etc.) all create standards that are exclusive of interaction with one another creating volumes of research, recommendations, and activities to support mastery in their particular area. Educators are left to assemble, prioritize, and make certain each student mastered the list of skills demanded in each of these areas. It would seem that our national organizations have to some degree polarized the disciplines.
The state of Louisiana has established clear guidelines for number of minutes of math, language arts, and other subjects. Schedules demand that these time blocks be labeled and accounted for. Elementary schools are generally very short on planning time for teachers, let alone broad blocks that provide a group of teachers to meet and collaborate across grade levels or content areas. Even University settings emphasize credit hours in specific methodologies courses by content area and content areas for the highly qualified teacher.
I have created and worked with teachers on interdisciplinary units when I was working in public schools as a teacher, however it was something we initiated and had to find time and energy to create. The results were worth all the effort, however they did not generalize to other teachers or classroom settings beyond our small group of collaborators. Time, energy, knowledge basis, and willingness to engage in design of curriculum as opposed to lesson planning seem to be the key components.
There are schools who are created around this approach - the D'Vinci Academy in Georgia is created entirely around this concept. It has received high commendations for its work, but the key seems to be that the school was created with this approach in mind. The approach, as with anything else has a limited possibility of success when overlaid on unreceptive teachers and/or school cultures. Perhaps this is why we are seeing a surge in the creation of charter schools . . . the perception that change is harder to achieve than creation of a new vision.
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ReplyDeleteAnne, wow, the perception that change is harder to achieve than creation of a new vision. You have a good point here. I sometimes wish I could design my own curriculum. I too, while working in public school had the privilege of working with teams of teachers to create true integrated lessons. At one school the principal understood the importance of integration with the arts. We went through staff development to help us and we had seven artist on staff. During the school day we planned our weekly lessons with our grade level team and a curriculum coordinator/facilitator. It was intense in the beginning, but we had it down to a "science" and/or "an art". (hahaha) However, we didn't integrate art and science as Jemison talked about. I can clearly see the benefits. Also, my students experience great science instruction while I worked at a different public school. I often thought, how do you get the best of all worlds when it comes to providing the best to all students. I often think and believe it is in the teachers. It is the passion for what you do that makes the best, wanting it and making it all happen. It indeed does take an extreme amount of time and energy as well as a commitment to accomplish it to the end and being consistent in implementing it as well. So, going back to what you said, change is harder than creation of a new vision, I believe to somewhat agree. I have tried really hard to implement some of those same practices at my present school and although my principal is passionate and likes my ideas, there is a lot of resistance to changing. It puts a lot of demands on others.
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