Interdisciplinary Pedagogy: Managing Student Learning

Critically evaluate your series of lessons, analysing and reflecting on creativity, interdisciplinary thinking, pedagogical choices and the management of pupils’ learning. Consideration should also be given to the value of interdisciplinary learning in your future teaching

Within this scheme of work I have planned lessons from a range of foundation subjects and applied the learning from these to another learning area which is to gain an understanding and knowledge about the people in the world that help us. Interdisciplinary learning underpins this plan as the subjects are all taught separately but the learning is fused as they all have a common task which is to learn more about one topic.

The Primary Years Programme as a model of transdisciplinary learning (2010) defines interdisciplinary learning as 'transferring the methods, models, processes or forms of logic from one learning area and applying these within another.' Interdisciplinary studies, based upon groupings of experiences and outcomes from within and across curriculum areas, can provide relevant, challenging and enjoyable learning experiences and stimulating contexts to meet the varied needs of children.

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Clyde (1995) talks of children’s learning as an interpretive network which spreads across domains. Similarly contemporary writers (Alexander, 2010; Wrigley, 2005) argue for the breakdown of subject boundaries. Interdisciplinary learning echoes the way that children think, it encourages children to make their own connections and to therefore think creatively. Barnes (2007) explains our experience of the world is cross-curricular. Everything which surrounds us in the physical world can be seen and understood from multiple perspectives. Revisiting a concept or skill from different perspectives deepens understanding, and can also make the curriculum more coherent and meaningful from the learner's point of view.

Interdisciplinary encourages pupils to become immersed in topics and create a rich holistic understanding which allows a greater understanding than the sum of the analytical parts.

I decided on the topic of ‘people that help us’ focusing mainly on the work of the emergency services: fire fighters, police and medical staff but also looking at postmen, vicars and the army. The unit of work is aimed at year one children. The topic is relevant to children’s lives as they will all encounter the emergency services in their lives and the children will explore people that help them in their local area. Johnston (2011) states how important the local area is when planning for key stage one 'planning for the learning environment should also consider the opportunities for using the outside environment' (Johnston, 2011:52). It is essential that children learn about the emergency services when they are young as they may need them from an early age, knowing the correct number to call in an emergency or who to talk to in a crisis could be vital to saving someone’s life. A two year old recently saved his mum’s life by ringing 999 (Sky News, 2014). From my experiences with children I have found that they are fascinated by the sight of a high-speed ambulance or shiny red fire engine roaring down the street, sirens blaring. It may also help children deal with any fears they may have about the emergency services. The topic should also be appealing to children due to popular BBC television characters Fireman Sam, Postman Pat and the policeman in Balamory. The topic allows for many different outcomes, it gives teachers freedom to cover a range of topics within the topic. This unit of work would span over a half term yet this essay will explore a few lessons.

I used Bloom's taxonomy (Bloom et al. 1956) to consider the development of knowledge, skills and understanding, 'Blooms’ categorisation may be used as a framework for planning units of work' (Garner & Jackson, 2013). Bloom’s Taxonomy is designed to build content knowledge from basic foundations – remembering – to more complex manipulation of content – creating. In this way the learner acquires knowledge that is appropriate for their entry level of existing knowledge.

I created guiding questions to serve as scope and sequence. These questions were general and should transcend discipline lines. For remembering I set the following questions: who are the emergency services? How can we recognise the emergency services? Where can they be found? What sounds do emergency service vehicles make? For understanding I wanted children to comprehend the work of the emergency services a little deeper and understand how they help us. The questions for this section included how can vicars help us? How can fire fighters help us? How can the police help us? Under the applying section of Bloom’s taxonomy I wanted the children to illustrate some of the work the emergency services do therefore the questions would be what would the police do in this situation? Also who would you call if there was a fire? Who would you call if someone was unconscious? For analysing I wanted the children to look closely at the lives of famous people that have helped the world. Such questions would be how has this person helped changed the lives of people? Also how has technology helped people to help others? For synthesis I wanted the children to take the information they have and create dances to reflect what they have learnt, create their own uniforms for nurses and foods that nurses would have made. For the evaluating section I wanted the children to evaluate the uniforms they created in the synthesis section on the bases of how effective it would be to nurses. I want them to reflect on how effective the emergency services are and think about how they can help people in their own lives. After the questions were developed the activities that explore the questions were developed. Lessons focusing on developing knowledge were taught first as the learning of the lower levels enables the building of skills in the higher levels of the taxonomy. This scaffolding process is an application of Vygotskian constructivism (Vygotsky,1978).

The choices for the lessons were influenced by Harold Gardner’s (1983) multiple intelligences, making sure all the intelligences were covered. Gardner has identified several kinds of intelligence people possess these are Linguistic Intelligence, Logical-mathematical Intelligence, Spatial Intelligence, Musical Intelligence, Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, Intrapersonal Intelligence and Interpersonal Intelligence. Most schools focus on linguistic and logical; teachers should develop pupils’ mathematical fluency, spoken language, reading, writing and vocabulary as integral aspects of the teaching of every subject. However there are lots of other intelligences and these are often pushed to the side lines. More often than not, children are labelled negatively if they manifest a slow or no understanding of the entire subject matter. Identifying children’s various strengths among these intelligences will direct the teachers toward more successful teaching strategies, curriculum, and assessment planning that can accommodate different students more effectively based on their orientation to learning. Howard Gardner’s work on ‘multiple intelligences’ does not view human abilities in terms of the boundaries that subject disciplines have placed around them, but as holistic, hybrid and inter-related. None of these separate analyses are sufficient to understand who the people are that help us and how we can identify them and how and why they help us. All of these contexts are crucial if the potential of children and young people as successful learners, confident individuals, effective contributors and responsible citizens is to be fully developed.

Spatial Intelligence is the skill to observe and mentally manipulate a form or object. It is also the ability to perceive and produce tension, balance, and work in a visual or spatial display. Gardner (1993) explains spatial problem solving is required for navigation and for the use of the notational system of maps. I created a geography lesson based on the route of the local postman involving map work this related to spatial learning.

Musical Intelligence is the ability to take pleasure in music and also perform and create musical pieces. I planned a music lesson for children to use instruments to create sounds of the emergency service vehicles and a singing lesson based on songs about the police. This would be taught practically as I believe from my professional experience that children learn best when they are practically involved in music, research also suggests that 'musicians learn from each other through imitation, repetition and experimentation.' (Boys & Spink 2008: 129). Music can also touch on children’s spirituality as the language of music enables them to express themselves.

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence is the ability to use fine and gross motor skills. Gardner goes further to say it is the ability to use one's body to express an emotion (as in a dance), to play a game (as in a sport), or to create a new product (as in devising an invention) is evidence of the cognitive features of body usage (Gardner, 1993). I included a lesson on dance, two sports games and three design and technology lessons. A lesson using computers improved fine motor skills by drawing pictures of people that help us.

Intrapersonal Intelligence is the ability to gain access to one's own feelings life, one's range of emotions (Gardner, 1993). Intrapersonal intelligence is often characterised by reflection and evaluation. I created opportunities for this through including children reflecting on what they learnt about how religious people can help us and how they can help people in their own lives. The main feature is a concern that RE is not just about presenting the 'facts’ of particular religions, but encouraging children to engage with the material in a meaningful way that allows them to reflect upon what they are introduced to' (Boys & Spink 2008:177). Children’s moral development is encouraged as they will learn that helping people is rewarding, the right thing to do and children will be able to consider if they would like to do any of these jobs.

Finally 'Interpersonal Intelligence is the ability to get along and understand others' (Hatch & Gardner, 1988:252). The key skills of working with others and communication were also developed through social interaction. When planning my lessons I knew I had to include a range of group and partner work to develop children’s social skills. The importance of Interpersonal Intelligence has been highlighted by Vygotsky and Alexander. According to Vygotsky, (1978) students are capable of performing at higher intellectual levels when asked to work in collaborative situations than when asked to work individually. While Alexander states that 'children construct meaning not only from the interplay of what they newly encounter and what they already know, but also from interaction with others' (Alexander, 2006:11). Teaching social and emotional skills should not be a separate activity. Self-awareness, empathy, motivation, managing feelings and social skills are best developed in some kind of social setting.

I created a history lesson based around investigating artefacts. 'The growing emphasis in history teaching on creating opportunities for speaking and listening, such as using small groups to discuss an artefact, links effectively to Vygotskian ideology.' (Boys & Spink 2008:67). Children have to take other children’s opinions and ideas into account which develops their ability to get along with others. I created a R.E lesson where children would watch a video clip on a Christian child commenting on how the vicar helps them as 'the internet can also be used to link children up with children from other schools, areas and countries to discuss their religious and cultural traditions' (Boys & Spink 2008:179). The video can help children understand others religion and how important it is to them. The ability to get along and understand others relates to children’s cultural development. Eaude (2008) explains the importance of cultural development, 'it involves helping children to acquire the tools to reflect consciously and critically on what is familiar and what is different, to understand both themselves and other people' (Eaude, 2008:52). Teaching children about Mary Seacole promotes positive black role models. While bringing in a range of vegetables from around the world and singing songs from different cultures allows children to be proud of their culture.

I also believe that a school trip is essential for children to fully understand a topic. Ivan Illich reminded us in the early 1970's that most learning happens outside schools (Illich, 1971). Children will learn about home fire safety and reduce the risk of their natural curiosity about fire developing into an interest in deliberate fire setting. Through communicating with their local fire fighters they will develop relationships within their community. Melaville, Berg, and Blank (2006) explain that the aim of learning through community partnerships is to more fully engage young people, by harnessing their natural interest in where and how they live and by using their own community as a source of learning and action.

In summary the strengths of the topic is that it will get children thinking about how they can help people and their career aspirations therefore the understanding is personal and original. This unit looked at fire fighters, police and medical staff, postmen or women, vicars and the army yet there is room for many more professions to be examined such as other religious people, vets, dentists, teachers, lollipop men or women, social workers and opticians. There is a Florence Nightingale museum which could also be visited.

Some topics were easy to plan for such as history and geography. Within history there are many more significant famous people that could have been covered such as Martin Luther king, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, Ghandi and Marie Curie. Within geography there is room for many more learning opportunities such as exploring further the role of the military, for key stage 2 the section natural disasters, there are chances to look at supplement emergency services at times of major disaster and also coastguard and lifeboats. If had more time would have liked to explore art as well. While other subjects were more difficult such as P.E. as I couldn’t find clear links to teaching team games and people that help us. One of the risks of interdisciplinary learning is that planning across the curriculum can be artificial and individual subjects can get ‘lost’ in topic work. I can see that topic work would therefore make teachers and parents can become anxious about meeting the targets for SATs. Planning needs to ensure the focus, development and outcomes are clear.

I believe that this unit of interdisciplinary learning will be effective as it has provided opportunities for enquiry, investigation creativity, dialogue and for children to develop a range of skills.