Week 31:  Crossing boundaries and creating connections

My current and potential interdisciplinary connections

If you would like a model of interdisciplinary teaching and maybe even further into integrative teaching (Matheson & Freeman,1997) in action then I suggest you have a look at a quality early childhood programme.  In early childhood education teachers do more than combine two or more disciplines, an effective teacher integrates a wide variety of disciplines into their teaching.  They combine teacher initiated learning in areas where knowledge and skill development needs to be introduced and also facilitate and encourage child-led initiatives and learning.  This is often through an inquiry-based approach to learning and teaching where teachers aim to encourage higher-level thinking, sustained interactions and learning through collaboration. The early childhood programme privileges ako where all involved are both teachers and learners.  In David Wiley's (2001) TEDx talk he quotes Eric Raymond - 

To solve an interesting problem, start by finding a problem that is interesting.

This could easily be the mantra that underpins teaching in the early years where experiences that the child finds of interest are used as a vehicle to promote learning in all disciplines.  

Benefits of an interdisciplinary/ integrated/ integrative curriculum - The two photos below illustrate learning across disciplines that began outside where some children began observing the differences in the leaves in the playground.  Over a number of days this led to more and more children observing, discussing, hypothesizing, classifying, documenting, and sharing.  They learnt about scientific concepts of; autumn and changing season, varieties of trees and corresponding differences in leaf shape, and hypothesising; mathematics including; counting, one-to-one correspondence, seriation, and classification; literacy in terms of; letter recognition and writing, what type of book provides botanical information and how to make this; oral language skills and social competence required to discuss findings, share with others, put forward ideas, listen to others, take turns, and support and encourage other children to be involved.

Some other photos showing integrated and integrative learning are shown below.  The fish inquiry began from a provocation provided by the teachers while the building was purely child-initiated.  Each grew over time and incorporated learning over many disciplines as children's interests, knowledge, working theories and dispositions developed in depth and breadth.

Challenges of an interdisciplinary/ integrated/ integrative curriculum - While these are good examples of integrative teaching they are not consistent across the early childhood sector.  To be successful with this type of teaching I have found that there are some particular skills or dispositions teachers need; an extensive knowledge of all domain/ discipline areas and how these develop in the early years, a disposition of being a life long learner, and a strong pedagogy of listening so that you can respond to the child's true interests. What does a pedagogy of listening look like?

Teachers;

· Take time, time to listen, time to be listened to and time to generate listening in others.

· Listen, not to produce answers but to generate questions, allow uncertainty  and encourage differing interpretations .

· Actively listen to children taking the time necessary to interpret and give meaning to the message and to value the person giving it.

· Listen to all languages of the child—words, sounds, actions, expressions, emotions and symbols.

· Are open and sensitive to listen and be listened to—using all their senses.

· Are welcoming  and invite differences as they recognise the value of the child’s point of view or their interpretation of the situation /idea.

· Provide a “listening context” where all learn to listen  and narrate, and have their theories and interpretations legitimised.

The two goals I would have to increase my interdisciplinary approach in the near future are;

1) to incorporate tikanga and te reo Māori throughout the programme so that Māori children

experience success as Māori - For me to achieve this goal, in addition to overcoming the

 challenges above, I will need to increase my proficiency in te reo so that my use of the

 language is authentic and contextual.  Becoming more proficient in te reo will also build on 

my knowledge and understanding of tikanga.  The challenge here is to understand the true 

meaning of words rather than a literal translation.

2) to gain greater understanding of the children's next steps on their education pathway so 

that children's transitions are effective - Achieving this goal would mean that I was able to 

ensure that all integrated disciplines were taught to the appropriate level so that children

were ready to engage successfully with the NZ Curriculum.  The challenge in addition to

those above is to build effective relationships and ongoing dialogue with the new entrant 

teachers so that a clear picture of the child's abilities is passed on to their next teachers.

References:

Dahlberg, G., Moss, P. & Pence, A.  1999     Beyond quality in early childhood education and Care.  Routledge, London.

Mathison,S.. & Freeman, M.(1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, 1997. Retrieved from http://www.albany.edu/cela/reports/mathisonlogic12004.pdf: 

Wiley, D.  (2001)  An interdisciplinary path to innovation. TEDxBYU Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ytjMDongp4