Bridging Subjects to Enhance Learning

This week's lecture brought to light the fact that integration of the curriculum involves more than just carefully analyzing the standards to make sure lessons are relevant and aligned, but deciding on the type of integration is also important. I always just assumed that when a teacher was using an integrated curriculum, that it was one standard approach. Dr. Drake revealed that there are actually three different approaches: multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary. I am going to share my thoughts on each and hopefully come to a personal consensus on the approach I would most like to adopt in my classroom someday.

The multidisciplinary approach involves integrating the subjects using skills and knowledge from each subject and applying them around a common theme. I find this approach somewhat of a half-hearted attempt towards integration because the disciplines are still discrete, it is only considered integrated because they share a theme. I feel that students would become bored of the theme after covering it in each subject period and some would become uninterested and as a consequence, their learning would suffer. The second approach discussed was interdisciplinary and was when the teacher frames learning around skills and concepts that are present in multiple subject areas. I think that this approach would be easy to do as skills like communication and critical thinking could be identified in the standards, but there is the risk of missing certain expectations if certain knowledge is unique to the subject. I would also question whether a unit on
"inquiry" could be designed to be engaging enough or have real world implications to make it meaningful. For the facts that multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary seem only like first attempts at integration and may be beneficial for teachers still weary of integrating standards, but are not what I consider fully integrated.

The transdiciplinary approach is what I as a future educator will strive to create. This approach involves a real-life context that is student-centered as it incorporates their questions about the world around them so that they can find answers using the skills and knowledge of the curriculum. I see this integration as being optimal as the lines between subjects are blurred and students become motivated to learn concepts from less favourable disciplines like math sheerly through their curiosity. Even though I think that this approach would be intensive in designing, as it would need to cover the standards while working towards a larger goal, I think the benefits of students actually becoming engrossed in a theme that extends beyond the classroom and has societal relevance is the learning I want my students to benefit from.

Through reviewing the three approaches to integration and sharing my thoughts on each, I have become more familiar with them and now recognize how integration will work with my style and philosophy of teaching. If I can manage to create some truly unique experiences for my students, I am confident that they will be able to take away a big understanding and perceive the world as being necessarily subjective to their intentions to improve it.