An interdisciplinary approach to science, mathematics, and reading: Learning as children learn

School Science and Mathematics, Mar 1998 by Foss, Donna H, Pinchback, Carolyn L

A project was designed to implement an integrated curriculum in mathematics, science, and reading by promoting the professional growth of K-4 in-service teachers through a 6-hour graduate course. The course adopts a view of teachers ' knowledge acquisition based on constructivism, a perspective currently more accepted for elementary children than for teachers. The effectiveness of the project in the Ist year was evaluated in part by employing content examinations, portfolios, journals, questionnaires, and course assignments. The findings suggest implications for teacher educators, program administrators, teachers in K-4, and the children served by the educational system.

According to a position statement issued by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1995), K-4 teaching should center on interdisciplinary instruction derived from a curriculum organized around questions, themes, problems, or projects to capitalize on the connections across content areas. Furthermore, children need curricula which are more authentic, that is, reflecting real life. Motivated by this advice, the project described in this paper was created to foster the professional development of in-service K-4 teachers. Funded in part by the National Science Foundation, the purpose of the project, which began in January 1994 was to help teachers create successful learning environments for all elementary children, promote professional growth for K-4 teachers, and provide access to mathematics manipulatives, reading materials, science equipment, and technology in all elementary classrooms in the participating state.

More specifically, the goals of this 5-year effort focused on developing and implementing an innovative, integrated K-4 curriculum in mathematics, science, and reading. The project employed multiple instructional strategies, critical thinking, concrete materials, content connections, and relevant applications of the three subject areas. The objectives of this report are to a) briefly describe the content and activities of the interdisciplinary graduate course of the K-4 project and b) document the participating teachers' knowledge and implementation of the integrated curriculum.

Theoretical Perspectives

A task force of teachers, administrators, curriculum supervisors, and subject area specialists from universities across the state established the goals of the K-4 project. These goals were based on two components which form the theoretical framework: constructivism and curriculum integration. The constructivist philosophy is based on the assumption that learners do not passively absorb knowledge but rather construct it from experiences (Ashton, 1992). In essence, constructivism involves internalization of information by the learner in personally meaningful and conceptually coherent ways (Caine & Caine, 1991). According to Nickson (1992), the acceptance of elementary children as constructors of their own knowledge has not been transferred to a similar view of teachers' knowledge acquisition. While there is literature clearly indicating the need for teachers to be treated in the same manner as young learners when using constructivist approaches, teacher education courses do not necessarily reflect this view (Cobb, 1988). Many in-service and preservice teachers are still being taught by being told. However, in this project, the participating K-4 teachers were guided to make discoveries; that is, constructivism as described by Goldin (1990) was manifested by the team instructors' presenting situations in which mathematics, science, and reading concepts emerged, to be detected and interpreted by the participants.

In their review of research involving knowledge taught in school, Semb and Ellis (1994) concluded that instructional strategies actively involving students in learning may result in qualitatively different memories more resistant to forgetting than memories acquired through more traditional instructional methods. In the K-4 course, the in-service teachers were involved in lessons requiring them to assume the roles of children, constructing meaning through their active participation. They learned how to develop active, interactive, concrete activities through which their future pupils can construct knowledge of the three subjects in the same manner. The team of instructors served as facilitators, while the in-service teachers investigated and explored in the three content areas.

Second, the project was based on an interdisciplinary approach to learning mathematics, science, and reading. According to White (1985), a norrow focus on technical content diminishes understanding; therefore, by integrating the topics, subject matter content is not only understandable but has greater relevancy. This focus was achieved in the project described herein through team teaching, which not only integrated the subjects but encouraged professional dialogue, reflection, and a problem-solving approach. At the same time, situations were created in which teachers were forced to examine different teaching practices, as recommended by Fresko, Ben-Chaim, and Carmeli (1994). Few, if any, real world problems fit neatly into the confines of a single discipline, especially since developments in many fields have united a variety of disciplines within the sciences and the arts (Fosnot, 1989). In the K-4 course, the participants were exposed to connections that incorporated mathematics, science, and reading.