Developing interdisciplinary units: A strategy based on problem solving

School Science and Mathematics, Nov 2001 by McGehee, Jean J

While the benefits of the interdisciplinary unit are well documented, it presents a complex challenge to teachers in the natural and social sciences, mathematics, and humanities. Teachers must become active curriculum designers who shape and edit the curriculum according to students' needs. This paper describes knowledge for teachers as curriculum designers and a framework for interdisciplinary unit development. The framework addresses a metacurricular process (problem solving) that will be the unit centerpiece, the development of this central process related to the learner, and the tasks that teach explicit learning and thinking skills attached to the central process. An example of the framework in action is also described As the faculty and curriculum coordinators for an innovative summer academy for minority students in northern Arizona have used this framework, they have evolved from a group that created a good idea to interest students with parallel subject development in separate classrooms to humanities/mathematics/science teams united in one team/classroom, in which content is integrated through the actions of the problem solving process.

The literature on interdisciplinary curricula is rich with creative examples integrating mathematics, physical and life sciences, and the humanities. The benefits to student motivation and self-esteem are well documented (Rothenberg, 1994; Schroth, Dunbar, Seaborg, & Vaughan, 1994). The curricula meet a need to actively show students how different disciplines influence their lives and allow them to explore the strength of each discipline perspective in a connected way (Jacobs, 1989).

However, the interdisciplinary approach is not without its problems and challenges. Ingeneral, Schroth, et al. (1994) claimed that these units present a complex challenge to teachers, because teachers must do more than share and coordinate content. In planning for the interdisciplinary curriculum, teachers usually choose central themes and develop a web of concepts and topics from content in the discipline areas. Jacobs (1989) identified two problems in content selection. The "Potpourri Problem" is the tendency to make an interdisciplinary unit a sampling of knowledge from each discipline. Teachers may feel challenged when a particular theme requires them to contrive material that seems connected to it. Also the interdisciplinary approach can force teachers from their comfort zones as they go against traditional practices of prescribed content sequences often dictated by the textbook. This discomfort would in part come from what Jacobs described as the "Polarity Problem," caused by teachers' seeing interdisciplinary study and disciplinary study as an either/or polarity. To overcome these problems, teachers need to be active curriculum designers who shape and edit the curriculum according to students' needs.

The primary focus of this paper is to describe knowledge for teachers as curriculum designers and a framework for interdisciplinary unit development. The developmental process of a curriculum project in action will also be presented as an example of the framework.

Knowledge for Teachers as Curriculum Designers

As teacher teams develop curriculum material, the teachers from each content area must clarify their own philosophy of knowledge and methods for that particular discipline (Ranch, 1994). Teachers need to know what they can bring to the planning table and develop during the project. First, working definitions are established to lay the groundwork for teacher interaction as follows:

Discipline Field: A specific body of teachable knowledge with its own background of education, training, procedures, methods, and content areas (Piaget, 1972).

Interdisciplinary: A knowledge view and curriculum approach that consciously applies methodology and language from more than one discipline to examine a central theme, issue, problem, topic, or experience (Piaget, 1972).

Teacher knowledge in a discipline field: A teacher is a member of a scholarly community who must understand the structures of subject matter, the principles of conceptual organization, and the principles of inquiry that help answer two kinds of questions in each field: What are the important ideas and skills in this domain (discipline)? And How are new ideas added and deficient ones dropped by those who produce knowledge in this area? (Shulman, 1987, p. 108)

Schulman distinguished three categories of content knowledge. Subject matter content knowledge is consistent with Piaget's definition of knowledge in the disciplinary field and includes an understanding of processes that construct this knowledge. Pedagogical content knowledge separates the teacher from others who practice the discipline. While a mathematician, natural scientist, or social scientist understands and uses representations of concepts to solve problems, the teacher must also use representations as learning tools. A discipline practitioner works toward developing an expert's knowledge structure. The teacher also develops an understanding of a student's or novice's knowledge structure and must make instructional decisions that allow enhancing that structure or amending misconceptions.