My interdisciplinary connection map

My initial feeling was that the readings on interdisciplinary curriculum were  more for the benefit of secondary school teachers who, as subject specialists, need to develop ways to collaborate across different subjects.  As primary school teachers, we already use an integrated curriculum and it is rare to see subjects taught discretely.  This feeling was reinforced by the fact that the goal of a curriculum like this is to help STUDENTS synthesize discrete information and to connect such knowledge to the needs of everyday living (Mathison and Freeman, 1997).  Furthermore, according to Jones (2009), the interdisciplinary approach is a key concept to the advancement of SCHOOL CURRICULUM at all levels.

Further reading, made me realise that I have been making interdisciplinary CONNECTIONS with outside agencies such as Auckland Transport as the Travelwise Lead Teacher,  the Resource Teachers for Learning and Behaviour (RTLB) and the Outreach Service Teacher. As teachers/professionals working together, we do synthesize discrete information and connect this knowledge for the benefit of our students and communities. Working with these outside agencies are interdisciplinary because the disciplines (agencies) are kept distinct and in focus.

An external agency I want to work with better is the Outreach Service (ORS) teacher who is supporting me with a lovely girl in our room. The  ORS teacher has specialised knowledge on working with students with Global Development Delay.

Working with students with special needs was not included in my training, whilst it is this teacher’s bread and butter. Working with the specialist teacher has helped and, looking at the conceptual model for successful collaboration, I can see why it has worked and the area we need to work on to improve.

Firstly, in terms of goals, we both want to support the student to maximise her potential, so we share a common goal.  Secondly, in terms of qualities/attitude, we both have the patience and we are both prepared to do what is needed. We respect each other as teachers and we feel safe to critique and be critiqued.

It has been hard to schedule a regular time to sit down together and we have been relying on her weekly reports, Seesaw, emails and the short conversations we had every week. To support my student even better, we need to schedule more time. At the moment, I have been reading up on how to use the Numicon resource, which is taking up a lot of time. I have had useful conversations with the ORS teacher, but having more time would be hugely beneficial. To get around this, Technology could perhaps provide a solution as we could schedule a time to have a video call.

As it is impossible for any teacher to be an expert in every field needed to teach every child, and it is impossible for any staff to possess all the skills they could possibly need, it is certainly worth the effort to strengthen interdisciplinary connections with external agencies.

Reference:

ACRLog. (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration

Jones, C. (2009), Interdisciplinary approach - Advantages, Disadvantages and the future benefits of interdisciplinary studies, ESSAI: Vol. 7, Article 26. Available at http: //dc.cod/essai/vol7/ess1/26

Mathison S,  Freeman M. (1997). The logic of interdisciplinary studies. CELA, University of Albany, School of Education, NY.