Blog Post #1

Incorporating the information from articles and videos reviewed this week, identify some of the benefits to an integrated or interdisciplinary approach to teaching.

GÉRICAULT, JEAN LOUIS THÉODORE. The Raft of the Medusa. 1818. 

       Integrating learning through cross curricular education has several benefits to both students and teachers.  For students, the experience of integrating learning is more holistic than traditional methods of compartmentalization of academic subjects.  Compartmentalization of subject disciplines usually leads to fractured learning, especially in schools that are on a rotary schedule.  That is, the content of what one instructor is teaching in, for example, Social Studies, will likely have little if anything to do with what another instructor is teaching in, for example, Science.  The negative consequences of this for student learning are significant.  One such consequence is that students will receive information about a subject from a perspective that is limited by the functions and practices of that discipline. So, for example, instead of learning about the early European settlers in Canada in one class and studying about plants in another class an integrated education might teach about the crops the early European settlers in Canada planted.  This latter topic could be studied in Science by studying the plants themselves, it could also be taught in Language by having students write an essay on early farming.  Naturally, Social Studies could teach about the history and geography of early European Settlers, while Math could possibly do data management work on crop yields and trading of early European Settlers.  

       The main point about all of this is that integrating learning helps students understand a particular topic from various angles.  It allows students to become fully immersed in their subject matter by diversifying information and developing a more complete understanding of a particular topic.  While all of these points have important value for students, integrated learning is also beneficial to teachers too, especially those that teach multiple subjects to a single class.  The major advantage that integrated learning has for teachers is it helps them with time management and class focus.  Covering all the curriculum expectations can be very difficult as there is only so much time to teach in one day.  Also, preparing for many disciplines with diverse and divergent subject matter can also be daunting at times.  Hence, the integrated learning approach allows for teachers to cover a variety of subjects in one project and, metaphorically speaking, 'kill several birds with one stone'.