Challenging Pre-service Interns to Collaborate: Interdisciplinary Teaching in a Reform-Minded Secondary Setting

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Challenging Pre-service Interns to Collaborate
Interdisciplinary Teaching in a Reform-Minded
Secondary Setting

• Dr. Dennis S. Kubasko, Jr.
• Dr. Robert Smith
• University of North Carolina Wilmington
• http//www.uncw.edu/ed/informal/

NC Teacher Ed Forum, Raleigh, NC 9/21/07
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Overview

• This presentation showcases instructional
  approaches university faculty used to help
  students develop inquiry-based lessons across
  multiple disciplines using community resources.
• Experiences represent efforts to educate K-16
  learners

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Purpose

• Informal learning settings exist throughout every
  community, and each can add a true contextual
  experience for Standard Courses of Study, if
  integrated appropriately.
• Goals
• Provide preservice teachers with experience in
• informal learning settings
• working as students to investigate community
  resources in interdisciplinary teams
• planning an interdisciplinary lesson with peers
  from other disciplines
• designing and implementing an effective field
  trip.

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Background Literature - Science

• Informal science learning experiences offer
  teachers a powerful means to enhance both
  professional and personal development in science
  content knowledge and accessibility to unique
  resources.
• National Science Education Standards
  (http//www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/nses/)
• A growing body of research documents the power
  of informal learning experiences to spark
  curiosity and engage interest in the sciences
  during school years and throughout a lifetime.
• NSTA (http//www.nsta.org/positionstatementpsid1
  3)

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Background Literature Social Studies

• All History is Local Researching the Place
  Where you Live John Dillon
• Our understanding of the world, past and present
  begins with what we experience for ourselves.
• The history that we love and happily impart to
  our students begins, for them with connections to
  their own family or neighborhood.

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NC Standard Course of Study

• The North Carolina Department of Public
  Instruction views integration as a curriculum
  implementation strategy which links the content
  and skills from various disciplines.
• There are various models of integration which
  seek to achieve an acceptable degree of
  interdisciplinary learning.
• From the web site
• http//www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/introduc
  tion (Sept, 2007)

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NC Standard Course of Study

• Generally, these models use the language and
  methodology from more than one discipline and
  focus on unifying themes, issues, problems,
  concepts, and experiences.
• These models help the learner make connections
  among the individual disciplines and are based
  upon the following beliefs.
• From the web site
• http//www.ncpublicschools.org/curriculum/introduc
  tion (Sept, 2007)

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NC Standard Course of Study

• Integration
• Mirrors the real world in which we live.
• Motivates students by making learning relevant to
  their personal lives.
• Adds coherence to vast amounts of information by
  making connections among disciplines.
• Addresses the overcrowded curriculum by viewing
  content as a "means" not an "end."
• Acknowledges reading, writing, speaking,
  listening, viewing, and the use of numbers as
  enabling skills within thinking processes.
• Fosters collaboration among students and teachers.

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Our Position

• Importance of learning outside the classroom.
• K-16 students deserve learning opportunities that
  are plural and integrated.
• Informal settings (Museums, Aquariums, Zoos,
  Battleships, Cemeteries, etc.) provide rich
  contexts for authentic learning.
• Field trips provide experience, context and
  motivation for making career choices.
• Students need to become aware of connections
  within multiple disciplines.

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Planning Field Experiences

• Battleship NC Experience
• Oakdale and Pine Forest Cemeteries

• Format
• Pre-visit preparation
• Informal site visit
• Post-visit activities

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Context for an informal experience

• Battleship NC Agenda
• Arrival tour the exhibition hall
• 500 530 (Introduction)
• Meet in lobby
• View the introductory film (12 minutes)
• Handout informational materials
• Begin Instruction
• 530 600 (Group Orientation)
• Self-directed and guided tours of the USS NC
• 600 630 (Discipline Orientation)
• Discipline areas meet with respective students to
  discuss and generate content specific themes.
• For example, science students discuss PBL at
  informal science sites. 

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Context for an informal experience

• Battleship NC Agenda (cont.)
• 630 700 (Curator instruction)
• Battleship curators share primary artifacts and
  resources.
• For example, a team will focus on the medical
  aspects of the ship.
• Whole group conversation about interdisciplinary
  education.
• Share an example of a prior year experience.
• 700 745 (Primary artifacts)
• Break into teams to work on interdisciplinary
  projects.
• Guided tours to departments and/or other relevant
  areas of the ship.
• 745 800 (Conclusions)
• A second visit to the Battleship is strongly
  encouraged

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Interdisciplinary Content Addressed

• Social Studies content
• Historical aspects (WWII as a time period)
• Civics Economics Citizenship, War Production
• Sociology (Life of a sailor, journals)
• Math content
• Geometry (projectile trajectory, navigation)
• Algebra (moving ships relative to another)
• Statistics (Food preparation)

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Interdisciplinary Content Addressed

• Science content
• Physical science Archimedes principle
  (Buoyancy)
• Chemistry Water quality characteristics
• Biology Disease prevention (STDs, scurvy,
  etc.)
• Physics Projectile motion and trajectory
• Earth and environmental science Navigation
  (stars as guidance)
• Ill-Structured Problem
• Example

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Student Responses to Battleship Experience Items Strongly disagree 1 gt Strongly agree 6 Mean N 37
In the future I plan to use informal learning setting in my teaching 5.3
Informal learning settings add authenticity to the standard course of study.  5.4
Interdisciplinary education is valuable to understand. 5.2
Interdisciplinary education will help me become a better teacher. 5.1
Interdisciplinary education should be discussed frequently in my classes. 4.6
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Strongly disagree 1 gt
Strongly agree 6
It is important for people like me to know how to plan interdisciplinary lessons. 4.9
I would like to learn more about interdisciplinary education. 4.8
Participating in interdisciplinary education at the USS NC was enjoyable. 4.8
Participating in interdisciplinary education at the USS NC was confusing. 4.2
Participating in interdisciplinary education at the USS NC was useful. 4.5
Participating at an informal learning site, such as the USS NC, was motivational. 4.8
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Strongly disagree 1 gt
Strongly agree 6
Student Responses to Battleship Experience by Discipline Social Studies N22 Science N7 Math N8
In the future I plan to use informal learning setting in my teaching 5.6 5.3 4.4
Informal learning settings add authenticity to the standard course of study.  5.6 5.4 4.8
Interdisciplinary education is valuable to understand. 5.3 5.0 5.1
Participating at an informal learning site, such as the USS NC, was motivational. 5.1 4.6 3.9
If I had my choice, I would not have participated at an informal learning site, such as the USS NC. 1.8 1.9 3.6
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Practical Applications

• Planning a field trip
• Lesson Plans
• PowerPoint Presentations
• Interdisciplinary
• Science
• Social Studies

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Oakdale Cemetery and Pine Forrest Cemetery

• http//www.oakdalecemetery.org/

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2 Cemeteries, 2 Stories

• We wanted students to compare and contrast two
  current but historical cemeteries from the
  1800s.
• Oakdale Cemetery designed to serve Wilmingtons
  white middle to upper class
• Pine Forest Cemetery designed to serve
  Wilmingtons African-American community.

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Pictures of Pine Forrest Cemetery
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Pictures of Pine Forrest Cemetery
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Pictures of Oakdale Cemetery
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Pictures of Oakdale Cemetery
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• In addition to the work completed in
  interdisciplinary teams, students had to complete
  3 Journal entries
• Journal 1 (Due prior to cemetery visit)
• How would you describe your beliefs about death?
  What factors have influenced those beliefs and in
  what way did they influence your thinking? (also
  consider how you were taught to respond).
• Recall, if you can, your first visit to a
  cemetery. What do you remember about the
  experience?
• If you were to consider using a cemetery for an
  interdisciplinary unit with another discipline,
  which discipline would you choose (and why) and
  how would you connect the disciplines? Describe
  any activities you might use.

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• Journal 2
• Free-writing exercise As you walk through each
  cemetery, write down your initial thoughts.
• Reflect on the physical layout of each cemetery
  and the material composition of the gravestones.
  How would you comparatively analyze or contrast
  them? What inferences would you make from the
  comparative analysis? (e.g. what could you
  conclude, if anything, about the people buried in
  each cemetery?)
• As you work with your colleagues, consider their
  input. How would you describe the level of
  engagement of your colleagues and how would you
  describe the process of collaboration?

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Challenges

• Adapting a formal school structure to an informal
  experience
• Developing a partnership with an informal setting
• Time consuming with planning and implementation
• Administrative costs for travel, services
  rendered, and resources consumed (loss of
  integrity)
• Working with your interdisciplinary peers

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Conclusions

• With the advent of school restructuring (i.e. new
  schools projects, ninth grade academies), the
  opportunities exist for thematic approaches.
• Motivation across populations (students,
  pre-service teachers, in-service teachers,
  university faculty)
• Tie informal settings with the missions and
  curriculum goals of schools

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Future Endeavors

• Does modeling appropriate pedagogy translate into
  effective school-based practice?
• http//www.uncw.edu/ed/informal/
• Plantations, Barrier Islands, Lighthouses, Fort
  Fisher

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An Interdisciplinary Approach to Preparing
Teachers to use Community Resources

• Dr. Dennis Kubasko, Jr. (Science)
• Dr. Robert Smith (Social Studies)
• Dr. Angelia Reid-Griffin (Science) Dr. David
  Gill (English)
• Dr. Denise Ousley (English) Dr. Kelli Slaten
  (Math)
• Dr. Donyell Roseboro (Social Studies)
• University of North Carolina Wilmington

NC Teacher Ed Forum, Raleigh, NC 9/21/07