Put Understanding First: The Case for Interdisciplinary Learning

This last week’s article, Put Understanding First, suggests today’s schools are broken because of the disconnect between the mission of secondary education and the approaches towards developing and implementing curriculum and instruction. For Wiggins and McTighe, “the mission of high school is not to cover content, but rather to help learners become thoughtful about, and productive with, content.” This philosophy challenges traditional goals of education based in preparing students to become expert task masters in a once industrial society. As time changes, the educational needs of a population differs than previous generations. Recognizing this is crucial as we try to continue to improve America’s education system. An industrial-styled education no longer will support the needs of tomorrow.

Today, society expects workers to be able to multitask, make connections and be more analytical than ever before. If we are to improve the possibility of society, I agree with the ideas of Wiggins and McTighe that we must reflect on the purposes of schooling and design curriculum by providing instruction in a way that promotes opportunity for students not to engage in rote memorization requiring drill-and-kill strategies, but rather make meaning out of the information and ideas being explored to create new knowledge, as well as coach/facilitate students in the ability of transferring skills and content. We must prepare students to think about the unknown tomorrow. In order to do this, the walls between content areas need to be broken and high schools must focus on finding ways to incorporate and expand the possibilities of interdisciplinary learning. Certainly, educators are doing this today, especially at the middle school level; however, it must be formally written into curriculum and educators must be trained in the process. The physical architecture of school buildings must be revamped, classrooms must be made open to have the resources and ability to cross content. When educators are trained and students participate in the integrated curriculum process learning will matter, and the education of today will likely support the education needs of tomorrow!