Cross Curricular Teaching and Learning in the Secondary School… Science

Eleanor Byrne, Marilyn Brodie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781136731228
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This book brings together ongoing debates about personalised learning, creativity and ICT in education, with a cross-curricular focus, and establishes a principled framework for cross-curricular teaching and learning in Science. It identifies a range of key issues and aims to strengthen in-school science practices by introducing ways of teaching rigorous science through, and alongside, other subjects.

Drawing on examples and case studies taken from innovative practices in different schools and subject areas, as well as summarising lessons from key pieces of research evidence this book includes:

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• Clear theoretical frameworks for cross-curricular processes of teaching and learning in science

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• An analysis of the use of language, ICT and assessment as key components of a skilful pedagogical practice that affect how teaching is delivered and how pupils learn science in cross-curricular contexts

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• A lively account of theoretical issues blended with engaging stories of current practice

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• Practical tasks and questions for reflective practice

This timely textbook is essential reading for all students on Initial Teacher Training courses and PGCE courses as well as practising teachers looking to holistically introduce cross-curricular themes and practices in Science.

Chapter 1
Introduction: the context for cross-curricular teaching and learning

Key objectives

By the end of this chapter, you will have:

• Explored what is meant by ‘cross-curricular’ teaching and learning
• Reflected on the ways in which a cross-curricular approach could benefit your teaching
• Considered the role of cross-curricular teaching and learning in the twenty-first century and its place within the National Curriculum
• Reflected on your reasons for undertaking cross-curricular work
• Explored the distinct characteristics of your own subject area

There is little doubt that the way we live our modern lives could be described as cross-curricular. Many of the skills we use in one area of life can be utilised and put to work in another without much planning or forethought. It is interesting therefore that as teachers we are, more often than not, required to teach in distinctly separate topics and themes. Artificial barriers can be created through a curriculum disconnect – barriers that do not realistically represent the nature of twenty-first-century life. However, by applying a theme across two (or more) disciplines we are able to allow pupils the opportunity to form meaningful connections between subjects that better reflect the real world. The formation of links between seemingly separate curriculum subjects can enhance pupil learning and impact upon both cognitive and meta-cognitive understanding. It can also have a major impact on the development of core and transferable skills, which become useful both for a learner and for an active social citizen. This approach is known as cross-curricular teaching and learning although it can also be described as curriculum integration.

Throughout this book the concept of cross-curricular teaching and learning and its potential pedagogical implications will be explored and the process will be illustrated by real-life case studies. This book stands as part of a series looking at cross-curricular teaching in a number of different curriculum subjects including mathematics, the arts, English and the humanities. This edition seeks to explore the ways in which science teaching can be enhanced and strengthened through cross-curricular endeavours within the school classroom. But what do we mean by cross-curricular teaching and learning?

Cross-curricular teaching and learning

As an educational philosophy or approach, cross-curricular pedagogical methods can be seen as a way of supporting the varied and diverse abilities of pupils. The process sees the combining of one or more subject area(s) and often the incorporation of a wide range of concepts. The identified subjects can be integrated using ‘a central theme, issue, problem, process, topic or experience’ (Hayes 2010: 382) and the aim of cross-curricular teaching is to enhance more than just subject knowledge. As a methodology the approach looks to develop general skills, cognitive understanding, creativity and flexibility (amongst other things!). The lengthy list of aims prescribed to the approach leads to varying definitions for the concept itself. As such cross-curricular teaching and learning does not boast one single identity and it can be defined differently when explored by different education commentators. This should not, however, provoke alarm as there are various other educational concepts for which no agreed collective definition exists such as ‘creativity’, ‘special needs’, ‘non-fiction’ and ‘high expectations’ (Hayes 2010: 383). The view taken in this book is one shared by the complete series and defines the cross-curricular method as the following:

A cross-curricular approach to teaching is characterised by sensitivity towards, and a synthesis of, knowledge, skills and understandings from various subject areas. These inform an enriched pedagogy that promotes an approach to learning which embraces and explores this wider sensitivity through various methods.

(Savage 2011: 8–9)

This concept of cross-curricular learning arises from a constructivist stand-point in which learning is achieved through doing or experiencing. This pedagogical approach can be undertaken using a plethora of different methods that all engage children’s imaginations, encourage investigation and foster creativity. The methods applied are drawn from the differing subject areas and linked though identified themes, projects or topics:

Cross-curricular learning: when the skills, knowledge and attitudes of a number of different disciplines are applied to a single experience, theme or idea.

(Barnes 2007: 8)

While a theme/topic/idea is a great focus for any cross-curricular teaching that is not to suggest a return to the solely thematic and awkwardly broad topic work of the 1970s. The cross-curricular work put forward in this book straddles this tired 1970s model and the disconnected subject work undertaken throughout the 1990s under the guidance of the National Curriculum.

Why is cross-curricular teaching important?

The National Curriculum identifies both statutory and non-statutory, distinctly defined subject areas that must be taught in schools. As important as each of these separate subjects are, on their own they cannot guarantee young people leave school with adequate knowledge, skills and ingenuity to contribute as citizens in what is an ever changing and unpredictable global society. This concept emphasises the need to prepare young people for the next phase of their education as well as their future, all of which must take place alongside the provision of sound subject-based understanding. This is a big task for teachers, and the enormity of the challenge is not lost on the authors of this book. However, the aspirations of the curriculum are commendable if we are to prepare our younger generation to cope with a changeable and potentially volatile future.

So now let us consider some of ways in which cross-curricular teaching can support the development of both knowledge and skills.

Context-rich teaching

The integrated curriculum approach to teaching moves us away from the notion of the teacher as the provider of facts. Instead the emphasis is on pupil-led thinking and reasoning skills, creativity, investigation and communication. This emphasises a more social model of learning, which sees pupils learn from each other as well as the teacher. In his 1978 work, Mind in Society the Russian psychologist Vygotsky suggests that all higher thinking, in terms of processes and structures (such as scientific concepts), is first experienced by learners as they communicate with others. This information must then be internalised and understood by the individual learner in relation to their own existing notions and beliefs. As such, this Vygotskian model suggests social communication followed by internal reasoning is fundamental to the understanding of scientific concepts. This theoretical view emphasises the importance of the individual in the learning process as well as the social aspects of learning. Contexts for learning become important as a means through which scientific concepts can be better understood. Science offers learners a new and often daunting way of speaking and thinking. This new framework can sometimes clash with pupils’ already existing everyday way of thinking and communicating, and as such contrived obstacles to scientific learning can be created. Real-world contexts can help overcome these barriers by providing a familiar context for the learning. This cross-curricular approach can support the progression and retention of new scientific knowledge.

Skills development

Approaching learning from a more holistic viewpoint allows cross-curricular teaching to explore skills in an ultimately beneficial way. As a teaching method, cross-curricular work aims to transfer learning across one or more subjects and in the process utilises skills and methods relevant to each separate subject together. By drawing together the approaches familiar to each distinct subject, advocates of the pedagogical technique argue that this method of teaching allows a transfer of learning from subject to subject that is not seen through discrete curriculum work. This cross-discipline approach aims to make learning more relevant and accessible to young people by eliminating artificial barriers so familiar to compartmentalised National Curriculum teaching. That is to say that, cross-curricular learning focuses on the development of transferable skills that can be used across multiple subject areas. Tate (1994) believes that this skills focus is important if we hope to provide young people with a well-rounded education:

Is education a matter of accruing information? The knowledge and understanding that we expect school children to learn can be itemised and structured in subjects and levels, as in the National Curriculum. Or is education a matter of learning ways to process information, developing strategies, concepts and categories, developing what are sometimes called core or transferable skills?

(Tate 1994: 1)

This latter concept fits with the notion of developing the individual though education. While schools are required to provide a rigorous education as set out by the National Curriculum, is there not also a need for schools to be ‘a place where students come to find out about the world and about themselves in that world?’ (Morrison 1994: v). Verma and Pumfrey (1993) identify six distinct, cross-curricular skills that can be developed through an integrated learning approach:

• Communication
• Numeracy
• Study skills
• Problem-solving
• Personal and social skills
• Information-technology skills

(Verma and Pumfrey 1993: 20)

Along with the numeracy skills identified by Verma and Pumfrey in the above list, literacy can also be improved through cross-curricular undertakings. From the science perspective this can mean a move away from an emphasis on scientific literacy (although obviously of huge importance) towards structured oral activities such as debates and reading from popular literature as well as textbooks. Numeracy and literacy are explored further in Chapters 4 and 6.

The societal perspective

To understand the strengths of the cross-curricular approach we must first explore the purpose of education. While exploring the full spectrum of this philosophical debate may be a little too much for the pages of this book, it is important to stress the rapidly changing nature of twenty-first-century life and the responsibilities this presents to the education community. Some argue that it is no longer enough for young people to leave school with just an academic education, they also need to know how to utilise and apply their knowledge to allow them to become ‘active participants in society’ (Morrison 1994: 1). With reference to science education there is a particular need to support and develop scientific literacy to ensure young people understand the nature of science. As citizens of an ever-changing global community, today’s school-leavers need to be equipped to confidently interrogate scientific evidence, understand the wider issues surrounding scientific advancements and question the media’s representation of science in the news. To do so, pupils need to be developing these skills while at school by investigating contemporary and contentious real-world science topics:

Pupils should actively engage with topical science-based issues so that they feel more confident to access the relevant information and participate in discussion on science-related controversies. If we believe in a democratic society, it is desirable for all citizens to be both equipped and empowered to take an active role in science-based issues, and so education needs to consider seriously how these aspects of science can be incorporated into the curriculum.

(Alexander et al. 2008: 25)

Alongside this science focus is the broader issue concerning the society in which young people are growing up. The often turbulent and ever-changing nature of modern living can mean education has a role to play in preparing pupils for life after school:

[C]hildren are growing up in a world where moral and social boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred. We live in a time where communication opportunities abound, one result being that young people are faced by a bewildering kaleidoscope of ideas, opinions and pressures.

(Hayes 2010: 386)

The rapid shifts in communication technology call for an increasingly holistic model of education that can help today’s young people place their learning into a context that supports their development as active, independent global citizens. This concept of pupils requiring an education that provides a global perspective is not new. In 2004, the Department for Education and Skills (Df ES) published the paper Putting the World into World-Class Education. The paper identified three inter-related key goals:

• Equipping children and adults for a ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Illustrations
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction: the context for cross-curricular teaching and learning
• 2 Understanding science and its place within the curriculum
• 3 Tackling cross-curricular science teaching: three case studies of current teacher practice
• 4 Cross-curricular practice: science and mathematics
• 5 Cross-curricular practice: science, ICT and technology
• 6 Cross-curricular practice: science and English
• 7 Science and the humanities
• 8 Science and the arts
• 9 The assessment of cross-curricular teaching in science
• 10 Conclusion: the future for cross-curricular science
• References
• Index