As a computational biologist, my work relies upon and benefits from incorporation of interdisciplinary knowledge--biology, computer science, and statistics, to name a few. Some topics such as gene patent extend the scope even further to cover policy, law, and ethics, for example. From my training and direct experiences in research at an institute where the word interdepartmental collaboration is commonplace, I see that every field is interconnected, and seeing such relationships has helped me become a better learner and researcher, and I hope a better teacher. I believe that you cannot describe any subject as a stand-alone phenomenon as well as if you were to explain it in an interdisciplinary manner, which students at any levels could benefit from. Even if my experiences are in science, the idea of interdisciplinary learning also applies to non-science fields. For example, if you were to teach history, say on the world wars, your stories would relate to various other subjects including social science, psychology, and political sciences.
Movement towards interdisciplinary and integrated teaching and learning has been a focus of many countries, including Thailand. One good example is a STEM initiative that pushes for incorporating technology and engineering into science and mathematics teaching in basic education. Nevertheless, to plan for it is one thing, but to accomplish the goal is another story. Teachers may not fully understand the connections among various fields or do not see benefits of it, and as a result may not apply such principle in their teaching. Some teachers, on the other hand, simply may not know how to effectively incorporate interdisciplinary teaching in their class. Even I, as a secondary-science-teacher-to-be, do not fully know what works well and what doesn’t, and I can see this aspect as what I can improve as a teacher. These various factors motivate me to investigate how to effectively implement interdisciplinary teaching to promote student’s integrated learning.
I have some ideas on what can contribute to an effective incorporation of interdisciplinary teaching in class. At first, teachers would have to make explicit connections to show students what fields are related to the topic of interest, and how they are related. After giving examples to help students see the connection and the importance of it, teachers should move towards getting students to initiate the process of making connection themselves, and eventually complete it on their own. This can be done via project-based learning where teachers can set up a project that guide students through various aspects of making connection, and get students to come up with some of their own. Eventually, students will be the ones who initiate the process themselves in any future topics that they may come upon. During all these steps, I will monitor students’ participation in the projects and attitude towards interdisciplinary nature of the subject, as well as their ability to make connections and initiate the process on their own. Based on these observations, I will adjust the method accordingly and see if the changes yield any improvements. During the process, an external evaluator will be evaluating my teaching method as well as students’ behaviour and attitude, and giving feedbacks that I can use in addition to my own assessment. Some forms of concrete evaluation measures can also be used. For example, a questionnaire or a project worksheet can be structured to evaluate student’s ability to identify interdisciplinary components, explain their relationships, and see the importance of doing so, as well as to evaluate their attitude towards interdisciplinary learning.
- data, evidence, evaluation measures: TBA
