Interdisciplinary lessons

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Subject-related teaching is a form of organization of teaching that moves between pure subject teaching and completely unsupported teaching that is not divided into subjects. The terms “interdisciplinary”, “interdisciplinary”, “interdisciplinary” or “networked” teaching are not used strictly separately.

Features of interdisciplinary teaching

Fan connecting teaching requires a structured by subject lessons. It should not permanently dissolve or replace the subjects, but supplement them. It intends more than the mere parallel treatment of related contents in several subjects, it includes an integration of the different subject contents under a superordinate common task.

Subject-related lessons are usually not practiced continuously over a longer period of time, but limited in time for a specific teaching unit or teaching project . It can be in different ways and at different level of aspiration, such as project-oriented teaching or project work , realized.

aims

Subject- specific teaching pursues goals that go beyond the intrinsic objectives of the subjects involved. The starting point for this are real situations which, due to their complexity, cannot be assigned to a single subject and which should therefore not be thematized and problematized in school within rigid subject boundaries. Through phases of problem-oriented , subject-related teaching, different professional perspectives can and should be linked to complex tasks that arise from the living environment.

Subject-related teaching also aims to combine in a special way the imparting of subject competence , social competence , methodological competence and, if possible, moral competence (understood as the ability to morally judge alternative courses of action). This objective stands under the primacy of an education geared towards the ability to act in the extracurricular reality.

Mediation of professional competence

The aim is to enable students to solve complex problems through networked thinking and through the interdisciplinary structuring of their knowledge. This should also be promoted with regard to the goal of qualification for a scientific degree through case and problem-oriented teaching projects that deliberately cross the subject boundaries. Therefore, for example, the Baden-Württemberg education plan expressly provides for subject-related lessons for the course level of the grammar school:

“Interdisciplinary work supports the build-up of structured knowledge, ensures an eye for connections and enables the students to deal with the necessary forms of work. Subject-related topics and subject-related lessons are therefore an integral part of the work at the upper level. (Education plan course level 2001: 6.) "

Conveying methodological skills

In cross-subject lessons, students should acquire methodological skills that will then be available to them for solving problems in a number of subjects and as key qualifications for study and professional life.

The more demanding problem solutions the students have to provide, the more they have to be able - and successively enabled by teaching that transcends subject boundaries - to select information and methods from different subject areas and to apply them again to a complex problem.

Capacity to act

Another outstanding advantage of teaching that connects subjects or at least crosses subject boundaries compared to strict subject teaching is that it enables realistic action that does not stop at subject boundaries:

“There is certainly no lack of imparting life-relevant information in and in specialist classes. What is lacking: A type of communication that can acquire and store information in such a way that it can be used independently for life. [...] And what is structurally disadvantageous with regard to the promotion of the ability to act is the content-related limitation of subjects; in them one can only learn what is relevant to the subject. […] However, life problems are not divided into subjects, but are complex and holistic. Whoever wants to solve them with information acquired in subjects must first of all make a selection from them and then bring them together and relate them to the problem situation. Specialized instruction cannot prepare for such thinking and acting. "

Problems and possible solutions

The problems with the connection of subjects in teaching are not factual, but exclusively organizational, educational and personal in nature.

Rudolf / Warwitz formulate in their rules for practical project work :

“New forms of teaching have to be learned. This applies to both students and teachers. Only a few teachers already have sufficient knowledge and experience from their training to pursue complex learning goals across disciplines, to organize large-scale lessons, to use the necessary cooperation techniques or, as natural talents, are able to implement them straight away. (P. 362) "

They also state that subject-specific cooperation must also be wanted . (P. 363)

The path to the subject association leads from easy to difficult, from merging two subject perspectives to more extensive subject combinations. A teacher who is experienced in projects is able to plan and carry out small interdisciplinary projects such as the school walk game or the pedestrian diploma with first graders . Elements from sports, music, art and community studies are combined. The children's games by Pieter Brueghel the Elder can already be realized with third graders in a sophisticated combination of art, sport and German.

The problems also do not arise from the subject structure of the school system, since there are sufficiently proven methods to use these structures creatively and productively. Problem creators are above all a lack of ability among teachers to open up to other subjects in the overriding interest of the task and to be willing to undertake the undoubtedly labor-intensive interdisciplinary cooperation with colleagues. This is where the breakthrough must take place.

The following obstacles to a concentration of subjects in everyday school life are mentioned most frequently by teachers in practice :

The organization requires an increased amount of time for agreements between the teachers involved, for the joint preparation and implementation of the subject-related lessons, which they feel overwhelmed by their strength. For the interdisciplinary work on a project, it would be beneficial if this could be done by several teachers as part of a teaching group lesson ("team teaching "), which in everyday school life often encounters difficulties in scheduling or distributing the corresponding deputation hours.

Another problem is seen in the different subject curricula , which sometimes offer too little leeway for the coordination of the subjects involved under a common topic. For this reason, related subjects are mostly combined so that mathematical-scientific and artistic-humanities subjects remain among themselves, which means that the goals of interdisciplinary teaching cannot be fully achieved. This teaching situation between the subjects is exacerbated by central examinations such as the central high school diploma in high school education , which increase the link between individual subjects and the curriculum.

As a reaction to the temporal, organizational and didactic coordination problems between the subjects, the interdisciplinary lessons are often scheduled for the project week or at the end of the school year, possibly after the grade has been awarded, so that the interdisciplinary lessons are clearly excluded from the normal lessons. As a result, it is perceived by the students as an exception or as a lesson to be taken seriously, which means that essential learning objectives for the students are lost.

literature

  • Carl Deichmann: Interdisciplinary lessons in political education ; Schwalbach 2001: Wochenschau-Verlag.
  • Wilhelm H. Peterßen: Subject-related teaching. Term, concept, planning, examples ; Munich 2000: Oldenbourg.
  • Anita Rudolf, Siegbert Warwitz: Experience-design-understand sport in projects . In: Rainer Pawelke (ed.): New sport culture . AOL-Verlag Lichtenau 1995. pp. 358-369. ISBN 3-89111-053-7
  • Siegbert Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: Project teaching. Didactic principles and models . Verlag Hofmann, Schorndorf 1977, ISBN 3-7780-9161-1 .
  • Wolfgang Sander: Political education as an interdisciplinary task of the school , in: Ders. (Ed.): Handbook of political education ; Bonn 2005: Federal Agency for Civic Education (= BpB series of publications, Volume 476), pp. 254–264.
  • F. Stübig, P. Ludwig, D. Bosse, E. Gessner, F. Lorberg: Inventory of the practice of interdisciplinary teaching in upper secondary school in the state of Hesse ; Contributions to upper secondary school; Vol. 7; Kassel 2006: University Press; 154 p .; ISBN 978-3-89958-229-1
  • Siegbert Warwitz: Interdisciplinary Sports Education. Didactic perspectives and model examples of interdisciplinary teaching. Hofmann publishing house. Schorndorf 1974. DNB 740560026 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Siegbert Warwitz: Forms of fan concentration . In: Ders .: Interdisciplinary sports education. Didactic perspectives and model examples of interdisciplinary teaching. Hofmann publishing house. Schorndorf 1974. pp. 12-26.
  2. ^ Wilhelm H. Peterßen: Subject-connecting lessons. Term, concept, planning, examples . Munich 2000. p. 65
  3. ^ Wilhelm H. Peterßen: Subject-connecting lessons. Term, concept, planning, examples . Munich 2000. p. 54
  4. ^ Anita Rudolf / Siegbert Warwitz: Experience-design-understand sport in projects . In: Rainer Pawelke (ed.): New sport culture . AOL-Verlag Lichtenau 1995. pp. 358-369
  5. P. Portmann (Ed.): Pieter Brueghel the Elder. Ä. The children's games . Orbis Pictus Vol. 36. Bern and Stuttgart 1961
  6. ^ Siegbert Warwitz, Anita Rudolf: The children's games by P. Brueghel . In: Dies .: Project teaching. Didactic principles and models . Verlag Hofmann, Schorndorf 1977. pp. 74-88