Interdisciplinary Map - Crossing Boundaries (Week 31)

I found the way Andrews (1990) defines interdisciplinary collaboration was helpful to me when trying to understand this concept. He describes it as "when different professionals, possessing unique knowledge, skills, organizational perspectives, and personal attributes, engage in coordinated problem solving for a common purpose" (cited in Berg-Weger &. Schneider, 1998). It spoke to me as it shows that at the end of the day so many professionals and experts are working in their area but we all have the same purpose or are wanting similar outcomes. The students/child are the purpose.

The connection that has the potential for further development in the near future is STEAM education. Developing a deeper understanding of our colleagues strengths (within syndicates) and how we could make this work I see as the first step. Creating a planning template that suits our strengths, school and students I see as being a worthwhile investment of time as opposed to one found online etc.

Finding a way to incorporate this into our school and our classroom programme in a way that staff are comfortable with. The main purpose of introducing STEAM into a primary classroom I believe is to make it clear to students where there are crossovers within the curriculum and the purpose - the why and how. Students have buy in when they are understanding the purpose of something and especially when it enables them to be creative and not restricted.

Challenges that we may face could be a few things:

• How to track and students progress when reporting to parents under ‘Reading, Writing, Maths’.
• Having a reporting system or progressions of the Key Competencies in place to help with this tracking and reporting process.
• The initial setup of the programme and the shift for all - parents, students, teachers.
• Following the setup can also include the student's articulation and new language that may need to be taught to get the quality or desired outcomes. Once these are established it is easier to dig deeper into the projects.

I believe the benefits outweigh these challenges in the long run:

• Allowing students to explore, be creative, innovative and have a voice.
• Students (and parents) will understand the purpose and understand the cross overs within the curriculum.
• Opportunities for students to develop their Key Competencies - skills, strategies that they require for this rapidly changing world...we are needing to set them up for jobs that don’t currently exist after all

Mulligan & Kuban (2015)  bring light to the most important part for STEAM to succeed - Collaboration! Positive workplace conditions are at the core for creating a collaborative and supportive environment. Without this environment, teachers are less likely to be willing to feel vulnerable through this time of change. Establishing teams that work well together is key to get the most out of STEAM - after all, no matter what discipline we are from we are here for the same reason - the students.

References:

Berg-Weger, M., &. Schneider, F. D. (1998). Interdisciplinary collaboration in social work education. Journal of Social Work Education, 34, 97-107.

Mulligan, L. M., & Kuban, A. J. . (2015). A Conceptual Model for Interdisciplinary Collaboration. Retrieved from http://acrlog.org/2015/05/14/a-conceptual-model-for-interdisciplinary-collaboration