Analyzing Interdisciplinary Curriculum:
A Jigsaw

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec596/AnalyzingIDC.html

The first step in learning how to create your own interdisciplinary units is to study curriculum created by others. In this in-class exercise, you'll examine descriptions of five units. Some of these were actually implemented with student access to the World Wide Web; others are merely described on the Web and did not involve student internet access. In either case, they provide a range of examples for us to examine.

The Process

1. First you'll be assigned a number by counting off by fives.
2. Groups will then be formed by those numbers. For example, all the 1's will sit together for the first phase of the exercise.
3. Each group will study the resource listed below with the goal of answering the questions that follow. Each group of five should position themselves around two or three computers.
4. When the groups have studied the resource sufficiently well to answer questions 1-3, reassemble into the original groups of five you were initially seated with. Within your group, take turns describing to the others the unit you studied, and then work together on question 4.

The Questions

1. On page 10 of her book "Interdisciplinary Curriculum: Design and Implementation", Heidi Hayes Jacobs says:
   Curriculum making is a creative solution to a problem, hence interdisciplinary curriculum should only be used when the problem reflects the need to overcome fragmentation, relevance, and the growth of knowledge.

   Which of these problems (fragmentation, relevance, or growth of knowledge) was your unit you are looking at designed to address? How well did it do so?

    

2. On page 14 of Jacobs, there's a diagram showing a continuum of options for content design ranging from Discipline-Based, Parallel Disciplines, Multi-Disciplinary, Interdisciplinary, Integrated Day, to Complete Program. How would your categorize the unit you studied?

    

3. If you had to draw a diagram like the one on page 57 showing the central theme of your unit and the links to other disciplines, what would it look like?

    

4. Now, looking at comparisons across the five units your group examined, identify ten characteristics with which you could describe these curricula such that some of them have that characteristic and others don't. (E.g., access to outside expertise: some units put kids in touch with experts outside the classroom, others don't.)

When all groups have completed the four questions, we'll have a whole class debriefing.

Resources

Here are the sites you'll use to complete this exercise:

1. Studying Whales in Middle School
2. Live from the Stratosphere (Click on the Overview)
3. Ethics in Sports
4. Taking Stock: A Stock Market Simulation
5. Arthurian Legends

Learning Advice

While examining the unit that you're studying, pay close attention to the mundane details of how the unit was implemented. You'll need to make yourself familiar with the details of your unit in order to participate in the discussions about question 4.