LESSONS

©PRISMATICUM is an adaptive, integrated approach to teaching and learning which links knowledge across school disciplines through an interdisciplinary theme, helping learners to better understand real-life situations in a school setting. Colors of the divided spectrum (school subjects) pass through the transforming prism (the theme), and exit as focused light (the conceptual understanding of the issues).

Justification for an Interdisciplinary Education

by Mary L. Radnofsky, Ph.D.

In the workplace or at home, we would no more break down our lives into isolated subjects, with a bit of math in the morning, a touch of science after lunch, a few minutes of history, and some grammar drills to wrap up the day.

We would no more reduce a game of baseball to one inning of math, the next of science, the third of language arts and on and on. Instead, when we play the game, and we're at bat, for example, we gauge distance, speed, and velocity of a pitch; we consider the probability of a curve ball; we note the wind and its direction, the angle of the sun, the placement of the outfielders and other players on base; we look for signals being communicated from the coach; we go through a series of rituals and dance steps to let the pitcher know whether we're ready for the ball --- all in a matter of seconds. Then we take our stance, concentrate on the pitcher's movement and focus. As we take it in, we use all our understanding to hit the ball as it's pitched, and after we make contact, the ball is flying and the adrenalin is pumping, we run like crazy!!!

What is happening here should be no different from the way we approach playing the game of life and ganing the education we need in order to be able to pleay it well..

Why not take a significant and appropriate issue which naturally requires learning in several specialized subject matters? The theme of "Time" or "Vision" are good examples. Such a theme can easily be applied to multiple lessons across the curriculum, and it requires thinking about both its literal and figurative meanings.

To understand such a topic, even for beginners, is to grasp some of the basic concepts and patterns of humanity, culture, and civilization. To place it at the center of an educational program is to challenge and pique the curiosity of learners, increasing their chances of staying in school and gaining the kind of education that will best serve them as they grow up.

Let's look at one theme more closely: Take "Vision" as a theme:

We can first look at the very concrete tools of science that give us vision, and allow us to see: the human eye, the eyes of different animals, microscopes, telescopes.

We can then transfer the notion of seeing to imagining: how is a writer's vision of a setting or a character developed in works of literature? Is seeing the same as understanding? What is worth our focus?

All throughout the course, we can study the thought processes of great visionaries, explorers, discoverers, and inventors as they proceeded in their various fields. By identifying some of their habits of mind, we can teach them to our children - Look at scientists, civil rights leaders, artists, philosophers, doctors, astronauts, athletes, the physically-challenged, musicians, etc.

As we look at the works of great visionaries, we can also see how their role in history shaped society today. Then history comes alive as we walk in their shoes, understand their century, their wars, their daily activities, their families, their pasttimes, their legacies, etc.

When we explore a given theme in such depth, we realize that there are concepts beyond the scope of traditional school subjects which naturally arise. Complex social issues and matters of human relationships, already part of the school experience, can purposefully be studied through the academic subjects. This allows students excellent opportunities to articulate their own kiinds of visions or perspectives, and to begin to recognize the difference between mere opinion and well-reasoned judgement.

CyberEthics Project