Advanced Multidisciplinary Methods for Teaching
Service Course 422 2 credits Summer 2009
Thursdays 1:00pm – 4:00pm (hybrid delivery method; face-to-face meetings on June 25,
July 16, and August 6)
N/E 29 (June 25) and N/E 210 (July 16 and August 6)
Michelle A. Fleming, PhD
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Office location: 518 Nursing/Education Building
E-mail: flemingm@uwosh.edu
Office phone: 920-424-3159
Office hours: Wednesdays and by appointment
College of Education & Human Services Mission Statement
The mission of the College is that the College of Education and Human Services
(COEHS) will be a community of inquirers working collaboratively to make living a
humane and hopeful experience for all. Our ultimate purpose is to prepare professionals
in education, counseling, and human services who are caring intellectuals.
Conceptual Framework for Preparation of Educators
The central themes of the Conceptual Framework are:
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Promoting caring intellectual educators through inquiry,
critical thinking, and reflection;
Honoring the culture and diversity of our communities and
learners; and
Fostering a commitment to lifelong learning and
professional development.
The two semester set of coursework is designed to reflect the conceptual framework in
numerous ways. One of our main goals will be to use inquiry, research, and reflection to
explore and begin applying the knowledge, skills, and dispositions utilized by highly
effective teachers. In addition to writing formal reflections about teaching, in-class and
outside of class activities support knowledge construction through the use of an
evaluative inquiry process. Additionally, readings, activities, and course assignments will
allow participants to learn more about meeting the diverse needs of elementary students.
Finally, participants will learn about a variety of online and professional teaching
resources that will support their learning both now and in the future.
Coursework Description
Knowledge is not compartmentalized into disciplines. Knowledge is constructed and
built on through experiences. Connected or integrated teaching and learning are rooted in
constructivism. Students revise their schemas or reconstruct their thinking to be
consistent with their experiences and observations in the classroom. Students
Multidisciplinary Teaching Methods, page 2
comprehend more complex and meaningful concepts when disciplines are connected and
these relationships are constructed by teachers. If a primary goal of a teacher preparation
program is to build coherency between teaching methodologies and disciplines, then
preservice teachers must construct these connections within the methods coursework.
Leading education organizations recommend connecting or integrating disciplines.
Today, students should be locating issues within larger frameworks of thought,
negotiating multiple perspectives, and developing habits of critical questioning and
creative problem-solving. Therefore, teachers must be prepared to create learning
outcomes for their students that are coherent, connected bodies of information. Teachers
need the assessment and evaluation skills necessary to translate meaningful learning
experiences in the classroom.
This multidisciplinary methods coursework sequence will address the contemporary
interest in multidisciplinary teaching methods through inquiry and application. The
coursework is distributed over two semesters as participants develop a deep
understanding of the multidisciplinary connections and disconnections between and
within the elementary disciplines of language arts, science and environmental education,
health, social studies, mathematics, art, physical education and music.
Summer Course. In the Advanced Multidisciplinary Methods for Teaching course,
students will examine multidisciplinary teaching methods, including integration of
disciplines, multiple approaches to assessment, and the evaluative inquiry process.
Additionally, students will identify their content knowledge, attitudes and pedagogical
strengths and weaknesses through on-going self-assessments. Participants will engage
in establishing a sense of place (i.e. getting to know the culture and context of the school,
campus, and city environment) as a multidisciplinary inquiry activity. Participants will
further engage in inquiry activities, around the idea of sustainability. On a metacognitive
level, participants will be asked to continually reflect the following questions throughout
the course:
 What counts as evidence in the different disciplines and why? What kinds of
questions get asked by different disciplines?
 How can multidisciplinary exploration enhance or hinder discovery and
communication?
 What pedagogical approaches best lend themselves to multidisciplinary learning?
 Does sustainability succeed as a big idea for exploring these questions?
Working in small groups, participants will map the K-8 curriculum in all disciplines and
look for connections and disconnections between and within the state/district standards
and benchmarks. Participants will individually or collaboratively develop two
multidisciplinary units with multiple assessments (i.e. formative, authentic, integrative,
self, and performance-based) to be implemented during the fall semester. Class readings
will include research and examples of integrating disciplines and pedagogies, as well as
historical and contextual understanding of the contemporary interest in multidisciplinary
methods in teaching. Participants will gather evidence to support a conceptual and
theoretical framework for integrating disciplines.
Multidisciplinary Teaching Methods, page 3
Coursework Goals
By the end of the first semester, participants will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an awareness of the historical and contemporary interests in
multidisciplinary teaching methods and the integration of disciplines.
2. Provide evidence of three or more conceptual or theoretical frameworks for
integrating disciplines.
3. Inquire by exploring, synthesizing, and reflecting on new knowledge, skills and
dispositions in teaching multiple disciplines.
Course Outline: Topics & Assignments
Tentative outline and due dates are subject to change.
DATES
1
Thursday
June
18
Online
2
Thursday
June
25
Face-to-face
meeting
3
Thursday
Thursday
Online
ASSIGNMENTS
Syllabus/Course Overview
What is the purpose of education? What are
your memories and experiences of learning?
Why teach?
Who Am I? – sense of place, personal learning
styles, approaches to learning and teaching, and
intellectual development
Historical overview of multidisciplinary
teaching and the integration of disciplines
Ten Wisconsin Educator Standards
Post your Who Am I? selfreflection paper to the D2L
discussion.
Course limitations and assumptions
Nature of disciplines and the nature of learning
(dichotomies of thought)
Conceptual and contextual knowledge
Sense of place - bioregionalism/systems theory
Collaborative Evaluation Communities (CEC)
Curriculum mapping and big ideas (patterns/
themes/relationships)
Connections and disconnections between
disciplines (synthesizing activity)
Polk library resources and the EMC
Bring curriculum materials
to class meeting; during
class, post CEC group
work on curriculum
mapping and big ideas;
after class, begin working
on unit 1.
Gather curriculum
materials for upcoming
face-to-face meeting.
Review national/state
/district standards online.
Look for patterns/themes.
Gather instructional
materials for units.
July
2
Pedagogical and curricular implications
(culturally relevant pedagogy, constructivist
pedagogy, inquiry, place-based learning)
Practical implications (designing connected or
integrated units)
Post draft of unit 1 and
read over CEC group
members’ drafts and
provide feedback.
July
9
Current assessment approaches and trends
Standards-based curriculum linked to
assessments
Integration of perspectives, social identity, and
cultural bias
Integration presentation team activity
Encouraging higher levels of thinking – past
and present methods
Research and develop
assessments for unit 1; post
integration presentation.
Online
4
TOPICS
Multidisciplinary Teaching Methods, page 4
5
Thursday
July
16
Cooperative learning theory and methods
Comprehension and collaboration
21st century skills
Project-based learning, problem-based
learning, design-based learning, 4MAT
Finalize unit 1 and
assessments and post;
begin working on unit 2.
July
23
Active learning/inquiry learning trends within
and between disciplines
Guided inquiry supporting multiple literacies
The challenge of understanding –
misconceptions, conceptual change and
learning for understanding
Post draft of unit 2; read
over CEC group members’
drafts and provide
feedback.
July
30
Roles of the teacher
Assessment integration – constructing a holistic
picture of the learner
Scaffolded knowledge integration framework
Research and develop
assessments for unit 2.
August
6
Integration of knowledge: a conceptual change
model
Developing coherence – meaningful learning,
meaningful pedagogy
Sustainability of the CEC
Course evaluation
Celebration
Finalize unit 2 and
assessments and post.
August
7
Preparation for next semester
Sustainability of the CEC
Final reflections
Post final reflection on new
knowledge, skills and
dispositions of teaching.
Face-to-face
meeting
6
Thursday
Online
7
Thursday
Online
8
Thursday
Face-to-face
meeting
9
Friday
Online
All D2L posts should be completed by 12am (midnight) on the date the assignment is
due. Email Michelle with questions, suggestions, thoughts or concerns and to set up
office or teleconference appointments.
Textbooks and Materials
Readings (journal articles), presentations and information will be posted on D2L for
clarification of information and assignments. You are responsible for checking the D2L
site weekly for updates. There is no specific required textbook for the coursework.
Participants should seek out curriculum materials and discipline-specific methods
textbooks as needed.
Recommended texts:
Darling-Hammond, L., Barron, B., Pearson, P. D., Schoenfeld, A., Stage, E. K.,
Zimmerman, T. D., Cervetti, G. N., and Tilson, J. L. (2008). Powerful Learning:
What we know about teaching for understanding. San Francisco, CA: JosseyBass, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Harvey, S., and Daniels, H. (2009). Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry circles
in action. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Multidisciplinary Teaching Methods, page 5
Parsons, B.A. (2002). Evaluative Inquiry: Using evaluation to promote student
success. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc.
Technology
This course contributes to participants’ understanding of technology and/or the uses of
technology in education. Course documents, important information, and participants’
work will be posted on D2L to facilitate online class interaction.
You are responsible to save your work in multiple ways (i.e. hard drive, external hard
drive, USB/Flash Drive (or some removable drive)). Do not merely depend on one way
to save your work. Backup all of your work. If the computer or server “goes down”, you
are still responsible for completing the assignments on time.
Diversity
This course contributes to students’ understanding of the diversity of paradigms,
philosophies, and methodologies in educational research and practice. Reflecting and
inquiring on the practices of teachers work with diverse student populations in various
settings is an important part of this course. Participants will review educational researchbased literature and explore a variety of pedagogical strategies that promote increased
understanding of diverse perspectives in multiple content areas.
Course Assignments
The assignments below are aligned with the particular Wisconsin Educator Standards for
Teachers and are denoted with the labels in parenthesis. The standards can be read in
their entirety at: http://www.dpi.wi.gov/tepdl/stand10.html.
Participants will:
___ 1.
Effectively communicate and collaborate with the instructor and their colleagues.
Regular communication is essential and required in this course (in accordance with
university policy). Learning is viewed as a social process. Therefore, to gain the
maximum benefit, participants should attend the face-to-face campus meetings and
participate actively in all D2L posted discussions. Sharing personal experiences and
perceptions, knowledge and teaching goals are an important part the course. Most
activities conducted in the CEC are intended to promote sharing and collaboration
between colleagues is encouraged. (6, 10)
___ 2.
Identify and synthesize patterns, themes, issues and big ideas within and between
disciplines. Participants will develop two related instructional units for students.
Units will include multidisciplinary lesson plans, graphic organizers, classroom
management methods, differentiated instructional methods/extensions and three or
more assessment methods. (1 – 8)
Multidisciplinary Teaching Methods, page 6
___ 3.
Collaborate in small groups of 2 – 3 participants, locate an empirical example of
integrating disciplines, and prepare a visual presentation for their colleagues. The
example could be published work, work in progress, or that of colleagues. The
presentation should concentrate on illustrating and challenging one or more of the
conceptual ideas about multidisciplinary methods offered in the readings and class
discussions. (6, 10)
___ 4.
Reflect on the new knowledge, skills, and dispositions of teaching that they have
acquired through the course. Within the reflection paper, participants will
synthesize class readings, notes, presentations and discussions by making
connections to the purposes and objectives of the instructional units and their goals
for teaching. (9)
For “A” grade, participants will successfully complete all of the above assignments with
academic charm as well as:
___
Create blogs on blogger.com that capture their weekly insights, thinking, reading,
practicing and exploring during the course. Nothing can be put in the blog unless it
is personally valuable. Post weekly text, photos, and videos to the blog that
showcase personal reflections of learning and teaching. (6, 9, 10)
Evaluation of Student Performance
Student performance will be based on the completion of all requirements. The
requirements are listed above. All requirements are necessary to move on to the second
semester of the course. Feedback will be provided on all assignments, but individual
points or grades will not be assigned. You may be required to rework these assignments
until they meet graduate level status. Failure to communicate and meet discussion
expectations may result in lowering of a grade per discussion. The distribution of grades
is shown below.
A
93 – 100 %
AB 90 – 92%
B
83 – 89%
BC 80 – 82%
C
73 – 79%
Achievement that is outstanding relative to the level
necessary to meet course requirements.
Achievement that is significantly above the level necessary
to meet course requirements.
Achievement that meets course requirements.
Achievement below a “B” does not earn graduate credit.
Multidisciplinary Teaching Methods, page 7
D
66 – 72%
Achievement that is worthy of credit even though it fails to
meet fully the course requirements.
F
below 66%
Represents failure and signifies that the work was either (1)
completed but at a level of achievement that is not worthy
of credit, or (2) was not completed and there was no
agreement between the instructor and the student that the
student would be awarded an I.
I
Incompletes are assigned at the discretion of the instructor
when, due to extraordinary circumstances, e.g.,
hospitalization, a student is prevented from completing the
work of the course on time. Requires a written agreement
by the end of the semester between the instructor and
student.
Academic Dishonesty
Academic dishonesty in any portion of the academic work for a course shall be grounds
for awarding a grade of F for the entire course.
Make-up Policy
I expect that you will participate and submit assignments on the date that they are due. If
situations arise that interfere with your ability to fulfill this expectation, please talk to me
individually and we will determine an appropriate course of action (depending on the
circumstances, you may not receive full credit for your work).
Statement on D2L Site Usage
In this class, our use of technology will sometimes make students' names and Internet IDs
visible within the course website, but only to other students in the same class. Since we
are using a secure, password-protected course website, this will not increase the risk of
identity theft or spamming for anyone in the class.