Disadvantages Of Cross-Curricular Planning

While there are many great potential advantages in cross- curricular planning, teachers are still struggling to decide on a planning approach which offers a broad and balanced curriculum coverage. Moreover, (Barnes, 2012 cited in Driscoll, Lambirth and Roden, 2012 p.248) adds "Subject progression is difficult to achieve, even when only two subjects are involved, it is almost impossible with three or more". What Barnes is trying to say is too many links between subjects can lead to confusion and little sense of progression being made within these subjects. For example there are some subjects such as maths and history that don’t logically link well together. This can affect the learner as they may possibly be missing out on the skills and concepts …show more content…
(Kerry, 2011 p.166) provides another perspective on this matter he says how some topics may lack in subject content which can make the lesson loose structure and coherence. He states "Fragmented learning or lack of coherence can be the result of selecting aspects of subjects randomly and bringing them into a topic for reasons that are not entirely related to children's learning”. Kerry points out an interesting point as teachers are spending too much of their time and energy in creating activities that are linked to the subject of topic, rather than concentrating on making the lesson and activities meaningful, coherent and relevant. This can also lead to subjects losing their identity as links between too many subjects can limit the opportunities for learners to develop understanding and knowledge of these specific subjects Czerniak,2007; Parkinson, 2010; Barnes,