Interdisciplinary Connections

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This paper examines the value and application of utilizing interdisciplinary connections (IDC) in instructing within the science classroom, in support of the standard set out in the Alabama Course of Study: Science (2015). There is some disagreement on whether the benefits of IDC instruction outweigh the potential shortfall in effective teaching of important scientific principles with a commensurate depth. Dickinson and Young (1998) voice concern that marginalizing disciplinary boundaries may lead to a superficiality in meaningful understanding on the part of the student. Others, like Kathleen Roth (1994) are concerned that content accommodations might soften the science focus to the point of doing more harm than good. Still others like Nixon …show more content…
IDC may be generally defined as connections that sponsor, “inquiries which critically draw upon two or more disciplines and which lead to an integration of disciplinary insights” (Haynes, 2002, p. 17). This definition is compatible with The Alabama Course of Study: Science (2015) and its approach to the problem of definition by illustration. That working definition provides a number of particular examples of how IDC can manifest inside the science classroom. Those examples range from noting that writing goals particular to the English language arts can advance within the framework of scientific reasoning, argument, and notation, to arguing that engineering and mathematic principles, along with computational thinking, find a natural expression within the conclusions of scientific investigation. (The Alabama Course, 2015). In short, the working definition of IDC is an organic synthesis of disciplines, with each supporting and advancing aims of the other, while the primary focus or goal within the science classroom …show more content…
One such voice belongs to Kathleen Roth (1994), who raises a number of issues related to adopting an IDC approach within the science classroom. She believes that such an approach may inherently deprive students of a depth of understanding, forcing them to settle for instruction that results in an essentially descriptive and superficially grasped dissemination of information instead of deeper understandings of important principles. Further, Roth argues that too often, in attempting to find a theme or problem best suited to IDC instruction, teachers and planners may fail to, “focus on the powerful ideas or organizing concepts from the disciplines” and sacrificing them for the sake of a lesser utility ( Roth, 1994, p.

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