Page 235 - Štremfel, Urška, ed., 2016. Student (Under)achievement: Perspectives, Approaches, Challenges. Ljubljana: Pedagoški inštitut. Digital Library, Documenta 11.
P. 235
The Principle of Interdisciplinarity 235
Contemporary educational policies and school systems around the world (for
instance in Finland, England or Scotland) pay - within the curricula at all lev-
els of education - increasingly close attention to integrating the contents and
the skills between individual subjects and subject areas. This involves numer-
ous skills, knowledge, relationships and points of view that are not always part
of the formal school curriculum. They are however essential for participation
in society. The world is not divided into subject areas. It is a coherent and indi-
visible whole, which makes integration of subjects a necessity. Williamson and
Payton (2009) are in agreement with this and believe the issue of school sub-
jects is one of the key issues in relation to changing the curriculum. This means
content knowledge must be supplemented with other competencies, such as
creative thinking, research and the development of ideas, team work, reflec-
tive learning and self-organisation. Poor integration of subjects reduces the
innovative-centred strength of the curriculum (Elmore et al., 1992), and for this
reason OECD recognises interdisciplinarity and cross-curricularity as driving
forces of education reforms (Reid and Scot, 2005). Integration of multidiscipli-
nary and interdisciplinary contents, which include the development of self-in-
itiative, contributes to the integration of educational fields and subjects into
a coherent whole. The integration of contents does not mean subject-related
or disciplinary arrangement of knowledge is being given up. The emphasis is
merely on associations being formed in a systematic and planned way as part
of students’mindset; this gives students additional meaning to the knowledge
acquired in a disciplinary way, deepen it, expand its complexity and apply it for
the purposes of solving authentic life problems. Reality is not experienced in a
structured way in accordance with the criteria of individual disciplines, but as a
whole. The human brain processes perceptions in a parallel, not in a sequential
manner. It arranges information into complex networks with clear hierarchies
of interpersonal relationships. The efficiency of the development of interdisci-
plinary competencies in students is greater if the competencies are not only
integrated into individual subjects but are simultaneously also realised as part
of joint projects and modules.
The Principle of Discovering and Fostering Students’
Strengths
Some authors (Batey and Furnham, 2008) believe intelligence bears no direct
relation to creativity. They demonstrate that thinking outside the box, with
the aim of producing creative solutions, has already proved to be a possible
tool for providing assistance to underachieving students (Barak and Doppelt,
2000). Another author in agreement with this is Munro (2002), who has ascer-
fostering student achievement on the development of enterpreneurship
Contemporary educational policies and school systems around the world (for
instance in Finland, England or Scotland) pay - within the curricula at all lev-
els of education - increasingly close attention to integrating the contents and
the skills between individual subjects and subject areas. This involves numer-
ous skills, knowledge, relationships and points of view that are not always part
of the formal school curriculum. They are however essential for participation
in society. The world is not divided into subject areas. It is a coherent and indi-
visible whole, which makes integration of subjects a necessity. Williamson and
Payton (2009) are in agreement with this and believe the issue of school sub-
jects is one of the key issues in relation to changing the curriculum. This means
content knowledge must be supplemented with other competencies, such as
creative thinking, research and the development of ideas, team work, reflec-
tive learning and self-organisation. Poor integration of subjects reduces the
innovative-centred strength of the curriculum (Elmore et al., 1992), and for this
reason OECD recognises interdisciplinarity and cross-curricularity as driving
forces of education reforms (Reid and Scot, 2005). Integration of multidiscipli-
nary and interdisciplinary contents, which include the development of self-in-
itiative, contributes to the integration of educational fields and subjects into
a coherent whole. The integration of contents does not mean subject-related
or disciplinary arrangement of knowledge is being given up. The emphasis is
merely on associations being formed in a systematic and planned way as part
of students’mindset; this gives students additional meaning to the knowledge
acquired in a disciplinary way, deepen it, expand its complexity and apply it for
the purposes of solving authentic life problems. Reality is not experienced in a
structured way in accordance with the criteria of individual disciplines, but as a
whole. The human brain processes perceptions in a parallel, not in a sequential
manner. It arranges information into complex networks with clear hierarchies
of interpersonal relationships. The efficiency of the development of interdisci-
plinary competencies in students is greater if the competencies are not only
integrated into individual subjects but are simultaneously also realised as part
of joint projects and modules.
The Principle of Discovering and Fostering Students’
Strengths
Some authors (Batey and Furnham, 2008) believe intelligence bears no direct
relation to creativity. They demonstrate that thinking outside the box, with
the aim of producing creative solutions, has already proved to be a possible
tool for providing assistance to underachieving students (Barak and Doppelt,
2000). Another author in agreement with this is Munro (2002), who has ascer-
fostering student achievement on the development of enterpreneurship
