Disciplinary & Interdisciplinary Studies

Disciplines ranging from history and the arts to biology and mathematics embody culturally valued knowledge and modes of thinking that deepen our understanding of the world and our capacity to create products, solve problems, explain phenomena. Understanding and engaging today’s most pressing societal issues: from climate change to mass migration, from global health to the digital revolution, requires that we prepare our young to integrate disciplinary perspectives and to do so with quality. What constitutes quality interdisciplinary understanding? How do we nurture it well? How can we prepare professionals to teach for interdisciplinary understanding? How can we prepare them for successful collaborations?

Resources

Tool
A Typology of Classroom Questions
A resource from Cultures of Thinking

A Typology of Classroom Questions
A resource from Cultures of Thinking

A Typology of Classroom Questions: A look at the types of questions teachers ask and the answers/logic that they produce.
Recalling and reviewing of Knowledge and information
• Terminology
• Procedures
• Content
• Events and context

Procedural: Directing the work of the class
• Going over directions and assignments
• Clarifying
• Checking for attention, agreement.
• Task completion
• Organizational and management related

Generative: Exploring the topic
• Authentic questions or wonders that teacher doesn’t know the answer to.
• Essential questions that initiate exploration of a topic

Constructive: Building New Understanding
• Extending & Interpreting
• Connecting & Linking
• Orienting and focusing on big ideas, central concepts, or purpose
• Evaluating

Facilitative: Promotes the learner’s own thinking & understanding
• Requesting elaboration, reasons, evidence, justification
• Generating discussion among the class to hear different perspectives
• Clarifying and Uncovering

A Typology of Classroom Questions

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Article
Integrative Learning: Setting the Stage for a Pedagogy of the Contemporary
A resource from Interdisciplinary & Global Studies

Integrative Learning: Setting the Stage for a Pedagogy of the Contemporary
A resource from Interdisciplinary & Global Studies

Underlying the significant social and technical changes of our increasingly global society is a profound transformation in the very nature of learning. Twenty-first-century learners view themselves as dynamic agents in multimedia and global environments. These learners create complex social networks and operate comfortably in them. They learn experientially in real and virtual worlds alike. They express their views and make their lives public with ease. Many of these learners show greater interest in the global environment and human rights than their immediate predecessors. As the recent elections suggest, many are increasingly willing to organize around public matters online and from the grassroots up. New learning presents important challenges as well. As the world “flattens,” global proximity can yield discomfort and sharp retreat to local values. Virtual spaces are misused, information misinterpreted, virtual identities misconstrued, social networks misguided. This generation experiences pressure to perform, to succeed, to move at a fast and efficient pace, with little time for self- reflection or developing deep understanding of the changing world in which we live.

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Article
Making Thinking Visible (Article)
A resource from Visible Thinking

Making Thinking Visible (Article)
A resource from Visible Thinking

When learners speak, write, or draw their ideas, they deepen their cognition. Project Zero's Visible Thinking approach shows how.

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Tool
Teaching for Understanding Unit vs. Traditional Unit
A resource from Teaching for Understanding

Teaching for Understanding Unit vs. Traditional Unit
A resource from Teaching for Understanding

What makes a Teaching for Understanding (TfU) unit different than a traditional unit? View an example of a TfU unit and then use this template to transform existing or create new units that leverage the principles of TfU.

TfU Unit Example
TfU Unit Template

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Book
Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons
A resource from Multiple Intelligences & Intelligences

Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons
A resource from Multiple Intelligences & Intelligences

Gardner’s seminal account of the practical applications of Multiple Intelligences theory is now completely updated and expanded to reflect the latest developments in the field. ISBN-13: 978-0465047680

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