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Interdisciplinarity and Curriculum design in Biological Sciences Teaching

Interdisciplinarity and Curriculum design in Biological Sciences Teaching. Prof. Silvia Díaz Llera , PhD Department of Biological Sciences, Bindura University of Science Education. SECOND NATIONAL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE

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Interdisciplinarity and Curriculum design in Biological Sciences Teaching

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  1. Interdisciplinarityand Curriculum designin Biological Sciences Teaching Prof. Silvia DíazLlera, PhD Department of Biological Sciences, Bindura University of Science Education SECOND NATIONAL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE 20-22 August 2014, Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe

  2. TOPICS • Some definitions and background • The problem • Aims • Analysis of the existing course outlines • What could be done • The benefits • Conclusions and Recommendations

  3. Some definitions and background

  4. Definitions DISCIPLINE SUBJECT course of study: a branch of learning that forms a course of study • a subject or field of activity, e.g. an academic subject • Etymologically links to the Latin term disciplina which means “the instruction given to a disciple”. Interdisciplinarity: a literaturereview, AngeliqueChettiparamb, 2007, The Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Group, Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, School of Humanities, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ.

  5. DISCIPLINES are knowledge domains which include Definitions • type of knowledge, methods and practices of a scientific community, • the ways in which these practices are socially validated, • and the ways in which they constitute definite organisational entities that are specific to different cultures, spaces and times. Interdisciplinarity: a literaturereview, AngeliqueChettiparamb, 2007, The Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Group, Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, School of Humanities, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ.

  6. Pharmacy Institute – Havana UniversityBachelor in Pharmaceutical Sciences Discipline: BiomedicalSciencesTotal hours: 252

  7. There are many problems in society which cannot be fully addressed by one scientific discipline. • Examples are global warming, natural resource management and poverty alleviation.

  8. In academic grounds, interdisciplinarity typically applies to four realms: • knowledge, • research, • education, • theory. Nissani M. (1997) Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity: The Case for Interdisciplinary Knowledge and Research, The Social Science Journal, 34 (2) 201-216.

  9. For instance, the outsider’s perspective and “carrier mobility ... is among the most potent sources of innovation and development within a discipline ”. • Mendel was a priest trained in mathematics and natural sciences. • Thomas Hunt Morgan was trained as an embryologist. • Seventeen out of forty-one scientists in the phage group (which played a decisive role in mid-century biology) were physicists or chemists by training. • Watson and Crick were physicists…

  10. Interdisciplinary teaching is a method of instruction that incorporates material from more than one discipline. • It involves the integration or synthesis of information from multiple disciplines to provide insights, answers, or ideas that could not be achieved by focusing on only one discipline. • Interdisciplinary teaching can and does occur at all levels of education, from primary school through graduate school.

  11. The multiple disciplines involved in interdisciplinary teaching can be integrated through a common theme, problem to solve, issue, topic, or process. • The key is that a higher level of learning takes place because of the synthesis of knowledge from more than one discipline. • Interdisciplinary teaching can be achieved by a single teacher drawing from multiple disciplines or through the coordination of more than one teacher in a process known as team teaching.

  12. Interdisciplinary teaching must be distinguished from multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and cross-disciplinary teaching. • In that way, multidisciplinary teaching is additive while interdisciplinary teaching is integrative. • Interdisciplinary teaching hopes to generate ideas and understandings that are more comprehensive than a single discipline alone generates. • Multidisciplinary teaching simply hopes to bring more than one perspective to an issue, problem, or idea.

  13. As interdisciplinarity is a complicated psychological and cognitive process, it cannot be taught with one approach The following steps are recommended: • Strengthening of the library. • Enabling a student to choose what may be best for him/her without having to go through a process of learning. • Allowing students to discover things for themselves with an integration of teaching and research. • Incorporating a training component through apprenticeships as a kind of vocational training. Interdisciplinarity: a literaturereview, AngeliqueChettiparamb, 2007, The Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Group, Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, School of Humanities, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ.

  14. General aims and functions of interdisciplinary pedagogy • Interdisciplinary work gets done by moving across the vertical plane of depth and the horizontal plane of breadth. • Breadth indicates a comprehensive approach based in multiple variables and perspectives. • Depth implies competence in pertinent disciplinary, professional, and interdisciplinary approaches. Accordingto Klein (1996):

  15. The problem

  16. Consideringthat … Meansthat … There is a contradiction between the available time to train a professional and the society exigencies. • The increasing amount of scientific knowledge and information in relation to training time in higher education institutions tend to specialization and disciplinarity. • The rate of information volume available is increasing exponentially.

  17. Integration of cytology with other biological disciplines giving modern cell biology TheCellBiology Time Line Hardin et al., 2012. p. 5

  18. Integration of cytology with other biological disciplines giving modern cell biology

  19. Genetics Biochemistry Cytology Aims

  20. Aims • Analyse the integration of molecular genetics topics and concepts in related course syllabuses of the HBSCBZ (3 years) program. • Propose a better arrangement of the topics considering their integrative development.

  21. Analysis of the existing Course outlines

  22. What COULD be done

  23. Faculty of Sciences – BUSEBachelor of Science Honours Degree in Biological Sciences Discipline: Cell and Molecular Biology Basic BiologicalSciencesTotal hours: tobedefined

  24. WITHOUT BIOCHEMISTRY

  25. CONSIDERING BIOCHEMISTRY

  26. The benefits • To bring the Bachelor of Science Honours Degree in Biological Sciences program closer to the international standards. • To raise the efficiency in the professional formation process • To increase the trend of solving of society problems by the interdisciplinary approach.

  27. Conclusions and recommendations

  28. Conclusions • The course outlines of the subjects BZH104, BZH107, BZH315 included overlapped topics. • The syllabuses of BZH104, BZH107 and BZH315, courses as well as the specific sciences research fields from which they derive, can be conceived from the interdisciplinary perspective. • Course contents modifications that are proposed comply horizontal and vertical integration. • The proposed approach will not only increase the efficiency of formation process but also the graduate quality.

  29. Recommendations • The present analysis should be extended to the entire curriculum. • Disciplines should be established as well as interdisciplinary relationships between them should be recognized and developed. • Reflection about the topics tackled in different courses is needed to obtain integration both in the horizontal and vertical planes.

  30. The role of the new science teacher must change • In 2000, the Commission on Teacher Education in Karlstad University, Sweden, proposed a program to reorient and reconstruct teacher education. • The program was accepted by the government and converted it into directives to the Swedish Universities. • The teachers education program report included the following issues: • The roll of the future science teacher. • Desirable qualities and competencies of the future science teacher. • The approach to learning and knowledge • The new structure and organization of the future science teacher education. • the ways to create interdisciplinary subjects. Mariana Hagberg, The structure and Organization of the Reformed Teacher Training Programme at Karlstad University, Karlstad University, Sweden, p. 79 TEMPUS SEMINAR, Interdisciplinary education – challenge of 21st century. GUIDEBOOK.

  31. References • Bindura University of Science Education, General Information and Regulations, Prospectus. 2012-13. • Brown AL. (1994) The Advancement of Learning, Educational Researcher, 23(8)4-12. • Chettiparamb A. (2007) Interdisciplinarity: a literature review, The Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Group, Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, School of Humanities, University of Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. • De Zure, D. (1999) Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning. Available from: http://teaching.uchicago.edu/pod/dezure.html [accessed 26/06/2014]. • Derek Hodson (2003) Time for action: Science education for an alternative future, International Journal of Science Education, 25(6)645-670. • Hagberg M. (2000) The structure and organisation of the reformed teacher training programme at Karlstad University Karlstad University, Sweden, p. 79 TEMPUS SEMINAR, Interdisciplinary education – Challenge of 21th Century. GUIDEBOOK, Jagiellonian University.

  32. References • Hardin J, Bertoni G, Kleinsmith LJ. 2012 Becker’s World of the Cell. 8th Ed. Pearson Benjamin Cummings, San Francisco, CA94111, USA. • Interdisciplinarity. (http://teaching.uchicago.edu/pod/dezure.html). • Interdisciplinary Teaching. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Interdisciplinary_teaching&oldid=458558369 [accessed 26/06/2014] • Klein, J. T. (1996) Crossing Boundaries: Knowledge, Disciplinarities and Interdisciplinarities. London: University Press of Virginia. • Nissani M. (1997) Ten Cheers for Interdisciplinarity: The Case for Interdisciplinary Knowledge and Research, The Social Science Journal, 34 (2) 201-216. • Pharmacy and Food Institute, Bachelor in Pharmacy Curriculum Plan D, Havana University, 2005. • Webb, F., Smith, C., & Worsfold, K. (2011). Interdisciplinary Perspective Toolkit. (Retrieved from the World Wide Web 26/06/2014) http://www.griffith.edu.au/gihe/resources-support/graduate-attributes

  33. Interdisciplinarityand Curriculum designin Biological Sciences Teaching Prof. Silvia DíazLlera, PhD Department of Biological Sciences, Bindura University of Science Education SECOND NATIONAL SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ CONFERENCE 20-22 August 2014, Bindura University of Science Education, Zimbabwe

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