There are many methods to use if you want to practise interdisciplinary teaching. These methods are used to teach across curricular disciplines to bring together separate disciplines around common theme, issue, or problem.
One such method or approach is the Storyline way of teaching that we have chosen to explore during our Erasmus+ project.
During a Storyline, teaching takes place in the form of a story that teachers and students create together in the classroom. The story forms a common thread and creates a context for the students. The students immerse themselves in different characters and work with these as a starting point. Storyline uses the form of the story to create context and engagement. The issue, problem, or theme you want to explore is interwoven in a story where the students are acting as the characters they have created.
To create tension in a story, you plan events in which the characters are involved. The characters help the students to view the problem, issue, or theme from different perspectives. It also helps them to engage in problems or situations with feelings through their characters. It makes it possible to discuss what feelings that can be involved in difficult situations, first through the characters and then, if the students want to, through themselves.
Sustainable issues are complex and needs to be addressed from economic, social and ecological viewpoints. This is often easier if you have a story with characters that are affected by what takes place in the story both economically, social and through the change in the environment.
Below you can hear Steve Bell, one of the original founders of Storyline talk about how the need for cross curricular teaching methods worked as a starting point for forming the Storyline approach when they got a new curriculum in Scotland that demanded interdisciplinary teaching.
Steve Bell
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