The planning of interdisciplinary learning should provide a clear focus for learning and explore relevant connections across learning.
Interdisciplinary learning often requires collaborative planning, which may involve:
- classes, year groups or departments
- capitalising on the contexts and connections which enhance learning within curriculum areas and subjects
- the input and ideas of children and young people
- working with partners.
The starting point when planning for interdisciplinary learning will be the experiences and outcomes. However, there are occasions when planning might begin with a particular context, community or national event. If this is the case then the connections across learning and the relevant experiences and outcomes should be clearly identified.
All staff will require to continually review and adjust their plans as activities progress and as they respond to the needs of learners. Planning should:
- reflect the principles of Curriculum for Excellence
- build on prior learning, experiences and contexts to take into account progression and coherence
- clearly relate the planned learning to the experiences and outcomes
- clearly identify learning intentions, learning experiences, success criteria and the evidence of learning required as part of the assessment process
- make the connections across different subject areas and disciplines explicitly and frequently
- ensure that tasks are suitably challenging
- ensure that a suitable range of learning and teaching approaches is identified
- leave space and opportunity to respond to children and young people’s learning and their proposals for further learning.
Assessment is an integral part of the planning process. Through planning the learning, teaching and assessment together and ensuring that there are opportunities to gather a wide range of evidence of learning, staff and learners can reflect on what has been achieved and agree next steps in learning and progression.
This evidence can include examples of what the learners say, write, make or do. Judgements should be supported by criteria for success which have been agreed with the learners, so that they can actively contribute to the assessment process through self and peer assessment, and are clear about what they are learning and what they need to do to be successful.
Recording of achievements should be manageable and include how much and how well the learner has met the identified experiences and outcomes, as well as next steps in learning.
