| Introduction |
Dr. Robyn Swanson, Department of Music
Introduction:
In teaching your specific discipline, have you made connections with other subjects?
Is your teaching style primarily lecture and class discussion? Have you considered
incorporating multiple types of teaching/assessment practices in which students demonstrate
what they are learning through various modes of assessment? For example, students
could role-play what they are learning, or illustrate what they know through graphic
organizers. This style of instruction is referred to as multi-modal teaching/assessment
practices, which can transform the learning environment and accommodate students with
diverse learning styles.
This workshop introduces “best practices” for cross-disciplinary instruction, as presented
at the International Conference in Arts and Humanities, 2004. It includes strategies
for integrating content from multiple disciplines, collaboration, and innovative teaching
practices.
To enhance content knowledge as well as reinforce interdisciplinary connections, multi-modal
options for teaching and assessing (“best practices”) can be adopted to stimulate
higher levels of thinking and conceptualization of information. Howard Gardner, a
psychologist, professes in his Frames of Mind: A Theory of Multiple Intelligences (1983) (Different Ways of Knowing), that all humans possess many modes of cognition or ways
to know. He defines the major modes as: verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, visual-spatial,
musical-rhythmic, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal. Recently, Gardner
has added the naturalistic and existentialistic intelligences to the original seven.
The purpose of the workshop is to delineate specific steps for integrating content
from other disciplines to the subject area you teach. It is believed that when educators
design instruction with “best practices” linked to the various intelligences (ways
to know) both hemispheres of the brain are engaged and the diverse learning styles
are addressed.
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