21st Century Strands & Strategies
Chapter: Strands & Strategies: Deep Dive
57
Transdisciplinary Integration
Transdisciplinary Integration is the process by which teachers organize curriculum
around student questions or concerns. Students develop life skills as they apply
disciplinary and interdisciplinary skills into real-life contexts (Drake and Burns,
2004). Transdisciplinary integration starts with the problem and through problem solving
uses the disciplines that contribute to the solution (Meeth, L. R. December 3, 2012).
Connections
•
Teachers organize curriculum around student-centered questions and concerns
which results in differentiation for students.
•
Students develop life skills as they apply interdisciplinary and disciplinary skills into
a real-life context.
•
Relevance is essential to meaningful learning experiences.
•
Providing a construct for students to engage in study that focuses on their
interests, knowledge base, and/or passion increases those critical connections
between learning and real life applications/problem solving.
•
Students use networking to obtain data, widening their knowledge base through
real world application.
•
Wagner’s student outcomes result from the transdisciplinary strategy to
curriculum integration.
•
Students go far beyond the minimum effort, when they take ownership.
•
Students make connections among different subject areas to answer open-
ended questions.
•
Students retain what they have learned and apply learning to real-life problems.
Subject Areas
Theme
Concept
Life Skills
Real-World Content
Student Questions
