Beyond the Boundaries A Transdisciplinary Approach to Learning and Teaching

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Beyond the Boundaries draws on the experience of educators from many different content areas, offering new insights into integrative teaching in secondary schools. As the authors look past the traditional approaches of interdisciplinary studies, they envision a transdisciplinary school, where students and teachers view the world from previously hidden perspectives. Many contemporary secondary education standards call for teachers to reach across traditional disciplinary lines and create curricula and instructional techniques that are interdisciplinary in nature (as examples, for mathematics see Principles and Standards for School Mathematics; for science see National Science Education Standards; for foreign language see Standards for Foreign Language Learning; Preparing fro the 21st Century). Yet, due to the highly entrenched and fragmented administrative structure of teacher education fields, including tertiary preparation and state certification, most practitioners and teacher educators approach said endeavors from a subject-specific orientation. This contributed volume includes perpsectives from major areas in secondary teacher education, including Science, Mathematics, Social Studies. Art, Literacy, English/Language Arts, Foreign Language, Bilingual Education, foundations, and Literacy. The book includes both theoretical and practical aspects as to how teachers are being prepared to create and implement transdisciplinary units. The authors explore how these approaches can be imiproved such that teachers attempt to apply transdisciplinary epistemological and pedagogical structures, which emphasize inquiry from multiple perspectives, to avail the full power of such learning experiences to the students.