Connected Model
What Is The Connected Model?
While the major discipline areas remain separate, this curricular model focuses on making explicit connections within each subject area, connecting one topic to the next; connecting one concept to another; connecting a skill to a related skill; connecting one day’s work to the next, or even on semester’s ideas to the next. The key to this model is the effort to deliberately relate curricula within the discipline rather than assuming that students will understand the connections automatically.
Example: teacher relates the concept of fractions to decimals, which in turn relate to money, grades, etc.
What Does It Look Like?
Within the primary/elementary curriculum, for example, a relationship is drawn between the rock unit and the simple machines unit as students explicitly connect these while simultaneously seeing them as two distinct science areas: one is Earth Science and the other is Physical Science-both considered part of the sciences per se. By labeling for students the broad terms (in this case, Earth Science and Physical Science), students can begin to define the sciences for themselves by using these as organizational umbrellas. This becomes a first critical step in their understanding and conceptualization of the science as a realm of knowing.
Likewise, in a ingusan high or secondary school setting, the Earth Science teacher relates the Geology unit to the Astronomy unit by associating the evolutionary nature of each. The similarities between the two units become organizers for students as they work through both units to see that they can make explicit interrelationships.
What Does It Sound Like?
The student sees connections between subject areas that have traditionally been taught separately. Here is the testimony of one former student, Eric J. Lerner:
“I found there was a big difference between what excited me, trying to understand the universe, and what went on in our physics classes . . . I was bothered by logical contradiction in some of the things we were taught . . . Eventually, I reached the point where I could no longer accept the Second Law of Thermodynamics,” Lerner recalled.
Roughly, that concept holds that energy levels in a physical system tend to even out. For instance, introduce a bit of heat into a cold room and it diperses throughout the space, quickly becoming indistinguishable. “On a large scale, the Second Law of Thermodynamics seems to reinforce the Big Bang theory,” Lerner explained. “At the moment of creation, all energy was supposedly concentrated at one point and the universe highly organized. Ever since, its energy has been dispersing as the universe degenerates into less and less organized state.”
Eric goes on to relate the moment when he made the connection:
“Then I grasped that biology contradicts the Second Law of the Thermodynamics,” Lerner said. “Consider evolution: living forms have gone from the less complex, like single-cell creatures, to the more complex, like human being. Why should our planet be an axception?” I asked myself. That made me realize there is something fundametally wrong with the Big Bang theory and its conception that the universe is running down.”
The teacher can facilitate such connections in students thinking by explicitly making links between subject areas.
What Are The Advantages?
By connecting ideas within a discipline, the learner has the advantage of the big picture as well as a focuses studi of one aspect. In addition, key concepts are developed over time for internalization by the learner. Connecting ideas within a discipline permits the learner to review, reconceptualize, edit, and assimilate ideas gradually and many facilitate transfer.
What Are The Disadvantages?
The various discipline in this model remain separated and appear unrelated even though connections are made explicit within the designated discipline. Teacher are not encouraged to work together in this model, so content remains the focus without stretching concepts and ideas across other discipline. The concentrated efforts to integrate within the discipline overlook opportunities to develop more global relationships to other subjects.
When Is This Connected Model Useful?
the connected model is useful as a beginning step toward an integrated curriculum. Teacher feel confident looking for connections within their own discipline. As they become adept at relating ideas within the discipline, it becomes easier to scout for connecting across disciplines. Also, connecting-making can be done collaboratively within department meetings-which is again, old and familiar ground that sets a safe climate for change. Starting teacher teams using this model within the department or grade level can be fruitful strategy to prime the pump for more complex integration models later on.
(Fogarty, Robin. 1991. The Mindful School: How The Integrate The Curricula. Palatine, Ilinois: IRI/Skylight Publishing, Inc)
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