Parvin Peivandi, IB reflection, Jan.21st, 2015
This IB seminar was about revising IB unit planner and also interdisciplinary units. In this seminar I learned how to make interdisciplinary units in IB unit planning. I liked the idea that interdisciplinary units are based on the interdisciplinary understanding between two or more subjects. This is what I have learned in other courses in education program that those projects or questions that need the student to use his/her previous knowledge are the most valuable projects or questions. In interdisciplinary unit, student has to use the knowledge of one subject as a foundation of her/his thought and then apply this knowledge to the new context of a second subject. Both designing a high quality interdisciplinary unit and participating in it, needs huge amount of creativity.
I learned also that Interdisciplinary units are developed in grade groups by horizontal planning and at least one unit must be developed per year of the program. I feel so excited about designing interdisciplinary units because I think these units improve the Meta cognition skills of the students and add variety to the subject areas. To my viewpoint, the idea of joining two subjects together by key concept, global context and ATL skills, guide teachers to design interesting unit plans.
Interdisciplinary unit plans help the students to synthesize and integrate the knowledge that they have acquired from different sources. These units make the students reflect on their own thought and the process of meaning making and problem solving at the same time. This is why Interdisciplinary units prepare our students as efficient communicators.