# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A set of 20, interactive, IDL and discovery-based learning prompts, curated resources and tasks for use in your classroom both in-person and remotely. The mixed level resources may be suitable for young people working toward the end of Second Level up to Fourth Level of the Broad General Education. The resource is intended as a starting point for you to use in your own practice.

We have prepared a brief guide on the resource for use by teachers, which can be viewed below.

You can find all 20 Big Questions in the summary learning space below or in the table in the teacher guide.

FEEDBACK

We would appreciate any feedback via e-mail or through our Twitter page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A set of 20, interactive, IDL and discovery-based learning prompts, curated resources and tasks for use in your classroom both in-person and remotely. The mixed level resources may be suitable for young people working toward the end of Second Level up to Fourth Level of the Broad General Education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fida – Futures Institute at Dollar Academy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Free courses and challenges for young people who want to help build a sustainable future

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
START is a pioneering project-based learning programme that brings the experience of participating in a startup business incubator to Scottish schools

Built through a collaboration between leading design academics, key entrepreneurial voices and The High School of Glasgow, the programme fosters the skills identified by major international bodies such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum (WEF) as vital for the future which benefit all young people, regardless of their career aspirations.

START takes teams of S6 pupils on an exciting journey from initial problem-spotting to early-stage investor presentation, igniting entrepreneurial ambition and culminating in a pitch competition that offers internship prizes.

Having attracted support from the Scottish Government's Entrepreneurial Education Fund, START is now piloting in The High School of Glasgow and three partner local authority schools - John Paul Academy, Knightswood Secondary School and St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School. Our aim is to grow the programme across many more schools next session. Learn more about the START journey below, and please get in touch using the form at the bottom of the page.

Impact Case Study

We have already seen START make a huge impact upon young people, as they learn the skills they need for our rapidly changing and increasingly complex world.

The programme answers calls from many in education for more real-world learning in schools and offers precisely the sort of interdisciplinary project advocated by the recent Review of Scottish Qualifications by Professor Louise Hayward.

By igniting entrepreneurial passion across young people of all backgrounds, the programme is also closely aligned with the central aims of Scotland's National Strategy for Economic Transformation.

The Design Day

In September, our Pilot Year Participants participated in a Design Day hosted at Morgan Stanley's offices in Glasgow.

The event gathered 55 young people from four schools, and featured sessions from Design Professor, Tom Inns, and Scottish EDGE CEO, Evelyn McDonald.

Ten startup teams of S6 pupils from The High School of Glasgow, Knightswood Secondary, John Paul Academy and St Thomas Aquinas Secondary were helped by Morgan Stanley employees and recent Design graduates from Strathclyde University and Imperial College London.

The day was a huge success, with pupils gaining invaluable insights into the world of startup businesses, while collaborating with their peers in advancing their projects. Click here to read more.

The START programme will culminate in a Pitch Final on Tuesday 25 th March at Glasgow Science Centre.

To book a place at this event, please email: START@hsog.co.uk

The Pitch Final Evening

START culminates in a Pitch Final where our startup teams present their concepts and learning to a judging panel of industry experts.

Our 2023-24 event took place at SWG3 in March. Five teams of S6 pupils delivered pitches to an audience of parents and members of the design, entrepreneurial and education communities. The judging panel was made up of Kevin Walls, COO of Scottish EDGE, Wendy McDougall, CEO of Firefish, and Danny Campbell, Architect and Founder of HOKO.

Click below to read more about an unforgettable evening for our budding entrepreneurs!

A key element of the transformative power of START comes through industry mentoring.

This session, START has a strategic partnership with Scottish EDGE, Scotland's biggest startup funding competition, to connect volunteers from their alumni community to our pupil startup teams. This means that our young people are supported by those who have a wealth of recent experience in the entrepreneurial journey to pass on, and this, again, fulfils a key aim of the National Strategy for Economic Transformation to connect the world of startup enterprise with schools. Mentoring creates an outsized positive impact on young people, inspiring them to consider possibilities previously unimagined.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
START is a design and entrepreneurship programme being developed in The High School of Glasgow to provide innovative learning opportunities, both for our own pupils and for young people across Scotland.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Interdiscipinary Learning Addressing the Implementation Gap

# data[].attributes.headline
Response to IRQA - Observations, comments, questions?

# data[].attributes.subject
Response to IRQA - Observations, comments, questions?

# data[].attributes.headline
Company Programme (inc. optional 30 credit points at SCQF Level 6)

# data[].attributes.subject
Company Programme (inc. optional 30 credit points at SCQF Level 6)

# data[].attributes.body
S5 & S6 registrations open for AY 24-25 (closes Oct '24)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Company Programme is our most immersive programme which provides a real-life learning opportunity that introduces young people to the realities of the world of work.

Programme Overview

Running over the course of a full academic year, young people from S5 & S6 start up their own student company, running through the key milestones of developing an idea, conducting market research, creating the product or service, promoting that product and ultimately trading it.

You might expect this to be a programme specifically targeted at those with an interest in business, however the 2,000 young people who participate each year across Scotland have a very broad range of interests. Company Programme can be used to provide a real-life context to many subject areas - design and computing involved in the design of the product, English to develop the persuasive language for marketing, or Maths to establish a profitable selling price - student's involvement in Company Programme provides a rich real-life learning experience.

Schools have also used Company Programme to support groups of young people who may require additional intervention due to low self-esteem, lack of confidence or social challenges.

What's in it for young people?

Opportunities to apply classroom learning in real and relevant contexts

Develop essential skills required for future life and work (UCAS even use YE as an example of what to put on the form!)

Real experience of work

Engaging with a volunteer mentor from the world of work

Opportunity to take part in the YE Scotland Company Programme qualification at SCQF Level 6 worth up to 30 credit points

What's in it for you and your school?

Suitable for students in S5/6

Teams of between 2 and 32 can participate in each student company, with a recommendation of 8-12 students for most impact from the programme.

Flexibility to run the programme within the timetable, or as an extra-curricular project

Supports careers education through the provision of real-life experiences of work

Drives positive attitudes to learning, life and work

Clear guidance on how students can use their experience to complete UCAS applications

Participation in the SCQF Level 6 Company Programme qualification reported through Insight

Young Enterprise support:

A dedicated online platform to support students through their Company Programme experience

Business Mentor to support students through the programme - either remotely or in person

Public liability insurance for all of the student companies

An e-commerce platform for online trading

Competitions for student companies throughout the programme.

How To Register:

In order to officially sign up for the programme, you will need to register on the YE UK website.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Company Programme is our most immersive programme which provides a real-life learning opportunity that introduces young people to the realities of the world of work. Running over the course of a full academic year, young people from S5 & S6 start up their own student company, running through the key milestones of developing an idea, conducting market research, creating the product or service, promoting that product and ultimately trading it.

# data[].attributes.body
The Climate Action Project is a free, student-centred, 6 week project which you can run with your students whenever you prefer.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Information about the Climate Action Project (CAP)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence: Into the Future | READ online

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Students in Scotland (United Kingdom) engage in learning through Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), which aims to provide them with a holistic, coherent, and future-oriented approach to learning between the ages of 3 and 18. CfE offers an inspiring and widely supported philosophy of education.

# data[].attributes.headline
Students taking an EPQ have better higher education outcomes

# data[].attributes.subject
Students taking an EPQ have better higher education outcomes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is a Level 3 qualification available for students in Key Stage 5 (KS5), taken alongside other qualifications, such as A levels. In contrast to many academic qualifications, there is no written exam. Instead, students undertake an in-depth project in an area of their choosing. They are required to plan the project, research and analyse sources of information, write up their analysis, draw conclusions and produce an evaluation of the processes involved. These are all skills which are likely to be useful for university study. It is not surprising, therefore, that many universities value the qualification, with some reducing their standard offers to students who have achieved a good grade in the EPQ.

Previous research has demonstrated the potential benefits to students of taking an EPQ. It has been shown to be associated with improved performance in other qualifications taken in KS5. Both students and teachers value the qualification, with teachers reporting that their EPQ students had become more self-confident and resilient and that they believed the EPQ was good preparation for university study. There is also evidence that students taking an EPQ were less likely to drop out of university or achieve a degree class below an upper second.

Our research

Given the potential benefits described above, we were interested to find out whether there was evidence that students taking EPQ were more likely to progress to higher education (HE) and had better outcomes when they got there. This is of particular interest now due to increasing uptake of the qualification in recent years, up to 45,687 in 2019.

Using school exams data from the National Pupil Database linked to university data from Higher Education Statistics Agency, we investigated the following:

1. Are EPQ students more likely than non-EPQ students to progress to HE?

2. Are EPQ students less likely than non-EPQ students to drop-out of HE?

3. Is taking an EPQ associated with better degree performance?

What does the research show?

Progression to HE

We found a significant association between taking EPQ and the likelihood of progressing to HE, even after accounting for other factors likely to affect progression such as prior attainment. In the figure below, we show the predicted probabilities of progressing to HE, for different levels of attainment at KS5. There are two lines, one for students taking EPQ and one for other students. At every level of KS5 attainment, the probability was higher for EPQ students.

To give an example, for students with a mean KS5 points score equal to the mean amongst all students (220, equivalent to one B grade and two C grades at A level), the probability of progressing was 0.87 for EPQ students and 0.72 for non-EPQ students.
Figure 1: Progression to HE
Dropping out of HE

Our second main finding was that EPQ students were significantly less likely to drop out in either year one or year two of their degree course than non-EPQ students with the same level of prior attainment. In the figure below we can see that EPQ students had a lower predicted probability of dropping out at each level of KS5 attainment. However, in practice, because drop out rates were very low in both groups, the differences between EPQ and non-EPQ students were very small.

For an EPQ student with a mean KS5 points score of 230 (the average KS5 performance of students progressing to HE) the predicted probability of dropping out was 0.012, compared with 0.020 for non-EPQ students.
Figure 2: Dropping out of HE
Degree class

Finally, we found that EPQ students had a higher probability of achieving a first (or at least an upper second) in their degree for every level of KS5 attainment. The figure below shows the probabilities of achieving a first or at a least an upper second for different levels of KS5 attainment, for EPQ and non-EPQ students. For example, EPQ students with a mean KS5 points score of 230 had a predicted probability of achieving a first of 0.39, compared to 0.34 for non-EPQ students.

What do these findings mean?

Our main conclusion was that there was evidence that taking EPQ was associated with a higher likelihood of progressing to HE, a lower likelihood of dropping out of HE, and higher probability of achieving a good degree, even after accounting for other factors, such as prior attainment. This suggests that EPQ students were better prepared for HE.

However, some caution is necessary when interpreting these findings because a positive relationship between taking the EPQ and being better prepared for HE does not imply causality. For example, in terms of progression, it may be that many students chose to do the EPQ because they had already decided to attend HE and they believed it would help with their preparation. For these students, taking EPQ did not increase their chances of progressing. In terms of drop-out rates and degree class, it may be that academically motivated students were more likely to take an EPQ and it is this motivation which led to better outcomes at HE, rather than taking the EPQ per se.

Where to read more

For more information, see the full report on our website.

References

1↩ Gill, T. (2017). An analysis of the effect of taking the EPQ on performance in other Level 3 qualifications. Research Matters: A Cambridge Assessment Publication, 23. Retrieved from An analysis of the effect of taking the EPQ on performance in other Level 3 qualifications - Document

2↩ Jones, B. (2016) Does the Extended Project Qualification enhance students' GCE A-level performance? AQA Centre for Education Research and Practice.

3↩ Stephenson, C. & Isaacs, T. (2019) The role of the Extended Project Qualification in developing self-regulated learners: exploring students' and teachers' experiences, The Curriculum Journal, 30:4, 392-421

4↩ Williamson, J. and Vitello, S. (2018). AS level trends 2018. Cambridge Assessment Research Report. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Assessment

5↩ Dilnot, C., Macmillan, L. and Wyness, G. (2022). Educational choices at 16-19 and university outcomes. Oxford, UK: Oxford Brookes University

6↩ Gill, T. (2022). Uptake and results in the Extended Project Qualification. Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Students taking an EPQ have better higher education outcomes.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Extended Project Qualification (EPQ) is valued by universities because it teaches skills which are likely to be useful for undergraduate study, such as research, critical thinking, and evaluation. In this blog we investigate whether students taking an EPQ tend to have better outcomes at HE.

# data[].attributes.headline
Developing Project Qualification - Re-thinking Assessment

# data[].attributes.subject
Developing Project Qualification - Re-thinking Assessment

# data[].attributes.body
Link to sign up : https://t.co/JhNL4WxTil

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Approaches to IDL narrated A Creamer May 2022

# data[].attributes.headline
Pedagogy - Follow this link to The Edge Foundation Practice Dashboard

# data[].attributes.subject
Pedagogy - Follow this link to The Edge Foundation Practice Dashboard

# data[].attributes.headline
Follow this link to The Edge Foundation Practice Dashboard

# data[].attributes.subject
Follow this link to The Edge Foundation Practice Dashboard

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A seasoned teacher breaks down the basics of inquiry to help high school teachers feel comfortable implementing the method in the classroom.

A recent keynote presentation by educational consultant Shelley Moore to my school's faculty on Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and inclusion featured an important theme: the need for teachers to identify obstacles to learning and achievement and to remove those obstacles so that behavioral and cognitive change can occur.

I realized that all learners, including teachers, have obstacles to learning, and I wondered, what are the obstacles that teachers face to adopting an inquiry approach to teaching and learning? There are four cognitive obstacles to integrating inquiry into the classroom. I hope that overcoming these obstacles could encourage more teachers to add inquiry principles to their pedagogical toolbox.

Obstacle 1: A Lack of Knowledge-What Is Inquiry, and Why Should I Do It?

Inquiry flips the classroom from one in which the students get a shared content experience dictated by the teacher to one that requires students to ask questions that are personally meaningful to them and then answer those questions. Alternatively, students are given a provocation (a film clip, photograph, text, etc.) and then generate their own essential question. The process of asking questions, discovering answers, and then building new knowledge (content and skill) is referred to as inquiry.

John Hattie conducted a meta-analysis to identify to what extent a given teaching and learning intervention impacts learning. The beauty of an inquiry approach to teaching is that it combines many high-impact "interventions" into a single approach, all of which have a major impact on learning. Self-efficacy, synthesis skills, effort, reciprocal teaching, and self-reported grades are all interventions that Hattie found to have a significant impact on student achievement.

Obstacle 2: The Belief That 'If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It'

In general, we teachers are a pretty open-minded group. After all, we chose a life of learning and are generally open to new ideas and ways of doing things. But we also need to protect our time because of the daily demands of our professional and personal lives. Thus, in spite of our open-mindedness, teachers are often skeptical of anything that adds more to our plate without taking something off of it.

This can lead to an "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" mindset. As a teacher-leader, I like to reconceptualize this mindset. It is not that a given approach is "broken" or in need of being "fixed" by inquiry. Instead, inquiry provides an opportunity for leveling up existing approaches.

Obstacle 3: The Belief That All Students Won't Learn the Same Thing

Inquiry-hesitant teachers tend to worry that inquiry embraces a philosophy that content doesn't matter and that everyone can "learn what they want." While a full, open inquiry may lead to students learning different content knowledge, they will all be refining the same academic and social and emotional learning skills (collaboration, engagement, responsibility, time management, etc.).

The extent to which you have structured your inquiry will also determine the extent to which students have a shared experience. The beautiful thing about inquiry is that it can be as prescriptive or open as the teacher is comfortable with. A key method of ensuring that students do acquire the desired skills and knowledge is to ensure that the inquiry is grounded in skills and standards.

Obstacle 4: Not Knowing Where to Start

Learning how to implement a complex strategy is clearly key, and teachers can follow these four steps to integrate principles of inquiry into their classrooms.

Step 1. Identify the skill(s) or standard(s) that you want your students to develop through the inquiry process: It is crucial to explicitly teach and assess skills and/or standards through inquiry. I will often identify a standard and design a guided inquiry around it. For example, I recently designed an inquiry around C3 standard D2, History 5: "Analyze how historical contexts have shaped, and continue to shape, people's perspectives" with the question, "How have concepts of equality changed over time?" At this step, it's key to present an "un-googlable" question.

If conducting a structured or guided inquiry, you should use an essential question to inspire your students' investigation, and if leading students through a more open inquiry, I find the Question Formulation Technique useful. For example, I've used "Is oppression of the few for the good of the many justified?" or "Is truth in history possible?"

Questioning phase-I check the questions my students generate to ensure that they have the right conceptual connection between the big overarching question that they have posed and the answers they need to find.

Research phase-I check to ensure that students have documented their learning through the research phase and have provided accurate and thorough answers to the questions they've posed.

Outline-No matter the product that students are creating, I require them to outline their approach to answering their compelling question to ensure that their response is focused and evidence is cohesive.

Rough draft-Again, regardless of the type of product that students create, I formatively assess a first draft of their product.

Students should receive feedback on the process as well as the product. I use check-ins to help inform the types of mini-lessons my students need. I always formally provide feedback at the following checkpoints:

By explicitly linking your inquiries to skills and standards, you can rest assured that your students are indeed learning the curriculum.

Step 2. Conceive of the product that students will use to present their learning: Will this be a report of some kind? Argumentative essay? Documentary? Debate? Oral presentation? Project proposal? Or will students be allowed to present their learning in a form of their choosing?

For example, I had my world history students conduct a guided inquiry in response to the essential question, "What is the recipe for revolution?" in which their product was a report to the UN Security Council detailing where the next revolution was most likely to occur.

Step 3. Identify and use mini-lessons to teach the skills necessary for your students to complete the inquiry: Through the inquiry process, your students will refine the following skills and more: asking questions, conducting research, making claims, linking evidence to claims, synthesis, evaluation, articulation, and application. But again, inquiries can be structured.

For example, if you feel your students aren't quite ready to do independent research, provide them with a collection of resources from which they can select their evidence. If you think they all need more work on their writing, then require all students to articulate their answers via the written word. Eventually you will want to get your students to the point that they have the skills to work independently (or collaboratively) and make their own choices; however, this takes time.

Additionally, if during the process you notice that students are struggling in a certain area, design a learning experience to address that inadequacy. I have found that integrating mini-lessons focused on a specific skill during the inquiry process results in greater learning for all as a result of the immediate application of that skill.

Step 4. Celebrate their work and independence: When the students are ready to present their work, celebrate it-and invite your administrators, parents, and other students. Your students just completed creative independent research about something they care about. Celebrate!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
4 Common Obstacles to Implementing Inquiry-Based Learning-and How to Overcome Them

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A seasoned teacher breaks down the basics of inquiry to help all teachers feel comfortable implementing the method in the classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
As humans, we survive on rhythm. The beat of our heart keeps us alive, and its repetitive drumming acts as the base to the tune of our lives. During this project-based challenge, students will conceptualise and design an interactive, immersive experience that tells a story about the music of their soul through three distinctive spaces. They will learn about the origins of music, explore the work of world-renowned experiential designers and examine their own emotions related to music.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Welcome to Marseum. The year is 2050 and a human community is now thriving on Mars. You are tasked with designing an exhibition about life on Earth for the first museum on the Red Planet. This resource was developed in collaboration with Museums Galleries Scotland.

# data[].attributes.headline
Fraserburgh Academy - Growth Curriculum Update

# data[].attributes.subject
Fraserburgh Academy - Growth Curriculum Update

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The national model of professional learning

As education professionals you engage in professional learning to stimulate your thinking and to ensure your practice is critically informed and up-to-date.

The model of professional learning identifies the key principles and features of effective learning that will build capacity and promote collaborative practices. The model provides a shared language and aspiration, informing the provision, structure and nature of learning. It also outlines the kinds of learning that will empower and enable you to best meet the needs of learners.

We will work with national organisations and Regional Improvement Collaboratives to produce a range of materials to support your engagement with the new model and plan your professional learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The national model of professional learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Professional learning must focus on the education professional as a learner and how this is related to and impacts upon the learning of children, young people and adult learners.

# data[].attributes.body
Notes from our al fresco huddle - pre Caroline M’s prettification.

# data[].attributes.body
I really liked Pasi's description of what happens in Finnish schools, around the playful mindset and the sandbox approach to learning. Something the PBL/IDL can facilitate: https://vimeo.com/264962154?login=true

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Short interview with Professor Pasi Sahlberg

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
During the 2018 LEGO® Idea Conference, we asked Finnish Professor of Education Policy Pasi Sahlberg why the Finnish school system is so successful and what is needed to address the global learning crisis. Check the full interview here.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Have you ever put off starting something because you were worried you wouldn't succeed at it?

Or been so afraid to fail, you didn't start at all? Fear of failure can stop us from trying new things and taking creative risks. But what if we rethink failure as a learning tool for building resilience and developing problem-solving skills? Let's find out.

Developed in collaboration with Gen+.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Daydream Believers is a free, ready to use, online resource bank for educators that utilise creativity, critical thinking and problem-solving techniques applicable across the curriculum and beyond.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Does project-based learning (PBL) raise student achievement? If you've been involved in PBL for long, you've undoubtedly encountered this question. Over the last few years as education researchers at University of Michigan and Michigan State University, we have worked to address this question through a large study of the effects of PBL on social studies and some aspects of literacy achievement in second-grade classrooms. We call this initiative Project PLACE: A Project Approach to Literacy and Civic Engagement.

About the Study

In our study, we randomly assigned second-grade teachers in high-poverty schools that had low performance on state tests to two groups. One taught social studies using the project-based units we designed (the experimental or PBL group), and the other taught social studies as they normally did (the control group). We asked teachers in both groups to teach 80 social studies lessons over the course of the year, so that we would be comparing two different ways of teaching social studies, rather than teaching social studies versus not.

None of the teachers involved in the study reported previous experience teaching PBL. PBL-group teachers received detailed plans for four project-based units (on economics, geography, history, and civics and government). Each of the 20 sessions in a unit was written out in detail, while leaving room for some teacher and student voice and choice. Sessions were tightly aligned to Michigan social studies and informational reading and writing standards (which are the Common Core State Standards) and included research-supported instructional practices. (See our article " Projects That Have Been Put to the Test " for more detail.)

Teacher Support

We wanted the study to be realistic in terms of the degree of professional development (PD) support districts might be likely to provide to teachers, so PBL-group teachers received only three hours of initial PD in our approach to PBL and the first PBL unit. Over the course of the year, they watched brief videos introducing the subsequent three units. In addition, coaches from our research team visited teachers an average of 11 times over the course of the year. These visits allowed our team to provide a form of PD as well as to systematically rate the degree to which teachers were implementing each of the three parts of our project/unit sessions as intended. Our team also observed control-group classrooms to gather information about what business-as-usual social studies instruction was like, and to determine whether any control-group teachers used PBL (none did).

Assessment Design

At both the beginning and end of the school year, we administered assessments of social studies, informational reading, and informational writing aligned to Michigan's standards. We developed all of these assessments ourselves, as appropriate measures were not otherwise available. Experts checked alignment of test items with standards, providing evidence of the validity of the assessments. Those who scored the assessments reached high levels of agreement, suggesting that the assessment scoring system made sense and could be used in a reliable manner. Children in both the experimental/PBL and the control group took the assessments, and when we scored them, we did not know which group the assessment was from. In addition to normal randomized-controlled-trial design, we also administered the assessments to second graders in a high-socioeconomic-status (SES) school district that did not use our units, so that we could compare the PBL group not only to a comparable control group but also to a high-SES benchmark.

Our analyses found statistically significant differences overall favoring the PBL group over the control group in social studies (effect size = 0.482) and informational reading (effect size = 0.181). In the PBL group, gains were 63 percent higher for social studies and 23 percent higher for informational reading than in the control group. In informational writing, differences between the groups overall were not statistically significant. However, informational writing growth was higher, at a level of statistical significance, among teachers who were rated as implementing unit sessions more as intended. ( Visit this page to find a link to the latest version of Duke, Halvorsen, Strachan, Konstantopoulos, & Kim, 2017 for details.)

The gap in performance between children in the PBL group and children in the high-SES school district who did not experience our project-based units narrowed in social studies, informational reading, and informational writing (and did not narrow, or narrowed less, for the children in the control group).

Conclusions About PBL and Student Achievement

So does PBL raise student achievement? Our version of PBL did work to improve achievement as compared to business-as-usual instruction in high-poverty, low-performing school districts. We do not claim that all versions of PBL work, or in all contexts. For example, over the years, we have observed some versions of PBL that are far less standards-aligned than what we designed and that do not incorporate specific research-supported instructional techniques-these may have been shown to be ineffective using our research design. And as noted, PBL was more effective in classrooms where it was implemented with a higher degree of fidelity to the intended model.

Rather than saying that PBL raises or does not raise student achievement compared to other approaches, the most defensible stance from our research is that PBL can raise student achievement in high-poverty communities. Next steps in our field are to continue to inquire and refine our understanding of the specific circumstances under which it does raise student achievement and as compared to what. That is the project for project-based learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New Study Shows the Impact of PBL on Student Achievement

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Researchers in Michigan show that project-based learning in high-poverty communities can produce statistically significant gains in social studies and informational reading.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Your students didn't get the results they expected...it happens. The Fuel Change Challenge is an opportunity for your young people to do something of real value in their time left at high school.

With all the resources fully developed and ready to use, Fuel Change education Programmes are an easy and accessible way to deliver on improvement priorities linked to Developing the Young Workforce and Learning for Sustainability.

We believe that truly engaging the Next Generation, in the issues surrounding climate change and the role they can play, is fundamental to achieving a positive and just transition to Net Zero.
True engagement starts with embedding climate education within the school curriculum from the beginning of the learner journey - making climate education as relevant as literacy and numeracy.

Developed for teachers by teachers

Through our work with teachers, we understand that educators know that climate change education and skills development are essential factors when preparing our young people to thrive in the future world of work. However, we also appreciate that teachers are pressed for time and have numerous other commitments to uphold, so with the best will in the world, climate change education is just another priority on a desk already piled high.

Fuel Change Core Climate Education and the Fuel Change Challenge SCQF Level 6 award are fully developed and ready-to-use resources that make embedding climate change education and skills development into the curriculum easy and accessible.

The Fuel Change learner's journey

Schools Already Enrolled

Don't believe us?

Hear from the teachers who have experienced our programmes

Here at St. Mungo's, we fully believe in providing our young people with a climate change education which will give them knowledge to be able to make decisions that will allow them to play their part in tackling the crisis which we, and future generations are facing. Many of our young people are passionate about the issues we face and we have tried to respond to this in recent years by changing our courses to reflect these interests. We are delighted to be a Fuel Change school.

Mrs Michelle McMullan, Faculty Head of Social Subjects, St. Mungo's High School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Climate for Education: we believe that everyone should have access to climate education, regardless of their subject choices.

# data[].attributes.body
Here are the links to the IDL topics we've developed for Senior Phase:

Personal Finance/Money https://healthyschools.scot/planning-framework/inter-disciplinary-learning-personal-finance-money/

Vaping/E-cigarettes https://healthyschools.scot/planning-framework/inter-disciplinary-learning-vaping-e-cigarettes/

You'll need to register and then you can log on to the site to see the info - let me know your thoughts!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Inter Disciplinary Learning - personal finance/Money - Healthy Schools

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Inter Disciplinary Learning - personal finance/Money

# data[].attributes.body
These free online resources support IDL in BGE. If you would like to pop into an online campfire and meet some of the teachers who are using these challenges to embed project based learning across the curriculum - email - helena@daydreambelievers.co.uk

# data[].attributes.headline
PBL by Design at Callander and Strathyre Primary Schools.

# data[].attributes.subject
PBL by Design at Callander and Strathyre Primary Schools.

# data[].attributes.body
Linked to our work on the SDGs and to the Generation Earthshot initiative, children engaged with professionals working in careers connected with climate change and the environment including Loch Lomond and National Parks, RSPB, Town Rock Energy and One Planet Forth Valley with key questions in mind eg. How might we clean our air/build a waste free world/protect and restore nature?

Informed by their learning, classes were tasked with designing and then presenting their solutions in their own ways. The National Park fed back on solutions with a focus on innovation and creativity.

# data[].attributes.body
https://spencerauthor.com/pbl-by-design/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Project-based learning and design thinking have both become buzzwords in the educational landscape. But beyond the buzz, both PBL and design thinking have rich histories that span decades. Both approaches also offer practical frameworks for teachers who are crafting authentic projects for their students. So, what exactly is the relationship between PBL and design thinking? When and how should we use each approach? Is either option better for our students? In this article, we explore what it means to find the overlap between PBL and design thinking by treating project-based learning as the pedagogical framework and design thinking as the creative framework.

Listen to the Podcast

If you enjoy this blog but you'd like to listen to it on the go, just click on the audio below or subscribe via Apple Podcasts (ideal for iOS users) or Google Play and Stitcher (ideal for Android users).

https://spencerauthor.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/PBL-by-Design.mp3

Empowering Students with Voice and Choice

What happens when teachers design projects that empower students with voice and choice? Students embrace a maker mindset. They define themselves as inventors and creators. They learn to take creative risks. Here they experiment and engage in iterative thinking. When this happens, they embrace a growth mindset and grow resilient. They become problem solvers and systems thinkers. They become divergent thinkers - thinking outside the box. They use creative constraint to find original uses for materials. Here, they discover it's okay to be different. Often students embrace curiosity and wonder. They become explorers seeking out new information and thinking critically. They grow more empathetic as they design meaningful products that they launch to the world.

On an academic level, students are more engaged and the information sticks. There's often an increase in student achievement. Meanwhile, they learn key skills like project management, collaboration, and communication. True, these projects will prepare students for the creative economy. But more importantly, they empower students for a creative life. Here, they see that making is magic. We know that there's a time crunch in schools. Materials can be scarce. Sometimes you're stuck with a tight curriculum map. But when you, as a teacher, empower your students with voice and choice, they become the makers who change the world.

But how do we make the most out of project-based learning when we have tight time deadlines, a set of standards to teach, and limited resources? One solution is to combine project-based learning with design thinking. You can think of PBL as a pedagogical framework and design thinking as a creative framework. When this happens, you end up with PBL by Design. It's an idea I explore in my latest sketch video:

Before taking a deeper dive into the overlap, let's look at project-based learning and design thinking separately.

PBL is the Pedagogical Framework

Project-based learning isn't exactly a new concept. In fact, no one is entirely sure where and when project-based learning began. Suzie Boss ties it back to Confucius, Aristotle, and Socrates. Others see the roots of PBL in Rousseau in Emile. Elements of PBL emerge in John Dewey's (1897) notion of learning through projects and later Heard Kilpatrick's 1908 "project method," However, there are also strong elements of PBL (authentic audience, learning by doing, inquiry-based learning) that have existed in vocational education and trade schools as well.

According to Google's Ngram tool, which tracks the frequency of terms within published materials, the phrase "project-based learning" first grew in popularity in the early 1990's and has continued to increase over the last few decades. This suggests that PBL is more than a mere fad. Yes, it's gaining in popularity, but it has been decades in the making.

With the rise of automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, many schools have sought out project-based learning as a way to develop essential soft skills, like collaboration, communication, creativity, problem-solving, information literacy, and global citizenship. Project-based learning offers a way to develop these critical skills while also mastering the content at a deeper level. There's some fascinating new research about how authentic PBL can lead to increases in academic achievement.

Project-based learning isn't a formal learning theory. Instead, it fits within the broader category of constructivism and perhaps even connectivism. It's more of a pedagogical framework, because it's a different way of crafting and organizing our lessons. The following video is a quick primer on project-based learning as a pedagogical framework.

However, despite the popularity of project-based learning, the term can seem a little nebulous. For one, it's easy to get confused between project-based learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based learning because each model seems to include a challenge, a finished product, and sustained inquiry. Moreover, there are many different project-based learning models. Many teachers prefer the PBL Works Gold Standard Model but I actually prefer the High Quality Project Based Learning Model. Still, others prefer various PBL models developed by foundations, higher education institutes, and even businesses. If you're new to PBL, you might want to explore different models and see what works best for your classroom setting. Honestly, there's a lot of overlap between most models.

While each project-based learning model is different, the following are some common components within the models:

a provocation, challenge, or question

student inquiry

authenticity, with a focus on connecting to the community

student-led investigations that lead to internal construction of knowledge

student voice and choice in the process and the finished product

student self-direction at an individual and small group level

meaningful collaboration with built-in interdependence within the group

project management

student reflection throughout the process

ongoing peer feedback and revision

a public product

Note how different this approach can feel different compared to more traditional pedagogical frameworks. Often, PBL will involve key paradigm shifts that we, as educators, need to make. This includes a shift from culminating projects to a system where students learn through the projects. In other words, you don't do a traditional unit plan and end in a project. Instead, students discover the content through the project. Anoth er shift toward student choice in the design of the projects and away from highly detailed project instructions. Students engage in meaningful inquiry rather than using pre-planned questions. It often involves a shift from the teacher as the director of learning to the teacher as a facilitator.

Sometimes it helps to ask, "What am I already doing that's similar to PBL?" You might be doing culminating projects that could be transformed into a full PBL unit. You might have authenticity but you could add more student choice to the inquiry and research phases. For me, project management was one of the last components that I added. For the first few years of PBL, I managed all the projects. Eventually, I realized that students needed to own the project management process.

Design Thinking is the Creative Framework

Design thinking is a human-centered approach to creative problem-solving. It is used in the arts, in engineering, in the corporate world, and in social and civic spaces. Like PBL, it's a bit of a debate where design thinking originated. Some claim that it started in the sixties with The Sciences of the Artificial. Others point to Design Thinking, which focused more on urban planning and architecture. Still others point to Robert McKim's work in Experiences in Visual Thinking. Like all great ideas, it has been an evolution, influenced by thousands of people. We know that our work around Design Thinking has been influenced by people like Tom and David Kelley, Tim Brown, John Maeda, Peter Rowe (as well as organizations like Stanford d.school and IDEO). For a great primer on the history of design thinking, check out Jo Szczepanska's article with the interactive timeline. She actually ties it back to Buckminster Fuller's notion of design science and the Scandinavian movement of cooperative design.The key thing here is that that design thinking exists in so many different domains, meaning it is easy to connect to all subject areas in school.

While there are many design thinking models, A.J. Juliani and I realized the need for a student-friendly design thinking framework tailored specifically for a K-12 environment. We both had spent over a decade using design thinking and we had each added a few innovations, including an inquiry phase, a research phase, and a launch phase. After testing this out in multiple classrooms, we finalized the LAUNCH Cycle.

It starts with Look, Listen, and Learn. The goal here is awareness. It might be a sense of wonder a process, an understanding of a problem, an observation of a natural phenomenon, or an awareness of a social issue. But it also includes empathy with a community. Sparked by curiosity, students move to the second phase, where they ask tons of questions, which leads to understanding the process or problem through an authentic research experience. They might do needs assessments, conduct surveys, watch videos, listen to podcasts, conduct experiments, make observations, analyze data, do a video chat with an expert or engage in online research. Students apply the newly acquired knowledge to potential solutions. In this phase, they navigate ideas. Here they not only brainstorm, but they also analyze ideas, combine ideas, and generate a concept for what they will create. From there, they Create a Prototype, whether it's a digital work, a physical product, a service, a system, or an event. Next, they Highlight What's Working and Fix What's Failing. Here, they view the revision process as an experiment full of iterations where every mistake takes them closer and closer to success. Then, when it's done, it's ready to launch to an audience. In this launch phase, they send their work to the world. Then, based on the audience feedback, they move into a new iteration, where they're able to Look, Listen, and Learn all over again.

The Overlap of PBL and Design Thinking

When I first started out on my project-based learning journey, I followed a loosely structured PBL model. This particular model avoided using specific phases in a project and instead focused on ideas like authenticity, sustained inquiry, and reflection. While I loved the approach, I noticed that students still struggled with creative work. I realized that I needed a framework that included specific phases or stages in the design process. I wanted students to engage in authentic projects in a way that mirrored the design process in the real world.

This is ultimately why I embraced design thinking. It's a process that focuses on empathy and awareness; working to understand on a profound level the problems people are facing before attempting to come up with ideas and create solutions. It is a slower, deeper approach that encourages research and revision. Unlike PBL, design thinking includes specific phases or stages in a project. This can add the necessary structure missing from certain project-based learning experiences.

At the same time, project-based learning provides the pedagogical model needed for design thinking. With PBL, we have key competencies, necessary protocols, and certain design elements we can use as we craft lesson plans. If I attempt to use design thinking but fail to incorporate PBL, students will not learn the content in as deep of a level. In other words, PBL provides the elements for the learning process but design thinking provides elements for the creative process.

So if we want to use both frameworks, how do actually do it? A great starting place is to ask if the project-based learning experience works with design thinking. Some PBL projects might work better with the engineering process, the inquiry process, an open-ended independent process (think Genius Hour), or the Scientific Method. Design thinking tends to work well when you have an authentic audience where you can center the project on student empathy. If design thinking works well for your PBL, then you can start planning it out.

You might want to organize your project according to the design thinking phases. Here, you plan out each phase of the project to connect with each phase in the design thinking process. Next, you can use project-based learning as a checklist of specific components you will need throughout the project. For example, ask yourself, "Is this actually authentic?" or "Do students have voice, choice, and self-direction here?" The following table demonstrates what this overlap looks like.

Design Thinking Elements

PBL Elements

PBL by Design

Look, Listen, and Learn

A provocation, challenge, or question
Authenticity, with a focus on connecting to the community

In this Look, Listen, and Learn phase, students begin with a challenge or question centered on a specific community. This is authentic starting point directly relates to the community and often includes empathy.

Ask Tons of Questions

Student inquiry
Student-led investigations that lead to internal construction of knowledge
Student voice and choice in the process and the finished product

In this Ask Tons of Questions phase, students develop specific driving questions, research questions, and essential questions. They might do a PBL-specific Knows / Needs to Know structure. Here, they begin the inquiry process with voice and choice about which questions they want to answer.

Understand the Process or Problem

Student inquiry
Authenticity, with a focus on connecting to the community
Student-led investigations that lead to internal construction of knowledge
Student voice and choice in the process and the finished product
Student reflection throughout the process
Student self-direction

In this Understand the Process or Problem phase, the focus is on student inquiry. Here students engage in student-driven, authentic research that connects to the community. They might do needs assessments, conduct interviews with experts, or do surveys. Here, they should have a voice in what questions they ask, what questions they answer, and how they organize their research. Note that these student-led investigations help students to internally construct knowledge. As teachers, we can improve this by embedding moments of self-refection.

Navigate Ideas

Authenticity, with a focus on connecting to the community
Student voice and choice in the process and the finished product
Student self-direction
Interdependent collaboration

After students have developed deeper background knowledge, they Navigate Ideas. Here, they have choice in the brainstorming and planning of their project. This is the start of the deeper project management process. Teachers can embed structures for interdependent decision-making in this phase.

Create a Prototype

Authenticity, with a focus on connecting to the community
Student voice and choice in the process and the finished product
Project management
Student reflection throughout the process
Student self-direction

When students Create a Prototype, they work interdependently in collaborative groups. Often, the group will have one key project manager to keep the whole group on schedule. This phase tends to be highly self-directed at the small group and individual level.

Highlight and Fix

Authenticity, with a focus on connecting to the community
Student voice and choice in the process and the finished product
Project management
Ongoing peer feedback and revision
Student reflection throughout the process
Student self-direction

Students use ongoing peer feedback and revision as they Highlight and Fix. While the focus is on improving the product, they also engage in self-reflection on the process as well. The goal here is student ownership and self-direction of the revision process.

Launch to the World

Authenticity, with a focus on connecting to the community
Student voice and choice in the process and the finished product
A public product
Student reflection throughout the process
Student self-direction

Students determine their audience and their marketing strategy as they Launch to the World. The goal is a public product in a way that is truly authentic.

As you plan out specific lessons, you might include protocols from PBL (including Driving Questions, Need to Know, Project Management) but also design thinking (A Day in the Life, Needs Assessment, Challenge Assumptions). The first attempt might be a little clunky but that's okay. The more you blend the two together, the more you will notice that these two frameworks merge together really well. Ultimately, when we combine PBL and design thinking, it leads to better projects and deeper learning.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
PBL by Design - Exploring the Overlap of Project-Based Learning and Design Thinking

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Project-based learning and design thinking have both become buzzwords in the educational landscape. But beyond the buzz, both PBL and design thinking have rich histories that span decades. Both approaches also offer practical frameworks for

# data[].attributes.body
This is a brief overview of the research enquiry which I carried out this year. I looked at how IDL could be delivered through a Froebelian occupation in the early years setting. My methods included bundling the Es and Os and using observations to evaluate the progression of the children's learning. During this action research project, I used my findings to inform my practice and to plan responsive experiences for the children.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Stacey MacKinnon - IDL Practitioner Enquiry 

# data[].attributes.headline
Falkirk Chn's Services LfS Framework Files - Y McBlain

# data[].attributes.subject
Falkirk Chn's Services LfS Framework Files - Y McBlain

# data[].attributes.body
At the IDL meeting on 26th April I spoke briefly about our Falkirk Learning for Sustainability Framework and folks asked for more info to be shared. Here is the link to an explanatory Sway https://sway.office.com/wolpoZTwZ83gTqJ3?ref=Link . I'm not sure how to upload an example of the progressive IDL plans which are part of the framework, but will investigate once I've published this message.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
An Introduction to our Falkirk Learning for Sustainability Framework

# data[].attributes.body
Professional Learning for practitioners: What is IDL? Project Planning tools including KWL Grids and Creating Big Questions with learners?

# data[].attributes.headline
Part of our Expeditions approach at Dyce - captured by Edutopia and shares some of the tensions and successes on our journey

# data[].attributes.subject
Part of our Expeditions approach at Dyce - captured by Edutopia and shares some of the tensions and successes on our journey

# data[].attributes.body
Jenny Watson, Dyce School

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Handing Over the Reins for a More Playful Learning Experience

# data[].attributes.headline
20 min provocation for middle leaders in ELC / Primary settings on curriculum innovation in general

# data[].attributes.subject
20 min provocation for middle leaders in ELC / Primary settings on curriculum innovation in general

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Curriculum Design: ELC and Primary Middle Leaders

# data[].attributes.headline
Curriculum Innovation session for Secondary middle leaders 

# data[].attributes.subject
Curriculum Innovation session for Secondary middle leaders 

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Curriculum Design: Secondary Middle leadership

# data[].attributes.headline
Audrey Buchanan CLPL Sway in development for Why, What and How of IDL.  Moray schools modelling the how. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Audrey Buchanan CLPL Sway in development for Why, What and How of IDL.  Moray schools modelling the how. 

# data[].attributes.body
Julia and I, along with our colleague, Jonathan at Creative Scotland, are currently working on the development of a Creative Learning Toolkit. It will take the form of a ThingLink and will include sections for each user group (Primary, Secondary, Colleges, CLD, Parents, Learners etc). One of the themes that will be illustrated as an example of creativity in the curriculum will be strong practice in IDL.

# data[].attributes.headline
Showcase of Social Enterprise Schools supporting IDL

# data[].attributes.subject
Showcase of Social Enterprise Schools supporting IDL

# data[].attributes.body
schools@socialenterprise.academy

# data[].attributes.body
This is a brief snapshot of my IDL research plan I am undertaking for my Ed.D. I will be reaching out to schools with a view to selecting case studies in Term 4 next academic session.

# data[].attributes.body
Links to four capacities to follow...

# data[].attributes.body
S2 Living Spaces IDL Overview

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Digital learning from Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar | e-Sgoil

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A set of 20, interactive, IDL and discovery-based learning prompts, curated resources and tasks for use in your classroom both in-person and remotely. The mixed level resources may be suitable for young people working toward the end of Second Level up to Fourth Level of the Broad General Educati…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Interdisciplinary learning (IDL) cannot be properly understood without a clear understanding of the nature, benefits and limitations of disciplines. Disciplines are branches of learning characterised by distinct objects, concepts, principles, theories, skills, tools and applications, and comprise groupings of 'like-minded' people. By ensuring depth of knowledge and understanding, disciplines give rigour and structure to the development of knowledge and understanding, and are characterised by their transferability and applicability to other areas of knowledge, contexts and disciplines.

Disciplines may also be inward-looking and fail to address new and relevant real-world problems, whereas major new insights and breakthroughs increasingly occur in interdisciplinary areas. In IDL learners draw on two or more disciplines in order to advance understanding of a subject or problem that extends beyond the scope of any single discipline. Successful IDL must be grounded in substantial disciplinary knowledge and understanding that is also transferable into different learning contexts. By contrast, multi-disciplinary learning involves the juxtaposition of disciplines and knowledge that may have no apparent connection and may be taught as separate entities around a theme or topic. Successful development and implementation of IDL will benefit from collaboration at all levels including sustained external support from universities, colleges, business and industry to provide Continuing Professional Development and clear and concise exemplification. The principles and practices of IDL apply across all areas of the curriculum.

Rapid scientific and technical innovation has irreversibly altered the demand for skills in an interconnected global marketplace. Employment growth will continue to favour highly-skilled, tertiary-educated workers. Skills are the global currency of the 21 st century in which working life will become increasingly networked. Work will be increasingly variable and done on a project basis with contributors with complementary skills working in teams. These skills require development through a change of classroom practice and should be developed at all levels throughout education. This implies a shift towards inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary knowledge and training.

The successful implementation of IDL in Scottish secondary schools with timetables and curricula designed around individual disciplines and disciplinary thinking is a major challenge in Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). In primary schools, one teacher will teach most or all subject disciplines but often with limited disciplinary knowledge. The development of STEM teaching in IDL contexts in primary schools, where few teachers have formal STEM training, is particularly critical. In secondary schools, common approaches to IDL delivery include school-timetabled IDL involving large-scale events for large groups (e.g. entire year groups) and classroom-based IDL, setting aside time for multiple disciplines to allow pupils to work on IDL projects within their normal daily timetable. However, the importance of considering IDL as a way of learning that is integral with rather than distinct from subject learning needs to be recognised. Beyond the formal curriculum and classroom, IDL has particular importance and potential in engaging disengaged and disadvantaged learners. Building links with employers and local communities in IDL projects supports their progress into training and employment.

Curriculum for Excellence - The Four Contexts for Learning

Pupils, teachers and educators are now well versed in the four capacities of Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) - successful learners, confident individuals, responsible citizens and effective contributors.

However, other than the familiar 'curriculum areas and subjects' the four contexts for learning are less well understood. The other three contexts are 'the ethos and life of the school as a community', 'opportunities for personal achievement' and 'interdisciplinary learning' (IDL).

Building the Curriculum 3 ( A Framework for Learning and Teaching) stresses the importance of making connections between all four contexts, including within them extra-curricular activities and learning outwith the school (including outdoors learning). Building the Curriculum 4 ( Skills for Learning, Life and Work) further asserts that skills for learning, life and work should be developed across all areasof the curriculum in interdisciplinary studies, and in all contexts and settings where young people learn, while Building the Curriculum 5 ( A Framework for Assessment) states that achievement covers not only curriculum areas and IDL, but also other areas within and beyond the school.

IDL thus assumes a central role within CfE in connecting the curriculum areas and subjects to these wider contexts and settings where young people learn, develop and achieve, thereby creating the potential to enhance systemically the development of all four capacities of CfE. Thus CfE represents a decisive move of education from its historical basis in successful learners, curriculum areas and subjects to a much broader and more all-embracing vision that encompasses its wider relationship to the community, the world of work and all contexts and places where learning takes place.

So what exactly is IDL, why is it important, what benefits for Scotland's future economy, culture and society will accrue from its implementation within CfE, and how will it be implemented in practice? The answers to these questions are not yet clearly and coherently articulated. The principles of IDL reviewed here in relation to STEM (Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics) subjects are relevant and applicable across all areas of the curriculum and beyond, and as such it is important that they should not be considered as being peculiar to STEM.

What is Interdisciplinary Learning? View from the world of education and training

Disciplines

In order to understand the nature and principles of interdisciplinary learning, we require a clear understanding of the characteristics and importance of disciplines, and their benefits and limitations.

Disciplines as a means of structuring educational and academic practice have been well established in UK education at all levels for over a century. A discipline is a branch of learning or domain of knowledge that is characterised by distinct objects, concepts, principles, theories, skills, tools and applications. Established disciplines, in schools, colleges, and higher education and research institutions alike, comprise groupings of 'like-minded' people with a shared language who subscribe to their principles and methods, interact with each other, and communicate and apply their knowledge and understanding in society, for example through education, research and economic activity. Although disciplines may be resistant to externally imposed change, they continuously evolve and develop from within as knowledge and understanding increase, especially in the STEM subjects. Their boundaries are not fixed and cannot always be easily defined. The accumulation of disciplinary knowledge leads to increasing internal specialisation and division.

Disciplines give structure and rigour to the development of knowledge and are vital to sustaining and curating that knowledge and communicating it to non-experts and to future generations. Disciplines provide a reservoir of knowledge and skills that contribute personal, cultural, economic and social value to the well-being of society. STEM disciplines are characterised by their structure - concepts, principles, theories and methods - from which new outcomes and ideas emerge, predictions are made and theories tested. The more fundamental the idea or skill that has been acquired, the greater should be the breadth of its applicability to problems and its transferability to other disciplines. By contrast, if learning comprises unconnected knowledge, information or skills that are not placed within - or related to - a structured framework (such as a discipline) they are likely to be rapidly forgotten. Good teaching should impart an understanding of the underlying structure and principles of a subject rather than simply a mastery of facts and techniques.

There are also persuasive arguments against disciplines. The consistent focus on a single set of disciplinary phenomena may result in a lack of creative engagement with other disciplines and with the gaps between disciplines. Disciplines may be inward-looking and fail to address relevant, real-world problems. Learners may find it difficult to make links between disciplines. Disciplinary communities guard their boundaries in competition with other disciplines, yet it is in the gaps beyond disciplinary boundaries - the interdisciplinary areas - that major new insights and research breakthroughs occur. The 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three physicists working in biology laboratories to use fluorescence to visualize the pathways of individual molecules inside living cells ("nanoscopy"). Its main breakthrough applications are in medicine - a triumph of interdisciplinary working!

With the accumulation of human knowledge growing rapidly, particularly in the STEM disciplines, there is a doubling of knowledge about every decade. The result is increasing disciplinary specialisation in learning to the extent that we easily lose sight of the wider contexts and bigger picture, and of how ideas and phenomena interconnect and inform each other in a complex network of knowledge (McGilchrist 2012).

Interdisciplinary learning

The terminology used to describe IDL is varied and confusing. The terminology adopted here draws on the work of Chettiparamb (2007) and Harvie (2012). In interdisciplinary learning, learners draw on two or more disciplines in order to advance their understanding of a subject or problem that extends beyond the scope of any single discipline. Learners integrate and develop information, concepts, methodologies and procedures from two or more disciplines to gain new knowledge, understanding and skills, and to explain or solve problems. Contextual learning is an important and widely used type of interdisciplinary learning where different disciplines or curriculum areas are focused - or converge - on a context, issue or problem. Contexts are typically practical, real-world problems or issues, such as for example climate change or energy. When the disciplines are in different curriculum areas, for example, sciences and social subjects, this is often described as cross-curricular learning.

By contrast, multidisciplinary learning describes the juxtaposition of disciplines that may have no apparent connection or may be taught as separate entities by one teacher but related to a particular theme or topic (Harvie 2012). Simply linking or juxtaposing discrete subjects together around a theme is not by itself interdisciplinary (as defined above), but rather multidisciplinary. In good IDL, learners tackle relevant and meaningful questions or problems that will allow them not simply to make connections between two or more disciplines but also to draw on and develop their disciplinary knowledge, understanding and skills and thereby deepen their understanding of these disciplines (Harvie 2012). Only in these ways will IDL enable and enhance the vital capacity to transfer and apply disciplinary knowledge, understanding and skills to new problems and into other areas of learning. While multi-disciplinary learning is not in itself a bad thing, it may fail to convey this transferable and applicable disciplinary knowledge and understanding.

IDL cannot exist separately from disciplines but is fundamentally founded on strong disciplinary knowledge, understanding and skills. Furthermore, teaching specific topics or skills without clarifying their relationship to broader and more fundamental principles (starting from the specific rather than the general) makes it difficult for learners to transfer and generalise their learning to make it useable beyond the situation in which the learning occurred. Students undertaking IDL obtain a deeper understanding of the links between disciplines, the transfer of learning and the inter-relationships of phenomena.

Interdisciplinary learning - the pros, the cons and the evidence

Successful interdisciplinary working has largely developed in research in universities and industry from within STEM disciplines in response to the recognition that major advances in STEM research typically occur at disciplinary interfaces, where progress depends on making interdisciplinary connections and gaining new insights. This usually requires teamwork and collaboration amongst people from two or more disciplines, a practice common in industry and the workplace. Education should reflect such practice.

The practice of IDL stimulates curiosity and motivation and develops awareness of wider career opportunities. In STEM education, there is a perceived need to stimulate the prior interest of learners in the material to be learned by emphasising its relevance to practical everyday problems, many of which require interdisciplinary approaches. If learners are interested in a problem they are more likely to become interested in the underlying science.

Creativity - having original ideas that have value (Robinson 2011) - is widely regarded as the highest order skill in Bloom's Taxonomy. It is the foundation for innovation - the process of putting ideas into practice. Creativity usually happens when we make unusual or novel connections, bring together ideas or ways of looking at the world not previously related or connected, combine ideas in novel or unusual ways, or solve questions or problems not previously considered to be associated. It is a move away from linear thinking towards systems thinking. Creativity is therefore usually founded on - and fostered by - interdisciplinary (including cross-curricular) working, systems (or holistic) thinking and (in the 21 st century) team working. IDL promotes creativity and related higher-order thinking skills.

In public perception, creativity is usually considered to be associated with the arts, particularly the so-called 'creative' or performing arts, such as music, drama, dance, writing etc. This is a false but unfortunately widespread perception. Creativity is possible in any and every discipline, not just in the creative arts, and is by no means confined to 'academic' pathways of learning. Creativity is as central to STEM subjects, and to enterprise, innovation and economic success as it is to other areas of human culture. Narrow educational curricula and cultures that create boundaries between curriculum areas and subjects (for example between arts, STEM and social subjects, or between STEM disciplines) are likely to inhibit innovation and creativity.

The delivery of IDL is also commonly associated with diverse types of learning such as cooperative, problem-based and contextual learning. In implementing problem-based IDL, teachers become facilitators, supporting pupils to become self-directed learners, and through co-operative learning working to share their learning with others. Research evidence on the advantages of cooperative learning and debates around the benefits of IDL is reviewed by Harvie (2012).

The benefits that interdisciplinary and cross-curricular learning confer on learners within and beyond the STEM disciplines have been widely recognised and welcomed, but research evidence for the effectiveness of IDL in school education is as yet limited (Howes et al 2014). Hurley (2001) has shown show that student achievement in science was greatest when maths was used in integration with science or to enhance science, and in maths when taught in sequence with science (i.e. planned together but taught separately). Riechert and Post (2010) showed that enrichment activities involving IDL work have positive effects on learners' interest in and attitudes to STEM. There is little evidence of interdisciplinary STEM in education systems in countries with a heavy reliance on individual subject examination, whereas countries that encourage a broader range of subjects post-16 including maths or science tend to get higher participation rates in STEM. Further research evidence on the impact of IDL on learning is summarised in the BOCSH Report (2015) and the STEMEC Report (2106).

Progress in the development of IDL in Scottish school education is slow and patchy (STEMEC Report 2016). Perhaps surprisingly, despite the strong development of interdisciplinary working in research in HEIs, there is also concern about the slow development of IDL in teaching in higher education, where attitudes appear to remain stubbornly conservative (Wernli and Darbellay 2016; Lyall et al 2016). There appear to be strong parallels in IDL development and implementation in both school and university learning and teaching. The concerns expressed with limited progress in IDL development in HEIs would be addressed if students entering tertiary education were already interdisciplinary learners and thinkers. A systemic approach to IDL implementation is recommended.

Pillars and lintels - a balanced perspective

While strongly supporting the intention of CfE to develop IDL, the SEEAG Report (2012) concluded that:

Interdisciplinary working requires that all science subjects should continue to be founded on deep and coherent pillars of knowledge and understanding. Interdisciplinary understanding will lack rigour and utility if it is not part of a structure in which the disciplines are pillars with interdisciplinary work as lintels. Without the pillars, the lintels will fall.

In other words, to be of long-term value the delivery of interdisciplinary learning must provide substantial rigorous disciplinary knowledge and understanding that is transferable into different contexts. How this balance is to be achieved in practice is a grand challenge of CfE that has yet to be confronted.

Successful development and delivery of IDL within CfE is strongly dependent on teacher skills, classroom organisation and practice, a deep understanding of the nature of IDL and its relation to the disciplines, a sufficient breadth and depth of subject knowledge, understanding and skills, and expertise in curriculum design. Practical logistical issues for schools (discussed below) include timetabling, cost, time and collaboration across subjects and departments.

All these challenges will require a high and sustained level of support through CPD, development of professional learning communities (PLCs), development in initial teacher education (ITE) and more ongoing collaboration between schools, local authorities, universities and colleges, business, industry and other agencies. In other words, change needs to be systemic. Teachers need the time to think, plan and collaborate to develop IDL. Good exemplification of IDL is in short supply and is urgently needed. Tackling these challenges through the creation of strong, interconnected and collaborative support systems and the establishment of creative partnerships can create a roadmap to enable Scotland to be a world leader in interdisciplinary learning. The development of a culture of collaboration at all levels in Scottish education, at the classroom, school, regional and national level, was a key cross-cutting theme of the STEMEC Report (2016), the OECD Report (2015) and the Report of the Initial Findings of the International Council of Education Advisors to Scottish Government (2017).

Why is IDL important? View from the world of work

Education has four broad aims - economic, personal, cultural and social. Pupils and their parents, teachers and employers, governments, taxpayers and other stakeholders will all want to be convinced about the benefits that a new emphasis on IDL within CfE will bring. Will the employment prospects of young learners be enhanced and their life experiences enriched? Will IDL implementation help to stimulate creativity, curiosity, aspiration and enterprise, make Scotland more economically competitive and bring wider social and cultural benefits?

Fundamental shifts in the nature and structure of employment in developed countries have led to a decline in agriculture and manufacturing and growth in services. In manufacturing, there has been a shift to the development and production of high-value goods. The number of higher-skilled professional, technical and managerial jobs has risen at the expense of routine, lower-skilled employment. Rapid scientific and technological innovation have been the principal drivers of change in a connected global marketplace in trade, supply, finance, information, skills and knowledge exchange, generating widespread benefits through improved living standards but also greater complexity across economic systems, and with it economic, social and environmental vulnerabilities and potential for major job losses, especially where automation has made a major impact. These changes have irreversibly altered the demand for skills, with a shift away from routine cognitive and craft skills and physical labour. Scotland must now compete in international marketplaces on an entirely different basis, with leading emerging economies poised to overtake the OECD economies through more rapid growth.

Employment growth will continue to favour highly skilled (tertiary-educated) workers. The boundaries between manufacturing and service sectors will blur and greener technologies and practices will diffuse across economies. Long-standing structural weaknesses in the UK economy reflect years of inadequate investment in skills, infrastructure and innovation, with a long post-industrial legacy of educational and social inequity. If the UK could raise educational standards to those of recent leaders such as Finland it could add more than £8trn to GDP over the lifetime of a child born today, equivalent to one percentage point on annual growth (CBI). Improving the quality of school education is a key growth and investment issue. The widely-sought social dividend that improvements in human capital achieve through raising educational performance nationally directly addresses the enduring challenge of educational, economic and social inequity.

The complexity of the challenges and problems facing mankind in the 21 st century requires a global response. Global problems do not exist in isolation, and any attempt to solve one problem may exacerbate another (Weil 2014). Learners need to be able to understand complex, interconnected problems and systems and to collaborate to solve problems. In particular, learners need to learn how to question and impartially evaluate complex and contrary evidence.

This is the world in which we now live and work. What are the implications for education and skills in general and for STEM education in particular? Skills have become the global currency of the 21 st century and are the key to translating creativity, curiosity and innovation into economic growth and employment. Emerging economies have made substantial long-term investment plans for education and skills development. By contrast, for developed economies with ageing demographics such as Scotland the need to ensure that their human capital keeps pace with rapidly evolving skills demands of labour markets is particularly acute.

Working life in 2020 will be even more networked, and jobs less routine. Work will increasingly be done on a project basis in collaboration with various contributors with complementary knowledge and skills, and tasks will become more variable. A developing 'on-demand' economy will favour 'freelance' workers able to master and sustain multiple skill sets, and job flexibility will replace job security. An ability to apply network skills is the foundation of future work; network skills find their application in the ability to find, use, connect and disseminate knowledge, to identify new opportunities and find solutions to problems. Many of the most commercially significant innovations in industry and business are expected to result from cross-disciplinary fertilisation. The key to success is the ability of people with different competencies to work together in teams, learning from one another and building on existing ideas. These skills require practice, involve the development of both the curriculum and teaching/classroom practice, and should be developed throughout education at all levels through what we teach and how we teach it.

An OECD report identified the following key elements as essential in 21st-century education systems in relation to skills and employment:

Knowledge: relevance, real-world experience, rethinking of the significance and applicability of what is taught to strike a far better balance between the conceptual and the practical.

Skills: higher-order skills, such as creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration are essential for absorbing knowledge as well as for work performance, requiring expertise in combining knowledge and skills in a coherent ensemble.

Character (behaviours, attitudes, values): to face an increasingly complex world it is important to teach character traits, such as performance-related traits (adaptability, persistence, resilience) and moral-related traits (integrity, justice, empathy, ethics).

Demand for STEM skills is particularly high, both within STEM-based industries and in businesses and beyond. Many growth sectors are STEM-based, with a high projected demand for both high-level STEM skills and more generic skills. Two-thirds of businesses responding to a recent SCDI/Skills Development Scotland (SDS) survey identified the need for a greater focus on STEM subjects across the education and training system, emphasising leadership, planning and organising, teamwork, strategic management, technical and practical skills, advanced IT and software skills, plus improved written and oral communication skills.

The characteristics of good IDL coupled to modern classroom practice within CfE map very naturally onto the economic, employment, social and cultural environment of the 21 st century. A new and higher-level inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary knowledge base will be essential, with a shift away from narrowly focused specialists to flexible individuals with interdisciplinary academic training. In key areas such as STEM-related subjects, there is a more general emerging skills need for interdisciplinarity within the science, technical and business areas, for which teachers will need to be able to combine approaches to teaching, work collaboratively internally and externally, and acquire strong technological skills. Specifically:

Businesses will require young people with flexible skills and the ability to innovate and cope with change and learn continuously throughout life; knowledge transfer is as much about communication as specialist skills.

Schools must stimulate a child's ability to solve new, non-routine problems, combine different bodies of knowledge and interact productively with others, which is essential if individuals are to become competitive in the globalized economy.

Active learning based on student participation, experiential learning models and learn-by-doing approaches will matter more than passive approaches.

Core skills should be delivered in a way that excites and engages learners.

Skills development is more effective if the world of learning and the world of work are linked. Learning which incorporates work-related case studies and simulations and learning in the workplace allows young people to develop both "hard" and "soft" skills, with real-world relevance and experience. It is apparent through SCDI's network of Young Engineers and Science Clubs that industry-set school challenges from a range of sectors are usually designed to require teamwork and an interdisciplinary approach.

In STEM, students should be encouraged to run their own experiments, involving more open-ended questions and more organised group activity.

Feedback from SCDI members in STEM-related sectors supports IDL, but businesses require more definition of what IDL means if it is to be made meaningful. Bad IDL is seen as probably worse than no IDL. Good IDL needs to be respected and embraced by teachers, students, and employers. However, the teaching of core skills and disciplinary knowledge must not be lost.

How can IDL be delivered? View from the classroom and beyond

In Scottish secondary schools timetables are designed around subjects so do not easily accommodate the delivery of IDL. By contrast in primary schools, one teacher will usually teach across most subjects within CfE, and challenges in delivering IDL are around teacher confidence, subject knowledge and maintaining disciplinary rigour across the curriculum.

So how are secondary schools delivering project/challenge based IDL? Two common approaches appear to be emerging in school-timetable based IDL, while STEM clubs (including Young Engineers and Science Clubs) provide additional projects and challenges for pupils that are set in real-life contexts and usually draw on STEM as well as non-STEM disciplines (i.e. cross-disciplinary). However, the high quality of many STEM club projects or challenges is evident and teachers may wish to look at the SCDI Young Engineers and Science Clubs website for examples and further information. Support is also available from STEMNET, through for example the STEM ambassador programme. A few schools opt for a mix of approaches to IDL and no one method should be seen as perfect.

Large scale events

In full-day IDL events, a School will arrange for an entire year group to be out of class at the same time. The group will be set a task or project that has an IDL theme. Pupils will then work in a hall or with specific subjects throughout the day in order to complete their project. This could for example be a forensic activity or a natural disaster aid mission. The benefit of such work is the experience for the pupil, and the prospect of being out of class for a day in a new working environment is clearly appealing to pupils.

Some points to consider for this method are: How is disciplinary rigour maintained? How will you ensure that pupils recognise the contribution of each discipline to the overall project or challenge? Does this project relate to career opportunities and skills required for the future? Can the event be sustained in the longer term and thus be adapted and developed year on year to fine-tune improvements (particularly if the event involves external partners)? Does an event of this scale allow personalisation and choice as well as differentiated support for pupils?

Classroom based IDL

In classroom-based IDL, management will set aside time for multiple disciplines to allow pupils to work on IDL projects within their normal daily timetable. To achieve this, two or more departments will collaborate to develop an IDL project or challenge and determine how much time 'off timetable' (i.e. outwith their usual CfE lessons) subject disciplines require to spend on the work.

Alternatively, a school may decide to select an existing STEM challenge, for example, to take part in the Junior Saltire competition. This would require lessons to be developed and delivered in a variety of subjects including for example science, CDT, computing, English and maths, with the teachers selecting a 'lead' subject that will launch the project/challenge at the start and pull together the project at the end.

There are clear advantages to this model in that it allows greater opportunities for differentiation, learners recognise each distinctive disciplinary contribution to the overall project, learners can identify areas of the curriculum where they are succeeding or require improvement, and teachers can ensure and assess individual discipline work based on prior learning as well as contribution to overall project based on well-defined success criteria. When organised and in place, there is less impact on the normal school day and the project can be run year on year.

Some points to consider with classroom-based models are: How much development time will be required by teachers to ensure each discipline is ready? Which will be the lead discipline? Would it benefit learners to launch the project during an assembly? How much time and space will be needed to bring the project together at the end so that pupils can showcase their work? What will be the success criteria at the start of the project and how will this be embedded with relevant skills and CfE Curriculum experiences and outcomes? How can the project be developed to ensure that pupils can be creative?

IDL should not involve random subject collaborations dictated by a pre-existing timetable, or rebranding and 'bolting-on' of existing materials. Good IDL requires faculty ownership, identifiable budgets, timetable priority, preparation and assessment. Additional full-time equivalent (FTE) costs of collaborative working should be recognised. Disciplinary knowledge should be evident to learners and not lost within the interdisciplinary learning context.

Anecdotal evidence from primary STEM IDL (Beveridge, pers comm) highlights the dangers of the science getting lost within the project context or narrative to the point that learners do not recognise that they have learned any science. There may be areas of science that are better taught as more traditional disciplinary science rather than within IDL projects and contexts. Experience and good judgement are required.

IDL Beyond the classroom: Engaging disengaged learners and bridging the attainment gap

Poverty is a prime cause of educational disengagement and disadvantage. Many countries are trying to close the gap in educational attainment between their poorest and richest pupils, and between schools in the most and least deprived areas.

Improving educational attainment is now a top priority of the Scottish government. With more than one-in-five children in Scotland being recognised as living in poverty - a figure that is significantly higher than other European countries (Scottish Government 2014) - by the age of 5, children in poverty lag between 10 and 13 months behind their more affluent peers in attainment and school readiness (Sosu and Ellis 2014).

Identifying new ways of engaging disengaged learners is one of the challenges of 21st-century education, one that is of fundamental importance to the improvement of Scotland's workforce.

Beyond the formal curriculum and the classroom, IDL as a component of school improvement has particular relevance to the challenge of engaging disengaged learners, providing alternative ways of encouraging them to participate actively in their learning. IDL encourages team building and other soft skills and values such as resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity that will benefit all pupils, but especially the disengaged.

Providing an alternative curriculum and engagement with employers increase the likelihood of disengaged pupils progressing to employment or training (Kettlewell et al 2012). Employers may become co-investors and co-designers of IDL projects, contributing to creating greater parity of esteem between academic and vocational sectors (Scottish Government 2014). Implementation of IDL creates an extra dynamic within the school system, building a rapport between staff and sharing resources between departments, and promoting an ethos of shared responsibility.

Group work on real-life scenarios encourages creativity and the use of literacy, numeracy and IT skills across the curriculum and beyond, and encourages collaboration and team building. Links between schools and local communities and employers develop an awareness of careers and life beyond school. It is here that IDL, the life of school as a community, and personal achievement converge, just as anticipated by the four contexts for learning of CfE.

Schemes such as the John Muir Award can provide additional motivation, personalisation and aspiration, promoting a 'hands-on' approach involving designing, building, creating - all higher-order thinking skills.

Learning in an interdisciplinary way

A key question about the fundamental nature of IDL, which has important implications for its delivery and assessment, is whether IDL is in essence simply a way of learning - learning in an interdisciplinary way. Yet approaches to the delivery of IDL discussed above may imply that it is distinct from subject learning and should be delivered as such, whereas it could and should be considered as a natural and complementary approach - or extension - to subject (disciplinary) learning. The importance of IDL as a way of learning that is integral with - rather than distinct from - subject learning needs to be recognised. This in turn presents a dilemma for the wider understanding, implementation and assessment of IDL. In order to promote understanding and implementation of IDL, it may be helpful for learners and teachers to undertake IDL initially as something distinct from disciplinary learning. The importance of seeing IDL as a way of learning that is integral with - rather than distinct from - subject learning needs to be recognised in its implementation. Exemplification of IDL in various curriculum contexts is therefore a key element of its development within the Scottish curriculum.

The pressure on teachers to implement CfE and progressively deliver the new qualifications has been severe. Nonetheless, IDL is one of four contexts for learning on which CfE is founded. Implementation of IDL remains at an early stage and is currently the subject of a national programme of action (see below). In order to both articulate and exemplify the nature of IDL and at the same time provide teachers and schools with valuable interdisciplinary and cross-curricular materials and resources, high-quality, practical resources are required that touch on all areas of the curriculum, encourage a culture of collaboration across disciplinary boundaries both within and schools and school clusters, and develop sustainable cohorts/groups of teachers in schools that are able to provide leadership in the progressive implementation of IDL.

Some Case Studies

Carbon Capture and Storage (Scottish Earth Science Education Forum (SESEF); SCDI Young Engineers and Science Clubs (level 3 Workshops) (Graham 2014)

Topical inter-disciplinary investigation of the science and technology underpinning the generation, transport and underground storage of carbon dioxide, and the rationale in relation to climate change.

Hands-on co-operative learning involving investigative role-play, leading to the construction of a miniature working carbon dioxide storage facility.

Disciplinary science and technology elements include combustion, properties of carbon dioxide, behaviour of gases at high pressure (Boyle's Law), properties of rocks (porosities), effects of carbon dioxide on aquatic life (pH), power generation (generators and turbines).

Incorporates numeracy and literacy elements and is supported by animations.

Delivered and evaluated in several different models and contexts, including teacher CPD, classroom delivery in secondary schools with cascading to feeder primaries, and pupil-led events at Edinburgh International Science Festival. Currently (2016) licensed to Young Engineers and Science Club (SCDI) for delivery across Scotland, and to four educational trusts across England and Wales.

Funded by industry (Scottish Power, OPITO, Shell) and Scottish Government.

IDL National Strategy Group

A long-term national programme of action supporting the development and delivery of IDL in STEM subjects has been established, bringing together representatives from key agencies and organisations across Scottish education in a National Action Group. Its purpose is to agree on the principles, conditions and support necessary to enable teachers to deliver and sustain IDL in Scottish education and, working in partnership, to implement these, building on existing good practice and thus improve young people's learning experiences and help them to develop the skills they will need in their further training and careers. Successful reform of learning, teaching, curriculum and assessment that includes IDL as a context for learning requires vision and systemic change, and this occurs only on decadal timescales.

A more extensive in-depth exploration of the nature, development and impact of IDL is contained in the STEMEC Report (2016).

Contributors and references

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Pillars and lintels: The What's, Why's, and How's of interdisciplinary learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An in-depth look into the what interdisciplinary learning is and its benefits to the education system, particularly Curriculum for Excellence.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Interdisciplinary Teaching Increases Student Learning

Engaging students and helping them to develop knowledge, insights, problem solving skills, self-confidence, self-efficacy, and a passion for learning are common goals that educators bring to the classroom, and interdisciplinary instruction and exploration promotes realization of these objectives. Repko (2009) asserts that interdisciplinary instruction fosters advances in cognitive ability and other educational researchers (Kavaloski 1979, Newell 1990, Field et al. 1994, Vess 2009) have identified a number of distinct educational benefits of interdisciplinary learning including gains in the ability to:

Recognize bias

Think critically

Tolerate ambiguity

Acknowledge and appreciate ethical concerns

Interdisciplinary Teaching Helps Students Uncover Preconceptions or Recognize Bias

Interdisciplinary instruction allows us to understand our preconceptions of "what is" and the framework by which we arrived at "what is." It also fits with recent advances in learning science about how to foster learning when students bring powerful pre-existing ideas with them to the learning process. Bransford (2000) drawing on scientific research findings from the fields of neuroscience, cognitive science, social psychology, and human development asserts that interdisciplinary forms of instruction,

Help students overcome a tendency to maintain preconceived notions. This is accomplished by recognizing the source of the preexisting understandings they arrive with, and by introducing students to subject matter from a variety of perspectives that challenge their existing notions. Interdisciplinary instruction accomplishes this goal in two ways. First, by helping students identifying insights from a range of disciplines that contribute to an understanding of the issue under consideration. Second, by helping students develop the ability to integrate concepts and ideas from these disciplines into a broader conceptual framework of analysis.

The Gain - when students put aside their pre-existing notions they position themselves to learn facts more readily and are more open to adopting a range of methodologies that promote understanding. Teachers can thus spend more time exploring issues with them that promote significant learning (for information on significant learning see the section below entitled Interdisciplinary Teaching Promotes Significant Learning).

Interdisciplinary Teaching Helps Advance Critical Thinking and Cognitive Development

Interdisciplinary instruction helps students develop their cognitive abilities - brain-based skills and mental processes that are needed to carry out tasks. Allen Repko (2009) identifies a number of cognitive attributes that interdisciplinary learning fosters. He asserts, that interdisciplinary learning helps students,

Acquire Perspective-Taking Techniques (Baloche, Hynes, and Berger 1996) - the capacity to understand multiple viewpoints on a given topic.

The Gain - students develop an appreciation of the differences between disciplines on how to approach a problem and their discipline specific rules regarding viable evidence. This leads to a broader understanding of the issue under investigation.

Develop Structural Knowledge - both declarative knowledge (factual information) and procedural knowledge (process-based information).

The Gain - each of these forms of knowledge are needed to solve complex problems. Thus, as students enhance their knowledge formation capacity, teachers can engage them in conversations dealing with more complex issues.

Integrate conflicting insights from alternative disciplines.

The Gain - a host of disciplines attempt to understand the same or related problems, but each disciplines adopts different mechanisms of analysis and approaches to evaluating the viability of their insights. Obtaining a clear understanding of problems with roots in multiple disciplines requires the capacity to integrate ideas and this skill is advanced by interdisciplinary learning.

Interdisciplinary Teaching Helps Students Tolerate or Embrace Ambiguity

Interdisciplinary instruction helps students understand why conflicts commonly arise over; the causes and consequences of an issue and, the ideal way for policy to address the issue of concern. When learning is confined to a single disciplinary perspective ambiguity is often considered either a shortcoming of the analytical framework or evidence that assumptions need to be adopted to provide a clear prediction.

The Gain - interdisciplinary instruction advances the notion that ambiguity results from alternative perspectives on issues that are advanced by different disciplines rather than a shortcoming of a particular discipline. Thus, students acquire a better understanding of the complexity of problems of interest and the associated challenges of solving them.

Interdisciplinary Teaching Helps Students Appreciate Ethical Dimensions of Concerns

Interdisciplinary instruction helps students understand that there are ethical dimensions to most issues of concern. Ethical considerations entail moral concerns which means accounting for perceptions of right vs. wrong, good vs. bad, and the provision of justice. Many disciplines steer clear of such subjective phenomena and confine their analysis to more objective factors in an effort to be scientific.

The Gain - interdisciplinary instruction promotes the integration of ideas from relevant disciplines - including moral philosophy when exploring an issue so ethical considerations are often part of an interdisciplinary examination of an issue. This is useful since or perspectives on a question, and policy considerations are likely to include discussion and valuation of ethical factors.

Interdisciplinary Teaching Promotes Significant Learning

Significant Learning (Fink, 2003) takes place when meaningful and lasting classroom experiences occur. According to Fink when teachers impart students with a range of skills, and insights about the educational process that students will see as meaningful and salient to them they promote student engagement in the learning process and greater learning occurs. Fink identifies 6 elements of the educational process that lead to significant learning and each of these is a common feature of interdisciplinary forms of instruction.

Foundational Knowledge - acquiring information and understanding ideas

Application - acquiring an understanding of how and when to use skills

Integration - the capacity to connect ideas

Human Dimension - recognition of the social and personal implications of issues

Caring - acknowledgment of the role of feelings, interests, and values

Learning How-to-Learn - obtaining insights into the process of learning

The Gain - Interdisciplinary instruction fosters the acquisition of foundational knowledge, promotes integration of ideas from multiple disciplines and provides insight on how to apply knowledge all of which advance a students understanding of how to learn. Moreover, students are encouraged to account for the contribution of disciplines that highlight the roles of caring and social interaction when analyzing problems. Thus, the very structure of interdisciplinary learning is consistent with the core features of significant learning, so students are expected to find interdisciplinary education engaging and thus an effective way to advance their understanding of topics under investigation.

Interdisciplinary Teaching Promotes Understanding when Students Learn in Heterogeneous Ways

Prominent psychologist Howard Gardner (1983) established that students bring multiple forms of intelligence to the learning process. As a result, given that students are heterogeneous in their learning styles and have diverse backgrounds, interests, experiences, talents, and values, he believes that drawing on a broad array of frameworks and methodologies will enhance student engagement, and thus learning.

The Gain - Interdisciplinary instruction opens academic conversations to ideas from a range of disciplines so all students should be able to relate and contribute to the dialogue. Thus, the likelihood of connecting with the full array of the students in the classroom is enhanced by interdisciplinary learning.

The World is Interdisciplinary

According to The National Council for Teachers of English (NCTE 1995) "educational experiences are more authentic and of greater value to students when the curricula reflects real life, which is multi-faceted rather than being compartmentalized into neat subject-matter packages." In their view, real-world problems are complex, so no single discipline can adequately describe and resolve these issues. Therefore, they are not surprised that interdisciplinary forms of learning are prevalent and growing in abundance and stature throughout higher education (Edwards, 1996, Gaff & Ratclif, 1997, and Liein, 1996).

The Gain - students recognize that there are a variety of perspectives what can be brought to bear in an effort to understand most issues. Thus, they find interdisciplinary forms of exploration more compelling, which promotes engagement and learning.

In summary, the emerging popularity of interdisciplinary teaching is grounded in the student gains that various researchers have identified.

Interdisciplinary Teaching is Not Too Costly and It's Rewarding

Moving from a disciplinary oriented form of teaching to being an interdisciplinary educator is not too costly for four reasons. First, most educators are familiar with the methodologies and empirical practices of related disciplines so acquiring the necessary cross disciplinary knowledge to become an interdisciplinary teacher will not be overly stressful or time consuming. Second, most educators are familiar with task modeling - an instructional strategy that promotes learning through observation - which is fundamental to interdisciplinary teaching since most students are unfamiliar with interdisciplinary approaches to learning, so instructors do not have to learn an entirely new form of pedagogy. Third, synthesis of insights from across disciplines, the most demanding element of interdisciplinary teaching, is an activity that most scholar-educators have engaged in previously or can learn to do with modest effort. Finally, instructors can determine the share of the course that is interdisciplinary, so they insert into their course the level of interdisciplinarity that is ideal for them given their experience with this form of teaching and the nature of the course they are leading.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Teach with an Interdisciplinary Approach?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Engaging students and helping them to develop knowledge, insights, problem solving skills, self-confidence, self-efficacy, and a passion for learning are common goals that educators bring to the classroom, and interdisciplinary instruction and exploration promotes realization of these objectives. Repko (2009) asserts that interdisciplinary instruction fosters advances in cognitive ability and other educational researchers (Kavaloski 1979, Newell 1990, Field et al.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Interdisciplinary education: a case study

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
(2018). Interdisciplinary education: a case study. European Journal of Engineering Education: Vol. 43, No. 6, pp. 842-859.

# data[].attributes.headline
IDL in Higher Education - Process and Outcomes

# data[].attributes.subject
IDL in Higher Education - Process and Outcomes

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
IDL Day Co-Design 16 March Full Slidedeck

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
IDL Day Torphican and Westfield primary schools

# data[].attributes.headline
4 L's retrospective on the original paper

# data[].attributes.subject
4 L's retrospective on the original paper

# data[].attributes.body
On behalf of Heather Grant

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Interdisciplinary learning

Scotland has always had Interdisciplinary learning (IDL) as a component part of the curriculum offer - it sits as one of the four contexts.

Over session 2019/20, Education Scotland has worked with No Tosh, practitioners and partners using a design-thinking process to understand how we can realise our ambitions for IDL.

Download paper: PDF file: Interdisciplinary Learning: ambitious learning for a complex world.

In session 2020/21, we will build on the thinking and suggestions in the paper. This will include co-creating tools, resources and practices that build on the thinking and principles in the paper. We will share examples of how schools and partners are being ambitious through the development of bold IDL experiences.

We want to use this current period as an opportunity to begin the re-focus on IDL and what it can offer our children and young people. Now, maybe more than ever, schools need to be places where young people learn and develop rich knowledge and the skills to thrive in a future which is increasingly unpredictable.

The first case study is from Hazlehead School, Aberdeen, who share their whole school IDL approach during Term 4.
PDF file: Hazlehead School - case study (149 KB)Wakelet with resources to support Hazlehead School's IDL IDL at Grove Academy
We will be developing the following IDL opportunities:

Thriving in challenging circumstances with reference to current issues of COVID-19;

Creative Bravery with an opportunity to join the Creative Bravery Festival which will run from 21-27 September, 2020;

Scotland's Culture with a focus on creativity and the arts;

Sustainability with a focus on Learning for sustainability.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Fresh approaches to interdisciplinary learning

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Scotland has always had Interdisciplinary learning (IDL) as a component part of the curriculum offer - it sits as one of the four contexts. Over session 2019/20, Education Scotland has worked with No Tosh, practitioners and partners using a design-thinking process to understand how we can realise our ambitions for IDL.

# data[].attributes.headline
Link to the invitation to respond to the Hayward recommendations

# data[].attributes.subject
Link to the invitation to respond to the Hayward recommendations

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Professor Hayward Recommendations - What do you think?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Please take the time to complete our survey. Your feedback is important.