C35 (Intro): Transdisciplinary Learning 101

by Lu Gerlach

Welcome to transdisciplinary learning!

Now that we've had a chance to look back and apply our thinking, it's time to challenge ourselves again.  You heard me...we are returning to where we started and creating a five session challenge!  These episodes will help us to sharpen our skill set and reflect on how we can improve our transdisciplinary practice. 

The challenge will have two parts to differentiate based on where you are on your PYP journey.
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• Part A: we will review the big ideas of each part of transdisciplinary learning, so everyone is on the same page.  If you already have a solid understanding of that part of transdisciplinary learning, then feel free to skip it and go straight to the challenge. 

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• Part B:  we will complete a challenge and post it on Twitter @thinkchat2020 or LinkedIn @Lu Gerlach

What is transdisciplinary learning? 

You will hear many iterations of transdisciplinary learning, but my favorite is this explanation.

Traditional learning can be compared to a dinner plate.  Each compartment of the place is a different subject area:  reading, writing, math, science, and social studies.  They all have the same goal of feed our minds with new information and experiences, but they have different purposes and there is very little connection between them. 

Interdisciplinary learning can be compared to a salad.  It's one dish, but the separate parts work together to nourish our mind.  The various subject areas work in partnership such as:  math and science and the humanities with language arts and social studies.  This type of learning helps to make connections between two or more subjects, but it can still be limited in depth at the PYP level. 

​Transdisciplinary learning can be compared to a cake.  All of the parts of the dish are blended together and you can't tell where one ends and the other begins.  This is our target.  We want all of the subjects to be blended together, because this is how we solve problems in the real-world.  There is no reading block or unit of inquiry time.  

PYP Transdisciplinary Themes

To achieve transdisciplinary learning, we align our learning and teaching with the PYP six transdisciplinary themes.  These themes provide a lens on how we look at the content we are teaching and provide an anchor as we connect to different areas (PYP From Principles into Practice:  Learning and Teaching).

Units of Inquiry

All of the learning is based on these six transdisciplinary themes.  We wrap our content standards/ guidelines to fall under the various themes and use concepts from the descriptor to guide our process.  More information about that process will be in our next challenge.  

For grades PK-Kindergarten, we will only have to teach four units of inquiry in a given school year.  They must teach WHO WE ARE and HOW WE EXPRESS OURSELVES in those four units.  These themes are developmentally appropriate for the age and work well with curriculum guidelines. The general timeline is four units at nine weeks in length, but the timeline is flexible.

For grades 1-6, we teach all six units of inquiry in a school year.  

All units of inquiry must be taught within a school year, but how that looks is up to your team and school. The general rule that most follow is to teach each unit for about six weeks.  This is not a fixed timeline, because that is driven by learner inquiries.  I've taught units that are eight weeks long and others that are four.  You cannot have a unit less than 3-4 weeks long per PYP guidelines. 

The units of inquiry can taught in any order. There are campuses where all the grade levels teach the same theme at the same time, but this is not the norm.  I think this might make it easier for the specialist teachers to connect to the classroom content, but it may be a force fit for the classroom teachers and learners.  We want the units to be developmentally appropriate for the time of year and based on learner abilities and interests. 

The Look and Feel of Transdisciplinary Learning

When you walk around a school that is transdisicplinary, you see learners:

• Asking questions that can be explored from multiple vantage points
• Developing an understanding of the world by using a wide variety of texts
• All time is dedicated to learning through various subjects
• Big ideas are re-visited throughout the day to provide multiple iterations
• Everyone in the school speaks the PYP language naturally

These are a few of the earmarks of a transdisciplinary campus.  Now, let's take the challenge to assess your campus!