Multi-Perspective Interdisciplinary Teaching In Primary Schools

By Professor Dr Daniela Schmeinck, University of Cologne

‘Sachunterricht’ is Germany’s approach to integrated studies in primary schools to enable young students to acquire multiple perspectives across different disciplines in preparation for specific subjects in secondary schools.

Children do not perceive the world and its phenomena through the professional eyes of the biologist, the technician, the physicist or the historian. Neither Rather, they perceive a phenomenon for the first time, when teachers present it to them in the classroom with a specific didactic intention and from a specific subject perspective. They usually have a lot of previous experience with the phenomena, the subject and/ or the topic. These previous experiences shape their everyday perception of things. These previous experiences (also sensations, valuations, attitudes etc.) are attached to the things and– from the point of view of the learners – a part of them. Only by linking new information or learning content to these previous experiences, the new information becomes a meaningful learning object, manifested e.g.for example in likes and dislikes, individual approaches or in particular interest in individual aspects.

In 1992, Klafki described, in his reflection on contemporary general education in primary school and the educational mandate of primary school science and social science (in German, Sachunterricht), the following six epochal characteristic key problems of society:

1) the question of war and peace;

2) the environmental question/the ecological question;

3) the rapid growth of the world population;

4) the socially produced inequality;

5) the threats and opportunities of the new technical control, information and communication media;

6) the subjectiveness of the individual and the phenomenon of the me-you relationship against the background of the tension between individual aspirations for happiness, interpersonal responsibility and the recognition of the other.(Klafki, 1992).

Even the six epochal characteristic key problems of society, described by Klafki cannot be explained or even solved by a single subject discipline.Our world is dominated by complex connections and tasks. Even in the early years of elementary school, teachers should therefore prepare their learners for their current and future life in this increasingly globalized world.

For children to be able to gain the necessary and fundamental insights these on complex topics, such as mobility, sustainability and climate change, specially selected curriculum, examples, and pedagogies are needed. Such curriculum, examples, and pedagogies will enable them to begin to understand the complexity and the mutual interdependence of environment, society and economy. Appropriate connections with the relevant subject disciplines are therefore indispensable. Effective teaching and learning must enable the children to‘see’ the links and relevance’s to their general and individual living experiences. The challenge for today’s teacher educators and todays classroom teachers is to develop pedagogical practices that will enable these this awareness’s and understandings to develop.

Multi-perspective/ interdisciplinary teaching is a fundamental principle of teaching primary school science and social science in Germany (Kohnlein 1999, 2011; Kohnlein et al. 2013).The concept of multi-perspective/ inter disciplinary teaching attempts to open up contents from several scientific perspectives and thus to bring their respective educational values to bear. At the same time, each child should be given individually significant access to the object. Doing so, the multi-perspective teaching approach additionally provides numerous connections to the scientific perspectives of secondary school subjects.

In order to fulfil both the connectivity towards the subject disciplines of secondary schools, as well as the life experiences and interests of the children, the Perspective Framework for General Studies in Primary Education distinguishes the following five different perspectives within both the thematic areas, as well as the ways of thinking, working and acting:

• the social science perspective (politics – economy – social issues);
• the nature science perspective (animate and inanimate nature);
• the geographical perspective (spaces – natural basis – living conditions);
• the historical perspective (time – change);
• the technological perspective (technology – work). (GDSU 2013, 14)

These five perspectives must not be regarded as separate and independent of one another. The simple addition of the different perspectives in the form of separate, perspective-related contents does not meet the multi-perspective approach required in the Perspective Framework. Luhmann (1985) notes in this respect that one cannot assume that the World of things itself is arranged by the scheme of scientific disciplines (Luhmann 1985/2004, 12).

In order to fulfil the living worlds of children and thus their complex lifeworld issues, the various perspectives need to be meaningfully interconnected within the subject’s lessons. Multi-perspectivity inter-related with a meaningful interconnectedness, therefore, is the constitutive characteristic of primary school science and social science in Germany.

Within the described multi-perspective approach, children become enabled to learn systematically and reflectively as well as being empowered to shape their own environment. They get fundamental insides into the complex situations, problematic areas and into the mutual interdependence of environment, society and economy. Additionally, the approach presented in this paper enables the connectivity towards the subject disciplines of secondary schools as well as the life experiences and interests of the children, and thus contributes to developing the necessary requirements for present and future learning in children (Schmeinck 2012, 2017).

To be able to teach this multi-perspective approach in an appropriate way, those teachers teaching the subject require competencies in all the different perspective areas. Therefore teacher-training institutions need to make a common effort to guarantee that these professional prerequisites are met (Schmeinck 2017).

References

Klafki, W. (1992). Allgemeinbildung in der Grundschule und der Bildungsauftrag des Sachunterrichts. In R. Lauterbach et al. (Eds.). Brennpunkte des Sachunterrichts. (pp. 11-31). Kiel: IPN.

Kohnlein, W. (1999): Vielperspektivisches Denken - eine Einleitung. In: Kohnlein, Walter/ Marquardt-Mau, Brunhilde/ Schreier, Helmut (Hrsg.): Vielperspektivisches Denken im Sachunterricht. Forschungen zur Didaktik des Sachunterrichts, Band 3. Bad Heilbrunn: Klinkhardt.

Köhnlein, W. (2011): Die Bildungsaufgaben des Sachunterrichts und der genetische Zugriff auf die Welt. URL: http://www.gdsu.de/gdsu/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/koehnlein_1_11_a. pdf [01.05.2018].

Köhnlein, W.; Marquardt-Mau, B.; Duncker, L. (2013): Vielperspektivität. In: Vielperspektivität. URL: http://www.widerstreit-sachunterricht.de/ebeneII/viel.pdf [01.05.2018].

Luhmann, N. (1985/2004). Erziehender Unterricht als Interaktionssystem. In N. Luhmann (Ed.). Schriften zur Pädagogik. (pp. 11-22). Frankfurt a. Main: Suhrkamp.

Schmeinck, D. (2012): “City and Living” - A multi perspective approach. In: Primary Geography. S. 24-25.

Schmeinck, D. (2017): Overcome borders – an integrated subject approach for teaching for teaching science and social science in primary school. In: Catling, S. (Ed.): Reflections on Primary Geography

The 20th charney primary geography conference 2017. (=The Register of Research in Primary Geography), S. 128-131.