A tool for planning multidisciplinary teacher collaboration and project-based learning

ABSTRACT

In education, a multidisciplinary approach is needed in order to address many of today’s multifaceted challenges. Though multidisciplinary educational approaches have been shown to have benefits on learning, many studies show that teachers often struggle to implement multidisciplinary education, partially due to lack of time and planning. To overcome the challenges related to implementation, a clear format to plan multidisciplinary education is called for. This article presents a tool named the Planning Canvas to guide teachers in the planning process. Lending from business development, project management and educational theory and practice, the Planning Canvas was created to help teachers and school principals plan multidisciplinary education in a structured manor, using guiding questions. The Canvas was tested among a small cohort of experienced teachers and results show that the tool helped the teachers conceptualise and plan multidisciplinary education more effectively. Implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Planning canvas
• multidisciplinary education
• integrated education
• problem-based learning
• phenomena-based learning

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sakari Tolppanen

Sakari Tolppanen’s research interests focus on climate change and sustainability education. He is also an entrepeneur and believes that the education sector and the business sector should learn from each others best practices.