Lesson integration focused on problem solving
Elvyrava Basic School of Kelmė District
Programme: Change Schools, School Year 2014-2015
Creative agent: Mantas Žalkauskas, trainer at NGO “Kuriančios bendruomenės”
Creative practitioners: Andrius Guginis, journalist, and Simonas Saarmann, geologist
Coordinating teacher: Rasa Skrodenienė, Lithuanian language teacher
Enquiry question
In their final year of the project, teachers of Elvyrava Basic School and creative practitioners focused on getting a good grasp of lesson integration. This year, the enquiry question was defined to be lesson integration on a systematic level through improving teachers’ competencies in developing creative lesson design.
Discussions with teachers revealed causes why some of them are reluctant to use creative learning methods in their lessons: some teachers think this would be an obstacle in preparing students for standardised tests, as they see no distinction between methods for stimulating creativity and games. Others say that creative lessons require a lot of preparation.
In order to help all teachers see the benefits of creative teaching, a Leader’s Group was established in the school at the start of the new school year. It was made up of teachers who regularly employed creative teaching methods. This group provided advice to other teachers, helped them choose methods, ways of working, and organised open lessons for colleagues.
Project activities
As integrated lessons are often perceived to be a non-everyday, festive activity, they were held quite rarely in Elvyrava Basic School. They were mostly organised during “integration days” that were dedicated to cultural or sightseeing activities. The integration was only focused on specific topics.
Instead of thematic similarity, the team of creative practitioners chose a problem connected to students’ competences as the basis for lesson integration. They invited the teachers to look for solutions in other subjects’ approaches. For instance, if students find it hard to understand the properties of geometric figures, physical education lessons can be used to play around with various geometrical forms by standing in triangles, squares, etc.
According to creative practitioner A. Guginis, these types of integration are highly beneficial – both teachers and students are happy with them. The practitioner said that during the Teacher’s Club meetings the teachers would collect problems that arise during their lessons into a “problem pool”. Later, a discussion was held to cooperate on spotting similarities between problems and have a coherent reflection.
A problem integration takes place when a teacher refines a problem – not one specifically related to a subject, but rather a general skill, e.g. students can’t classify based on a certain characteristic, have trouble describing a text’s key points, its essence, don’t recognise geometrical figures in the environment, can’t reason, have no orientation skills, etc. A teacher of another subject is sought to help solve the problem.
For instance, sixth graders had a hard time at IT lessons with beginner-level programming tasks of leading a turtle, so the physical education teacher held orientation exercises in the yard that mimicked the way the turtle moved in the computer programme. Having completed them and gained an understanding of finding a path through space according to directions, or steps, the students tried to do the same on a computer.
Or – seventh graders have a good grasp on the fact that animals are divided into vertebrates and invertebrates based on one main characteristic – the spine. After revising this with their biology teacher, students used their knowledge to divide words into parts of speech – after all, one characteristic needs to be recognised here, too.
“Tenth graders weren’t good at analysing historical sources, but at Lithuanian lessons they did well with finding keywords to create texts, formulate the main point, so an integrated lesson was used to explain that they can employ these skills when learning to analyse historical sources. It appears that the same methods really work. This was beneficial not just for students, but teachers too – when planning their own lessons, they could learn from one another and use methods and ways of working that were already tested and proven to be successful by their colleagues.” Coordinating teacher Rasa Skrodienė.
Integrated lessons were chosen to be the heart of this project because the school’s community had a clear understanding that it is essential to give the opportunity to students to build knowledge of an interconnected world.
An exemplary week’s model
Special planning sessions were held to group problems that teachers experienced when teaching a subject or a theme (they could also be general, repetitive problems that separate classes experienced year after year).
“At a cooperation session, teachers present a problem they’re facing in detail, while other teachers analyse it through the prism of their subjects. A discussion helps bridge gaps between different subjects and contexts, and the problem can be seem from different perspectives. Ideas on joining various subjects are raised, and partnerships are formed among teachers who hadn’t previously worked together. Problems are usually raised in a discussion until all teachers have had a chance to talk and share the challenges they face”. Creative agent Mantas Žalkauskas.
After discussing all challenges at a special planning session, teachers divided into smaller groups based on the integrated subjects. This way, two or three teachers who planned to integrate a lesson, began a detailed preparation and examined details.
At this point, creative practitioners were especially active and helped teachers to join disciplines in the simplest way possible. Practitioners shared insights, experience, methods and useful tools they had gathered while working at schools. This made lessons feel more tangible and helped create a concrete plan that was presented at the end of the session.
After completing the planning session, teachers had a week left before their integrated lessons were due to take place. This time was used for meetings and working out the remaining details. It promoted the teachers’ independence and activity even without the creative being involved.
M. Žalkauskas was glad that after the first integrated days had taken place, teachers came to the special planning sessions with their problems already defined, and a preliminary idea of who they’ll work with – this showed a growing level of staff involvement.
The lessons took place naturally, only the school bell rang at different times due to a change in lesson length. The aim was to make this common practice in the school so that students don’t associate this activity with a sort of holiday when they can be less serious about their duties. Simultaneously, teachers were reminded to offer in-depth views, concentrate on the subject and the methods, rather than an attractive presentation.
At integrated lessons, teachers worked interchangeably or held the lesson together to explain one theme through various points of view. Everyday tools that the school already owned were used during lessons, with the aim of not creating a big gap after the creative professionals have left, preventing passiveness and a loss of inspiration. The integrated day ended with a Teacher’s Club where the successes and failures in the process and necessary changes were discussed. Teachers shared insights, new ideas and their experiences.
