In his literature class, Mr. Cline gives students the dates of the birth and death of a famous author, and asks them to figure out how old the author was when she died.
Silence falls over the class as students scratch their heads in frustration.
This phenomena can be directly tied to the ways in which students initially learn information. In an educational era where tremendous emphasis is placed upon specialized knowledge, the segregated clustering of subject area instruction often prevents students from identifying important interconnections among the subjects they study. The challenge for teachers is to find a healthy and meaningful balance between curricular breadth and depth. The long history of research on the ways in which students learn provides a strong rationale for the value of interdisciplinary instruction. More recent research in cognitive science strongly supports this view.