Disadvantages Of Cross-Curricular Links

Conversely, there are issues with adopting cross – curricular approaches to develop creativity which also need to be considered. The first issue to be considered relates to teachers planning cross – curricular approaches in lessons. Many theorists hold the belief that links between certain subjects are increasingly easier to make than those with other subjects. For example, links between science and design and technology might be more achievable whereas it might be more difficult to make links between geography and music (Hayes, 2010). Even if the links are made educators might imply that it is too difficult to achieve subject progression when cross – curricular links are planned so that creative outcomes can be achieved (Barnes, 2011). Teachers

Hence, it is often found that fewer opportunities are provided for children to explore other subjects in greater detail. This leads to many teachers ‘teaching to the test’ or teaching specifically so that levels of achievement are raised in these two subjects. This can result in the belief that when subjects are taught discretely then knowledge is embedded into pupils aiding them to learn more effectively (Carroll and McCulloch, 2014). One major drawback of this is that all children in every class have different needs and might favour other ways of learning than the ones that have been adopted by the class teacher. For example, children who may learn more by taking part in an activity might not value learning which takes place when visual stimulus is used. One of the key teachers’ standards is standard 5 which states that teachers must be able to ‘Adapt teaching to respond to the strengths and needs of all pupils’ (DfE, 2011). For this reason, numerous teaching and learning strategies have been planned into the MTP which should respond to the strengths and needs of all learners. These vary from taking part in an activity by reading through a resource, assessment, listening to and watching a

Modelling is a teaching medium which is used throughout schools and beyond the classroom especially as part of the introduction and main activity in lessons. Pritchard (2014) expresses that children have different ways of learning. When modelling is used as a thinking and learning strategy then children are seeing how something is done to repeat the process but in a different way and can ask questions. This method is essential for creativity to take place and for children who see themselves as pupils who learn from active participation. Beard and Wilson (2015: 246) state that ‘verbal expressive creativity is a powerful medium for generating self – expression and creativity’. The teacher can show children different resources such as the images which are a part of the art resource and the video which has been created for Design and Technology. The video can be watched several times by the children and they can be asked to share ideas concentrating on what their sandwich will look like hence generating verbal expressive creativity. The children will also be using their imagination to make decisions which should result in a new idea being identified. Modelling can also be a powerful tool which allows children to benefit from demonstration and explanation (Allington and Cunningham, 2010). With relevance to modelling in Design and Technology, the plenary of the lesson and success criteria focuses on children evaluating their own