The Multidisciplinary Learning Grid: A Conceptual Space to Develop Neuropedagogy-based, Arts-integrated Chemistry Activities

Debora Marchak, Inna Shvarts-Serebro

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

Memory and learning are strongly affected by the context and circumstances in which they arise and which define the learning experience. In class, this experience is dictated by the tasks that students are asked to perform. Thus, the process of developing learning activities directly affects how learning will take place. The learning grid can be seen as a conceptual space that supports the development of learning tasks, mainly by teachers and educational content developers. The learning grid is the space that ultimately gives rise to the context and circumstances of future learning experiences. Traditional one-dimensional grids offer learning experiences that appeal to single modes of learning, generally cognitive-rational only, leaving the learner to process information solely through cognitive-rational processing pathways. By creating multidimensional learning grids, educators can offer the learner a richer learning experience, one that includes cognitive-rational, multisensory, and affective channels through which to process content. In order to expand the learning grid concept to the fullest, we can design multidimensional grids that are also multidisciplinary and integrate information processing pathways by merging different disciplines. In this chapter we introduce a three-dimensional learning grid that stems from the intersection between Chemistry, Neuropedagogy, and Art. This grid forms the core of a creative approach to teaching high-school chemistry; it was developed to facilitate the understanding and integration of content, given the abstract nature of the subject, which requires that students master visualization skills and multi-level thinking. This chapter begins with an introduction to the relevant frameworks on which the grid was designed. Then, the emergent neuropedagogy-based, arts-integrating methodologies for teaching chemistry are described and analyzed, including examples of activities developed by this approach and students’ relevant learning outcomes. These activities illustrate how this conceptual grid can be translated from theory to practice, and how it is being implemented in some high-school chemistry classrooms (in Israel). We think that educators from other subject areas would also benefit from adopting the idea of the multidisciplinary learning grid as a scaffold for designing meaningful learning experiences.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationThe Arts of the Grid
Subtitle of host publicationInterdisciplinary Insights on Gridded Modalities in Conversation with the Arts
Publisherde Gruyter
Pages204-224
Number of pages21
ISBN (Electronic)9783110733228
ISBN (Print)9783110738063
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2021
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.

Keywords

  • Chemistry teaching
  • arts-integration
  • multidimensional learning grid
  • neuropedagogy

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