Interdisciplinary teaching is a teaching method that incorporates content from multiple disciplines. It entails the integration or synthesis of data from various disciplines in order to provide insights, answers, or ideas that could not be obtained focusing on a single discipline alone. Interdisciplinary teaching is possible and common at all levels of education, from elementary to graduate school.
Interdisciplinary teaching brings together multiple disciplines through a common theme, problem to solve, issue, topic, or process. The key is that the synthesis of knowledge from multiple disciplines results in a higher level of learning. Interdisciplinary teaching can be accomplished a single teacher who draws from a variety of disciplines or a group of teachers working together in a process known as team teaching.
Multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and cross-disciplinary teaching must be distinguished from interdisciplinary teaching. Multidisciplinary teaching simply aims to bring more than one perspective to an issue, problem, or idea, whereas interdisciplinary teaching aims to generate ideas and understandings that are more comprehensive than a single discipline alone generates. Multidisciplinary education is thus additive, whereas interdisciplinary education is integrative.
Transdisciplinary education teaches holistic concepts that go beyond disciplinary boundaries to investigate the dynamics of whole systems. Transdisciplinary approaches include Marxism, world systems theory, and structuralism, to name a few. Cross-disciplinary teaching, for example, looks at one discipline from the perspective of another, such as science history. There isn’t the same level of integration or synthesis of ideas in cross-disciplinary teaching as there is in interdisciplinary teaching.
Interdisciplinary teaching has many advantages because students learn to integrate information from various perspectives to form a more sophisticated understanding. Interdisciplinary teaching, according to experts, improves student motivation and learning. Students learn to apply, transfer, and integrate information more effectively in interdisciplinary classes than in classes that strictly follow disciplinary lines.
Experts in the field, however, warn of potential issues, such as creating a course with units that sample discipline-specific knowledge without any real integration of coursework across disciplines. Another issue is that not all teachers are equipped to teach interdisciplinary classes. When the ideas expressed or supported one discipline are challenged another, resulting in conflict or disagreement, some teachers may become defensive. Careful course and activity design, as well as the inclusion of both discipline-specific and interdisciplinary activities for students, can solve both problems. It’s also important to choose teachers who are open to new ideas and debate.