What is interdisciplinary learning?
Interdisciplinary teaching is a method of teaching that includes material from more than one discipline. This includes the integration or synthesis of information from multiple disciplines to provide knowledge, answers or ideas that could not be achieved by focusing on only one discipline. Interdisciplinary teaching can and occurs at all levels of education, from elementary school to postgraduate school. The key is that a higher level of learning is due to the synthesis of knowledge of more than one discipline. Interdisciplinary teaching can be achieved by a single teacher drawing on multiple disciplines or coordination of more than one teacher in a process known as team teaching. Where interdisciplinary learning hopes to create thoughts and understanding that are more complex than the discipline itself, multidisciplinary learning simply hopes to bring more than one perspective to a problem, problem or idea. In this way, multidisciplinary teaching is additive, while interdisciplinary teaching is integrative.
Transdisciplinary teaching provides holistic concepts to exceed disciplinary differences and study the dynamics of whole systems. Marxism, the theory of world systems and structuralism are several examples of transdisciplinary approaches. The interdisciplinary learning examines one discipline from the other point of view, for example from the history of science. There is no same level of integration or synthesis of ideas in interdisciplinary teaching as it would be in interdisciplinary teaching.
There are many advertising associated with interdisciplinary teaching because students learn to integrate information from different perspectives to create a more sophisticated understanding. Experts suggest that interdisciplinary teaching increases students motivation and improves learning. During interdisciplinary teaching, students learn to apply, convert and integrate information more efficiently than in classes that follow firmly disciplinaryline.
what has been said, field experts warn against potential problems, including the development of the course with units that sample knowledge specific to discipline without any actual integration of the course between disciplines. Another problem is that not all teachers are cut as interdisciplinary instructors. Some teachers may feel defensive when ideas expressed or supported by their own discipline are attacked by others, leading to conflict or disagreement. Both problems can be overcome by a careful design of the course and activity and incorporate discipline -specific and interdisciplinary activities for students. Collection of teachers who are open to new ideas and debate can also be critical.