Humes (2013) - Moran said it is a term of ambiguity and slipperiness which is not made easier by the existence of related terms multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary and transdisciplinary
(Moran, J. (2010) Interdisciplinarity: the new critical idiom, 2nd edition, London: Routledge.)

Moran (2010) Interdisciplinary is always transformative in some way (BARTHES AND MORAN 1977)

Harvie (2020) Disciplines are things like maths, language, science (not necessarily school subjects). they are taught separately in Scotland

Harvie (2020) teaching disciplines can lead to difficulty for secondary students making connections between disciplines (as highlighted in the Munn Report (1977) which helped structure secondary schools in Scotland

Harvie (2020). Beane (1997) and Jacobs (1989) accept Meeth’s (1978) definition of a multi-disciplinary curriculum as that of involving the juxtaposition of several disciplines focused on one task but with no direct attempt to integrate (Dowden, 2007). (also RSE definitions)

 The starting point is a problem or challenge which is too broad to be dealt with by one discipline alone and challenging enough to promote cognitive advancement.

 The IDL activity should be purposeful, meaningful and relevant to the students.

 There should be a grounding in two or more disciplines in order to draw upon them to address the interdisciplinary task.

 During the interdisciplinary process knowledge from the different disciplines is applied and integrated in the mind of the learners.

 Content-centred approaches begin the curriculum design process and the subject matter which has be covered. Fogarty (1991) provides a useful paradigm to consider.

student-centred pedagogies have their foundations in the work done by Dewey from the end of the 19th Century up until the 1930s, when forms of ‘organic education’ began to emerge. Dewey’s curriculum design recognised the relationship between student learning and social environment and experience, placing the student and their community at the heart of the curriculum rather than subject matter

Harvie 2020 teacher need to adapt to facilitaor roles helping student to collaborate and become self-directed learners

Harvie(2020) o Klaassen (2019) agrees that when designing interdisciplinary courses ‘the problem’ should be central to the learning outcomes

Harvie (2020)o Boix-Mansilla (2017) asserts that what differentiates interdisciplinary approaches from disciplinary or multi-disciplinary ones is the integration or synthesis of knowledge which takes place. Integration is embedded in the whole investigative, interdisciplinary process and is not just an end product (Holbrook 2013)

Ivanitskaya (2002) IDL is characterised by the integration of mutlidisciplinary knowledge across a central theme or focus

Harvie(2020) o The interdisciplinary approach then is one which propels students to draw on their existing disciplinary knowledge and skills (from two or more disciplines), in order to complete a sufficiently challenging activity or problem which they have been set or have set for themselves.

• IDL teachers organise curriculum around common learning across disciplines. Usually include a problem question. Includes an integration of knowledge that focuses on personal ideas pupils develop

• IDL is characterised by discussion, cooperative learning and group work

Helmane & Briska (2017) multidisciplinary is a focus and organising standards on disciplines around a theme

Applebee (2007)- Different authors have used terms such as integrated, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, cross-disciplinary, and meta-disciplinary without much consensus about the nature of the phenomenon being described(to describe interdisciplinary learning)

Education Scotland (2012) is a planned approach to learning which uses links across different subjects or disciplines to enhance learning. It promotes the development and application of what has been taught and learned in new and different ways.

Education Scotland (2020) o Defining and agreeing what IDL is has been a source of discussion for some time and has an impact on its implementation in practice (use this to say the ambiguity is leading to confusion)

RSE 2023 - Disciplines are branches of learning characterised by distinct objects, concepts, principles, theories, skills, tools and applications, and comprise groupings of ‘like-minded’ people. they may be inward looking and failt o address relevant real-world problems

RSE 2023 IDL is often based on contextual problems that apply to the real world e.g. climate change

RSE 2023) Scotland must now compete in international marketplaces on an entirely different basis, with leading emerging economies poised to overtake the OECD economies through more rapid growth.
.
o The complexity of the challenges and problems facing mankind in the 21st century requires a global response. Global problems do not exist in isolation, and any attempt to solve one problem may exacerbate another (Weil 2014). Learners need to be able to understand complex, interconnected problems and systems and to collaborate to solve problems. In particular, learners need to learn how to question and impartially evaluate complex and contrary evidenc

RSE 2023 o Poverty is a prime cause of educational disengagement and disadvantage. Many countries are trying to close the gap in educational attainment between their poorest and richest pupils, and between schools in the most and least deprived areas.
o Improving educational attainment is now a top priority of the Scottish government. With more than one-in-five children in Scotland being recognised as living in poverty – a figure that is significantly higher than other European countries (Scottish Government 2014) – by the age of 5, children in poverty lag between 10 and 13 months behind their more affluent peers in attainment and school readiness (Sosu and Ellis 2014).

RSE 2023 o IDL encourages team building and other soft skills and values such as resilience, resourcefulness, reflectiveness and reciprocity that will benefit all pupils, but especially the disengaged.

Creativity (RSE, 2023/ Robinson ,2011/ Moran, 2010)

• Higher order skill in Blooms Taxonomy
• Foundation for Innovation - the process of putting ideas into practice

Real-world contexts (Applebee, 2007/ Humes, 2013)

• Dewey says this is vital to maintain student interests (Dewey, 1916)

Harvie (2020) o Newman’s (1873) ‘circle of knowledge’ provides an example of such a view where each discipline is seen to occupy a particular part of the circle and can only answer questions relevant to its own particular field. To gain a holistic education, Newman argued that one had to be familiar with the whole circle and that to acquire a true understanding of reality, engagement with a variety of disciplines is necessary. Integrationists believe that it is possible to use knowledge from different disciplines simultaneously to gain a deeper understanding of reality

Making connections between disciplines leads to:

• Higher order thinking (Harvie, 2020, Humes, 2013)
• Critical Thinking (Harvie, 2020/ Ivanitskaya, 2002/ Humes, 2013)
• Development of schemas (Ivanitskaya, 2002/ Thornburn,2017) - the organisation of knowledge which is just as important as quantity of knowledge as it allows for efficient information processing, ability to adapt to new information and enhances problem solving skills

Also improves:

• Engagement (RSE, 2023/ EdScot, 2020/ Applebee, 2017)
• Attendance (EdScot, 2020)
• Motvation (Humes, 2013)
• Confidence when dealing with challenges (Humes, 2013)
• Real World context (Applebee, Humes) - gives them more motivation to learn

IDL challenges outdated thought processes (Humes, 2013/ Applebee, 2017/ Moran, 2010)

Harvie (2020) The centrality of IDL in the curriculum is underpinned by the premise that we now require a knowledge economy which produces workers with adaptability who are capable of responding to rapid change in the job market (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education {HMIE}, 2009).

Education Scotland (2020)  Increasing numbers of further and higher education institutions are creating interdisciplinary courses that hope to develop more ‘T-shaped’ people (Heikkinen, 2018; Saviano et al 2016). The vertical bar of the letter T represents the depth in a single subject or discipline, with the horizontal bar expressing the ability to collaborate across disciplines

Limitations: lacks concrete definition on integration (interdisciplinary) also quite an old study

Vygotsky:

• Builds on previous learning (ZPD) (Vygotsky, 1978)
• collaboration leads to more learning (through social)(Vygotsky, 1962)

Good IDL should draw on disciplinary knowledge foundation. They do not exist separately from one another, but actualy complement each other (RSE, 2023/ Boix-Mansilla, 2004 in Harvie/ Education Scotland, 2020) * called pillars in EdScot

Moran (2010) human intellectual limits to interdisciplinarity (at higher levels) means that someone working individually may have gaps in their knowledge

Reduces enthusiasm when not done properly (Fenwick, 2013) makign it less likely to engage students