Educational programmes across higher education incorporate knowledge from multiple disciplines. This can be multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary education. In multidisciplinary education the disciplines are juxtaposed, whereas in interdisciplinary education knowledge from the different disciplines is integrated to create new solutions to problems that could not be solved by separate disciplines. Conversely, in transdisciplinary education, the boundaries between disciplines are transcended, and often stakeholders from outside academia are involved as well (Ashby & Exter, 2019; Klein, 2017).

According to van Goch (2023) interdisciplinary education should meet three conditions: there’s a complex problem, multiple disciplines provide insights into this problem, and the different disciplinary insights are integrated. In educational settings, students usually integrate these insights themselves, but teachers can also provide knowledge integration. Knowledge integration strategies should be an explicit part of instruction during interdisciplinary education, since students will not acquire integrative skills merely through learning by doing (van Goch, 2023; van Lambalgen & van der Tuin, 2024).

Interdisciplinary education can help students develop skills needed for their future careers (van den Beemt et al., 2020). However, knowledge about the design and outcomes of interdisciplinary education is often only shared locally (Lindvig & Ulriksen, 2019). This post presents a shot overview of current knowledge about the design, learning outcomes and assessment of interdisciplinary education. The full literature overview it is based on (in Dutch) is available upon request.

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