Journal of the Learning Sciences
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Interdisciplinary learning in the humanities:
Knowledge building and identity work
Nurit Novis-Deutsch, Etan Cohen, Hanan Alexander, Liat Rahamian, Uri
Gavish, Ofir Glick, Oren Yehi-Shalom, Gad Marcus & Ayelet Mann
To cite this article: Nurit Novis-Deutsch, Etan Cohen, Hanan Alexander, Liat Rahamian,
Uri Gavish, Ofir Glick, Oren Yehi-Shalom, Gad Marcus & Ayelet Mann (17 Jun 2024):
Interdisciplinary learning in the humanities: Knowledge building and identity work, Journal of
the Learning Sciences, DOI: 10.1080/10508406.2024.2346915
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2024.2346915
© 2024 The Author(s). Published with
license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
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JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2024.2346915
Interdisciplinary learning in the humanities:
Knowledge building and identity work
Nurit Novis-Deutsch a*, Etan Cohen b*, Hanan Alexandera,
Liat Rahamiana, Uri Gavisha, Ofir Glicka, Oren Yehi-Shaloma, Gad Marcusa,
and Ayelet Manna
a
Department of Learning and Instructional Sciences, University of Haifa; bThe Center for the
Study of Pedagogy – Research-Practice Partnerships, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
ABSTRACT
ARTICLE HISTORY
Background: This paper explores K-12 interdisciplin
ary learning in the humanities (IL-Humanities), an area
that, until now, has seen limited research focus com
pared to its STEM counterparts. We asked: (1) What are
the outcomes of IL-Humanities in terms of interdisci
plinary competences? (2) How do learners in these
environments engage in cross-disciplinary knowledge
building and transdisciplinary identity work?
Methods: We assessed the efficacy of IL-Humanities
across ten Israeli middle schools through a pre-post
intervention/comparison design, utilizing the novel
Interdisciplinary Competences Assessment (ICA).
Qualitative insights into the learning processes within
classrooms were derived using discourse analysis
methods.
Findings: Students’ interdisciplinary competences
were found to increase following the IL-Humanities
interventions. Qualitative analyses offered “thick
descriptions” of the process: Students leveraged
cross-disciplinary transfer of knowledge to deepen
their understanding of complex phenomena and
used personal narratives to engage in identity work.
Contribution: This study enhances interdisciplinary
education research by: (1) providing and operationaliz
ing a model of interdisciplinary competences as an
assessment tool; (2) demonstrating the effectiveness of
Received 4 February 2023
Revised 16 April 2024
Accepted 19 April 2024
CONTACT Nurit Novis-Deutsch
nurit.novis@gmail.com
Department of Learning and
Instructional Sciences, University of Haifa, Abba Khoushy Ave 199, Haifa 3498838, Israel.
*These authors contributed equally to this work.
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2024.
2346915
© 2024 The Author(s). Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercialNoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered,
transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the
Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
2
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
IL-Humanities environments in developing these com
petences; and (3) advancing our understanding of lear
ners’ engagement with cross-disciplinary knowledge
building and transdisciplinary identity work.
Introduction
Interdisciplinary teaching and learning, broadly defined as the integration of
two or more subjects or disciplines (St Clair & Hough, 1992), has been
practiced in K-12 settings for over a century (Grossman et al., 2001;
Schwab et al., 1978; Tyler, 1949). With roots in Dewey’s (1938) thought
and the Progressive Education movement of the 1920’s, it has been enjoying
a renaissance since the 2000s (Dowden, 2007; Fitzpatrick et al., 2018; Kidron,
2019; Rothgangel & Vollmer, 2020); has been adopted as official government
policy in Hong Kong (Zhan et al., 2017), Singapore (Lam et al., 2013), South
Africa (Naidoo, 2010), Finland (Mård & Hilli, 2022) and elsewhere; and has
been endorsed by international organizations (OECD, 2019; UNESCO
International Commission for the Future of Education, 2021).
This paper focuses on processes and outcomes of interdisciplinary learning
(IL) in K-12 settings in the humanities. Integrating and adapting various defini
tions (Apostel, 1972; Chettiparamb, 2007; Frodeman, 2017; Helmane & Briška,
2017; Holley, 2017; Nikitina, 2005), we consider interdisciplinary learning in the
humanities (IL-Humanities) to be any sort of integrative learning activity that
meaningfully connects the learner to the broader human condition, culture,
history, thought, and products, while drawing from multiple fields of inquiry
and knowledge within the humanities. IL-Humanities can be achieved through
a broad range of integrative pedagogies, as will be later discussed.
Such a significant form of learning should be backed by a robust research
program, yet, to date, most research on IL focuses on higher education (e.g.,
DeZure, 2017; Kidron & Kali, 2015; Spelt et al., 2009) and/or on the fields of
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM, e.g., Li et al.,
2020; Takeuchi et al., 2020). Neither body is fully applicable to K-12 ILHumanities, due to developmental, content and methodology differences.
Existing research is thus insufficient to provide an empirical foundation for
the current interdisciplinary turn in K-12 settings in the humanities.
Despite the urgent global need for a shared sense of humanity, the humanities
face a persistent crisis, evident in their diminishing prestige within the public
sphere and in higher education in Israel, where this study took place (Israel
Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2023), and around the world (Meranze,
2015; Nussbaum, 2012; Tay et al., 2018). This situation served as the impetus for
our study, predicated on the premise that IL-Humanities, as an innovative
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
3
pedagogical approach for enhancing student engagement in the humanities, is
worth exploring. We hypothesized that IL-Humanities could enhance students’
abilities and opportunities to engage with “the great issues of truth, goodness,
beauty, and justice” (Klein & Frodeman, 2017, p. 144), by offering deep interconnections of knowledge on such issues and by relating them to the students’
own experiences and identities. We therefore set out to explore the efficacy of
teacher-designed IL-Humanities units in middle schools in Israel in terms of
changes to student competences, and to advance our understanding of the
learning processes that ensued.
The article unfolds as follows: The “Conceptual Framework” section differ
entiates between two forms of IL-Humanities: cross-disciplinary knowledge
building and transdisciplinary identity work, exploring their potential interrela
tions from an ecological learning perspective. In the “Literature Review,” we
present empirical findings related to these processes. By proposing a schema that
defines three measurable interdisciplinary competences, we operationalize our
concepts and apply this framework in an empirical research context. The
“Methods” and “Results” sections detail the study’s context, design, outcomes,
and findings. Finally, in the “Discussion,” we reflect on the broader implications
of our findings and suggest directions for future research.
Conceptual framework for IL-Humanities
In previous research, the concept of interdisciplinarity has been used to refer
to various, partially overlapping, domains and activities, including the nature
of knowledge and its organization (Darbellay, 2019; Klein, 2017), knowledge
production through research (Huutoniemi et al., 2010), learning and cogni
tion (Boix-Mansilla, 2017; Nikitina, 2005), and teaching (Helmane & Briška,
2017; Markauskaite, Carvalho, et al., 2023). Each of these offers its own sets
of definitions and uses for “interdisciplinarity” and its sub-types. This study
is about interdisciplinary learning and cognition. Like previous work (e.g.,
Huutoniemi et al., 2010; Markauskaite, Carvalho, et al., 2023), we use the
term “interdisciplinary” as an overarching “umbrella” term, in this case, for
learning that occurs across subjects and epistemological boundaries.
A “relatively canonical” (Darbellay, 2019, p. 91) typology of interdisciplinary
practices (Apostel, 1972; Klein, 2017) categorizes interdisciplinarity according to
its degree of disciplinary integration. In this typology, Multidisciplinary involves
“a juxtaposition of various disciplines” (Apostel, 1972, p. 25), interdisciplinarity*
implies integrating concepts, methods, and theories across disciplines (we follow
Huutoniemi et al., 2010 in using an asterisk to connote the specific, rather than
generic, meaning of the term) and transdisciplinarity is a term that has taken on
various meanings but generally implies moving beyond disciplines altogether
(Klein, 2017). However, in the context of K-12 education within the humanities,
we propose a dual typology reflecting two distinct forms of interdisciplinary
4
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
learning. It is important to recognize that knowledge production differs from
K-12 learning; thus, forms of interdisciplinary engagement in these contexts do
not necessarily align. One distinction lies in the conceptualization of “disciplines”
in academic research as opposed to “school subjects” among K-12 learners.
Further, whereas research is primarily designed to change the state of knowledge,
learning in K-12 settings is primarily intended to change the learners.
Previous studies have highlighted two distinct learning processes asso
ciated with interdisciplinary learning in the humanities within K-12 settings.
We term the first process cross-disciplinary knowledge building to indicate
that it involves learning across subjects by either exploring, juxtaposing or
integrating disciplinary perspectives. We name the second transdisciplinary
identity work to connote the way it transcends subject boundaries altogether
by focusing on students’ identities. We describe each conceptually, followed
by empirical findings about each type of interdisciplinary learning.
Cross-disciplinary knowledge building
Cross-disciplinary knowledge building is the process of gaining, organizing,
and constructing knowledge by drawing on different subjects. According to
Boix Mansilla et al. (2000), advancing learners’ capacity to integrate knowl
edge and modes of thinking in two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive
advancement is the primary goal of interdisciplinary learning environments.
Accomplishing this goal requires “(1) an emphasis on knowledge use, (2)
a careful treatment of each discipline involved, and (3) appropriate interac
tion between disciplines” (pp. 25–26).
Engaging with multiple subjects typically requires learners to first compre
hend core concepts and develop cognitive skills from each discipline (e.g.,
Reading like a historian; Reisman, 2012). It can then involve engagement in
comparisons across disciplines, and/or in integration. According to Boix
Mansilla et al. (2000), Integration means that “disciplines are not simply juxta
posed. Rather, they are purposefully intertwined. Concepts and modes of think
ing in one discipline enrich students’ understanding in another discipline . . .
concepts that emerge as findings in one discipline contribute to generating
hypotheses in another domain” (p. 29). For example, the historical question of
how Nazism took hold in Germany in the 1930s can be explained by drawing on
findings from social psychology (Milgram, 1963) and the history of biology (the
eugenics movement).
Transdisciplinary identity work
Transdisciplinary identity work catalyses change in learners, going beyond
the focus on knowledge acquisition. It facilitates the construction of learners’
identities, values, and worldviews, fostering their personal development and
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
5
flourishing. It is helpful to think of this as a process of authoring oneself
(Rahm et al., 2022), following McAdams’ et al.’s (2013) theory of narrative
identity, according to which a person’s internalized and evolving life story
provide their life with a sense of unity and purpose. An example of this is the
learning that takes place in the program “Facing History and Ourselves,”
whose content and methods are geared toward “making personal connec
tions to the subject matter and linking the past to current social and civic
issues [in contrast with other] humanities courses that emphasize teaching
factual information and de-emphasize drawing connections” (Barr et al.,
2015, pp. 5–6). Transcending disciplinary boundaries allows learners to
bring their identities to the fore more readily, by foregrounding their perso
nal experiences, values and meanings, rather than the knowledge to be
acquired (Cohen et al., 2024; Fitzpatrick et al., 2018; Solomon et al., 2022).
While transdisciplinary identity work can mediate the construction of lear
ners’ identities in any combination of subjects, a focus on the humanities
organically activates mechanisms of cultural and social immersion, embedded
ness, socialization, and reflectiveness, all of which can positively impact students’
growth (Tay et al., 2018). Successful transdisciplinary identity work in the
humanities involves envisionment-building, that is, “patterns of discussion and
interaction that allow students to explore emerging ideas and multiple perspec
tives” (Applebee et al., 2007, p. 1015). Such learning processes center on learners’
values and beliefs, and develop their sense of self, identity, autonomy, and agency.
IL-Humanities from an ecological perspective
Understanding the relationship between cross-disciplinary knowledge build
ing and transdisciplinary identity work is key to designing powerful learning
environments that capitalize on the unique affordances of IL-Humanities in
K-12 settings.
One way to conceptualize the complex connections between these two
learning processes is through an ecological perspective on learning.
Ecological perspectives consider learning as hybrid, distributed and
unbounded processes that occur on personal, relational and community
levels. Like ecosystems, learning environments and processes tend to be
multilayered and include individuals, relations, communities, and entire
populations, each of whom is constantly in flux. The ecological view of
learning thus recognizes that within any learning environment, various
processes unfold simultaneously, on different planes of activity and within
various contexts, even as they shape and constitute one another
(Markauskaite, Goodyear, et al., 2023).
An ecological lens can be used to analyze the emergent dynamics of
learning within classrooms (Deakin Crick et al., 2007; Sangrá et al., 2019),
and through this ecological perspective it becomes clear that
6
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
conceptualizing IL-Humanities in either/or terms, either as crossdisciplinary knowledge building or as transdisciplinary identity work,
falls short. A more credible view would consider both processes to play
out in tandem. We next draw on the ecological metaphor to introduce
two theoretical views on IL-Humanities that might frame the connection
between the two learning processes.
Firstly, it is possible to view these two processes as stages of progression,
where knowledge building may (but does not necessarily) evolve into iden
tity work. Movement between these stages need not be unidirectional.
Applebee et al. (2007) proposed a typology of interdisciplinary teaching
and learning. Their typology distinguished between correlated curricula,
where disciplinary concepts from multiple subjects are brought to bear on
a single theme; shared curricula, where disciplinary concepts overlap and
support one another; and reconstructed curricula, where disciplinary bound
aries are eliminated, and transdisciplinary concepts are reconstructed. Their
study showed how the first two types of curricula mainly mediated knowl
edge building, while the latter mediated “envisionment-building,” which
maps onto what we call identity work. Applebee et al. (2007, p. 1033)
observed an “ebb and flow,” whereby teachers exhibited “the ability to
move along the interdisciplinary continuum” (p. 1034). The notion of an
organically occurring ebb and flow would be one way to conceptualize the
connection between knowledge building and identity work: Each comes to
the fore at times and recedes into the background at others.
A second conceptualization that evokes an ecological lens posits that
because learners and their social environments are co-constitutive, any
cross-disciplinary knowledge building can also be understood in terms
transdisciplinary identity work, and vice versa. Educational philosopher
Paulo Freire proposed that these two dimensions of interdisciplinarity can
coalesce to enact dialogical education, by linking knowledge and identity:
In contrast with the antidialogical and non-communicative “deposits” of the
banking method of education, the program content of the problem-posing
method—dialogical par excellence—is constituted and organized by the stu
dents’ view of the world, where their own generative themes are found. The
content thus constantly expands and renews itself. The task of the dialogical
teacher in an interdisciplinary team working on the thematic universe revealed
by their investigation is to “re-present” that universe to the people from whom
she or he first received it—and “re-present” it not as a lecture, but as a problem.
(Freire, 1970/1996, p. 90)
Freire identified a direct link between the two interdisciplinary learning
processes that we discussed, and showed how they simultaneously play out
on different planes. In his view, generating new and relevant insights about
the world can help learners engage in self-authorship as they reposition
themselves vis-à-vis their social surroundings. Similarly, meaningful identity
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
7
work might contribute to efforts to construct novel insights about the world,
which require crossing disciplinary boundaries and integrating them. In the
next section, we consider what previous research has found about both
learning processes in IL-Humanities.
Literature review
Cross-disciplinary knowledge building—process and outcomes
Several studies have found that learners leverage IL-Humanities opportu
nities to advance their understanding of complex concepts and develop
sophisticated higher-order thinking skills. Kuisma and Ratinen (2021) inves
tigated a learning environment that combined subjects from the humanities,
arts, and sciences and explored how interdisciplinary learning helped stu
dents experience conceptual change in their structure of knowledge. For
many of the students, the “Aha!” moments in which concepts and their
attributes shifted across entire subjects (“ontological trees”) were ones of
deep creativity and insight. Similarly, both De La Paz (2005) and Schuitema
et al. (2009) showed how integrating two subjects in the humanities
advanced learners’ argumentation skills, reflecting enhanced integration
abilities. For example, when combining history and language arts, learners
wrote essays that were more historically accurate and persuasive, when
compared to a control group.
Studies of academic achievement related to knowledge building in ILHumanities offer inconclusive results: some indicate no discernible advan
tage of interdisciplinary approaches over disciplinary ones (e.g., Dorion,
2009; Reiska et al., 2018) while others report positive outcomes for IL (e.g.,
improved school grades - Birsa, 2018; better understanding of the topic Girod & Twyman, 2009; Lo, 2015). However, in the neighboring interdisci
plinary domain of STEM studies, robust meta-analyses have substantiated
the efficacy of IL in enhancing knowledge-related outcomes. Batdi et al.
(2019) found the average effect size for academic achievement through
STEM to be 0.65 and Kang et al. (2018) found it to be 0.52. Although no
such meta-analysis exists on IL-Humanities, this suggests that perhaps, with
suitable adaptations, integrating multiple subjects in the humanities might
also yield successful knowledge-related outcomes.
Transdisciplinary identity work—process and outcomes
Studies focusing on moral development, autonomy, identity formation and
personal growth within IL-Humanities contexts frequently, but not always,
report beneficial effects. One study of an IL-Humanities program on ethical
and citizenship awareness revealed significantly elevated levels of moral
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NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
reasoning post-intervention compared to a control group (Araújo & Arantes,
2009), while a study of a different program with a similar ethical focus (Barr
et al., 2015) did not find significant change in moral development.
In terms of student autonomy and personal development, Applebee
et al. (2007) found that reconstructed curricula (which promote transdis
ciplinary learning) generated significantly more student discussions and
position-taking than correlated curricula (which emphasizes crossdisciplinary learning). Another study found that IL-Humanities involving
outdoor exploration deepened students’ local identity and enhanced their
sense of autonomy and agency (Beames & Ross, 2010). Additional studies
found enhanced self-regulated learning (DiDonato, 2013), higher levels of
self-advocacy (Ivzori et al., 2020), and even a deeper spiritual awareness
(Clark & Button, 2011).
Transdisciplinary curricula have also been found to support equitable
multicultural identity building. For example, Ferreira et al. (2022) studied
disenfranchised migrant children who participated in a unit that integrated
citizenship education and language arts. The study demonstrated the affor
dances of IL-Humanities for engaging refugee-background learners in telling
meaningful stories about their past, present and future. In another example,
Fitzpatrick et al. (2018) described a Negotiated Integrated Curriculum that
attempts to “redress the power imbalance” (p. 455) between teachers and
students by removing disciplinary boundaries, and inviting learners to
determine the objectives, foci, and methods of inquiry. Similarly, in another
study of an IL-Humanities program, multiple subjects were integrated in the
production of a play (De Korne, 2012). Outcomes included “the normal
ization of multilingual practices [. . .] as well as participation structures that
validate students as speakers and knowledge producers” (p. 496).
Studies focusing on identity work in IL-STEM, uncover a similar find
ing: In addition to fostering learners’ scientific identities (Calabrese
Barton et al., 2012; Van Horne & Bell, 2017), IL-STEM promotes critical
identity work. In several studies, learning processes helped marginalized
and disempowered students develop a justice-oriented community-based
identity (Greenberg et al., 2020), a resistance to hegemonies (Allen &
Eisenhart, 2017), and a connection between their cultural and scientific
identities (Rahm et al., 2022). This matches one of several trendlines of
transdisciplinarity identified by Klein (2017)—transdisciplinarity as trans
gressive: “[Transdisciplinarity] began appearing more frequently as a label
for knowledge formations shaped by critical imperatives in humanities
[. . .] and societal movements for change” (p. 30).
In conclusion, research in IL-Humanities has focused on knowledge
building and identity work, which have been typically studied separately.
Also, while interdisciplinary performance assessment rubrics have been
proposed for STEM contexts (Linn & Eylon, 2011) and for higher education
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
9
(Boix-Mansilla et al., 2009; Schijf et al., 2023), we found no equivalent for
K-12 IL-Humanities learners. These lacunae prompted us to operationalize
both learning processes through the concept of interdisciplinary
competences.
A proposed schema of interdisciplinary competences
Competences are comprehensive abilities to perform tasks, actions, or roles
in a manner that benefits both individuals and their environment. These
multi-dimensional abilities involve knowledge, skills, attitudes and values
(Rychen, 2016), making this concept well-suited to assess both knowledge
building and identity work. Competency-based learning has been identified
as a potent mediator of motivation, perceived autonomy, and learning out
comes in STEM higher education (Henri et al., 2017), possibly indicating its
potential for assessing IL-Humanities as well. Drawing on our conceptual
and empirical literature reviews, we introduce a novel schema that encom
passes three interdisciplinary competences—comprehension, integration,
and synthesis—and two actions for each. Although this schema could be
relevant across different interdisciplinary contexts, it was specifically
designed with IL-Humanities in mind.
Comprehension. An important aspect of learning, reasoning, problemsolving, and decision-making (McNamara & Magliano, 2009), compre
hension encompasses essential aspects of learners’ understanding such
as the connections between text, context, prior knowledge, and the
activation of related concepts. In single-subject contexts, various models
such as the Documents Model Framework (Britt & Rouet, 2012) dis
tinguish between making sense of the contents of multiple sources and
reconciling the contexts of the sources (Barzilai et al., 2018; Nelson &
King, 2022). However, comprehending texts across multiple disciplines
involves additional cognitive elements such as identifying different
contextual disciplinary frameworks and being able to compare them
(Bråten et al., 2020). Building on these sources, we posit that students
who are competent in interdisciplinary comprehension in the huma
nities can (1) identify and discuss similarities between sources from
different subjects/disciplines (“Drawing analogies”), and (2) identify
and expound upon differences between them (“Contrasting and
distinguishing”).
● Integration. Based on the concept of integrative complexity (Suedfeld
& Tetlock, 2014), we suggest that this competency involves incorpor
ating different elements into a joint schema. Despite its centrality,
empirical investigations into its underlying processes remain limited
(Boix-Mansilla, 2017). An epistemology of interdisciplinary learning as
●
10
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
integration proposed by Boix-Mansilla (2017), positions pragmatic
constructionism at its core, defining it as “a system of thought in
reflective equilibrium” (p. 268). Integration, marked by goal-oriented
and purposeful reasoning, applies to various combinations of topics,
leverages disciplinary insights and integrative thinking, and undergoes
constant revision through critical examination. Students who are com
petent at interdisciplinary integration can (1) use methods, terms, and
ideas from one discipline to explain a source from another
(“Methodological cross-application”); and (2) integrate sources across
disciplinary boundaries to reach new and shared insights (“Convergent
integration: Insight drawing”).
● Synthesis. The third competency entails the application of integrated
knowledge from disparate sources to reflect and connect. It is a process
of bringing the integration into conversation with oneself. Often, its
outcomes are expressed through creative endeavors of self-expression.
While synthesis is a natural human activity, interdisciplinary synthesis
requires instruction and practice (Boix-Mansilla, 2017). The ability to
synthesize can involve self-reflection, identity formation, moral develop
ment and/or creative pursuits (Sill, 2001). Students competent in synthe
sizing can (1) express their insights creatively through artistic expressions,
social action, or dialogue (“Divergent synthesis: Creative expansion”);
and (2) leverage integrative insights to reflect on their self, identity, values
and beliefs (“Reflective synthesis: Connecting to self/identity”).
Jointly, these three competences allow IL-Humanities learners to recognize
the intricate interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated facets of social rea
lity, while appreciating the critical role of social context (Berger &
Luckmann, 1969); and incorporate them in their own ever-evolving process
of self-authorship. Figure 1 presents these competences as a framework that
can help to evaluate interdisciplinary learning in the humanities.
Research questions and author positionality
To assess the efficacy of IL-Humanities and to advance our understanding of
cross-disciplinary knowledge building and transdisciplinary identity work,
we collaborated with educational practitioners and policymakers in the
design and implementation of a study on interdisciplinary learning in the
humanities in ten Israeli middle schools. We asked two questions:
(1) What are the outcomes of IL-Humanities in terms of interdisciplinary
competences?
(2) How do learners engage in cross-disciplinary knowledge building and
transdisciplinary identity work?
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
11
As educational scholars, our perspectives on learning and preferred research
methodologies varied considerably. The disciplinary variety within our
research group, which included a social psychologist, two learning scientists,
three educational philosophers, and an educational historian, led us to
explore IL-Humanities from multiple perspectives. An ecological learning
perspective informed our choice to consider both individual learners and
classroom discourse as separate but complementary units of analysis, the first
through a learning outcomes lens, and the second through an intersubjective,
communal lens, and then to integrate these findings. This diversity led to
various challenges, as we experienced firsthand the attachment to profes
sional identities that hindered interdisciplinary efforts (Grossman et al.,
2001; Wineburg & Grossman, 2000). While challenging, our iterative, inter
disciplinary dialogue also served as an important resource, as it provided us
with direct insight into the inner-workings of IL-Humanities. We return to
our experiences as a team in the “Conclusion” section.
Figure 1. A schema of interdisciplinary competences and actions in the humanities.
12
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
Methods
Study context
The broader context of the study was a research-practice partnership (RPP;
Coburn et al., 2013) that our research group forged with Israel’s Ministry of
Education and ten public middle schools. Prior to the commencement of this
study, senior policymakers at the Ministry had envisioned a shift to inter
disciplinary learning in the humanities throughout Israel’s education system,
as part of efforts to advance a set of cognitive, emotional, and social goals,
such as promoting critical thinking, digital literacy, self-awareness, and
global literacy (Ministry of Education [MoE], 2021). The schools that joined
our study were interested in implementing new interdisciplinary curricula or
strengthening existing ones primarily from a desire for educational renewal
and enhanced student engagement in humanities studies (Cohen et al.,
2024).
In year 1, 43 leading teacher from ten schools were trained in a shared,
national-level course on the foundations of IL-Humanities. In year 2, the
leading teacher teams from year 1 led school-wide initiatives in their schools.
Overall, 127 teachers from ten schools participated in ten collaborative 30hour professional development (PD) courses and then developed and taught
IL-Humanities units. The courses offered teachers definitions and typologies
of interdisciplinarity and provided them with tools to help cultivate inter
disciplinary competences among their students, including a model for devel
oping their own IL-Humanities units to facilitate both cross-disciplinary
knowledge building and transdisciplinary identity work. Significant time
was allocated to teacher teams developing interdisciplinary curricular units,
with the researchers’ support and guidance. To that end, participants were
provided with various scaffolds, such as worksheets, poster templates, and
opportunities to share their work collaboratively and receive feedback.
During this period, 25 educators from the original teacher leadership cohort
(year 1) also participated in an advanced 30-hour course by Zoom, where
they shared ideas and offered feedback to each other, in their capacity as IL
leaders in their schools.
By the end of the course, each team had designed an interdisciplinary unit
in the humanities. For example, one team planned a thematic unit on
courage that integrated sources from three subjects: literature, Bible, and
language arts. By comparing the various approaches to courage in each
discipline, this team hoped to mediate cross-disciplinary knowledge building
(in the teachers’ own words: “cognitive tools for analysis and comparative
observation”) and to promote transdisciplinary identity work (“expand lear
ners’ Jewish identity and consciousness and position it in a universal cultural
context.”) Other interdisciplinary units developed included: Social protests;
Heroes’ journeys; Colonialism and its effects; Eco-Poetics; Women Path Blazers
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
13
and Person and Environment. For further details see Supplementary
Information part 1: The professional development courses.
Participants
Participants in the full study included 142 teachers and 1109 students in 34
classes drawn from 10 schools. Of them, 903 students and 127 teachers
participated in interdisciplinary learning units while 206 students and 15
teachers formed a comparison group. In this paper we focus on two student
subsamples, one for each research question:
(1) 586 students who were assessed in terms of their interdisciplinary
competences, using the Interdisciplinary Competences Assessment
(ICA; see in “Data collection and analysis”). These students were
from 17 classes in five schools. 380 students were the intervention
group and 206 were the comparison group. See Table 1 for details.
(2) 128 students from four classes, as well as their teachers, who were
observed as part of the qualitative data collection (76 of these were
also part of the first subsample).
Prior to data collection, Institutional Review Board approvals were obtained
from the University and from the Ministry of Education’s Chief Scientist Office
(no. 11236). Parental approvals were obtained on a yearly basis. For further
details see Supplementary Information, part 2: Details of the study sample.
Data collection and analysis
Quantitative data collection: The Interdisciplinary Competences
Assessment (ICA)
Building upon the interdisciplinary competences scheme outlined earlier,
we developed an assignment for students that featured pairs of texts
Table 1. ICA sample details by school, classroom: intervention and comparison groups.
Intervention group
Schools
(N = 5)
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
Total
n of
classrooms
2
2
2
3
2
11
n of students–
distribution
(in brackets:
completion)
75 (70)
59 (59)
76 (76)
96 (81)
74 (56)
380 (342)
Comparison group
n of
classrooms
n of students–
distribution
(in brackets:
completion)
2
4
6
61 (36)
145 (133)
206 (169)
Total n of students
(in brackets:
completion)
75 (70)
59 (59)
76 (76)
157 (117)
219 (189)
586 (511)
14
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
loosely linked by an unnamed common theme (e.g., “gold,” “love,”
“women’s rights”) but diverging in context, style, and disciplinary origin
(e.g., one text associated with history and the other with Bible studies).
The texts, selected in a process that involved expert assessment and
a student focus-group, were previously unseen by both students and
teachers in the study. Six essay questions were designed to evaluate
students’ performance of various actions, using the interdisciplinary com
petences schema outlined above. Table 2 provides an overview of the
questions, their hypothesized underlying competences, sample responses,
and a scoring rubric on a 0–3 scale, intended to gauge the proficiency of
each competency. The scoring rubric is akin to ones used in previous
knowledge integration studies, with adaptations to fit the context of
humanities (Linn & Eylon, 2011). Inter-rater reliability, calculated using
Krippendorff’s Alpha (Hayes & Krippendorff, 2007), ranged from .74 to
.94 for each question. For full details see Supplementary Information, part
3: ICA measure development, administration and scoring.
Students completed one version of the assignments before IL-Humanities
units and another after units were taught. The time-lag between the pre- and
post-intervention assessments ranged between a minimum of 4 months and
2 weeks to a maximum of 6 months and 3 weeks. For Further details, see
Supplementary Information part 4: Project timeline.
Quantitative data analysis
A principal-components analysis with varimax rotation of the pretest scores
suggested a single factor solution that explained 40.1% of the variance, on
which all six questions loaded between .454 and .733. A single factor solution
explaining 43.1% of the variance was also found for posttest scores, with
questions loading between .544 and .713. We cautiously interpret this to
allow for the possibility of a single construct behind all questions—inter
disciplinary competences—but further research is needed to corroborate
this.
Reliability levels of the full 6-item measure in both pretest (n = 375)
and posttest (n = 418) were satisfactory. Cronbach’s alpha scores were
0.70 in the pretest and 0.74 in the posttest. Aggregated scores of
interdisciplinary competences (calculated by summing all 6 sub-scores)
for respondents who completed all 6 questions on both timepoints (n =
297) were significantly correlated at r = .492, p < .001 despite the sig
nificant time lag between administrations, indicating consistency.
Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests were conducted to compare the level of each
type of competency between the pretest and the posttest and between the
intervention and comparison groups. To test for distribution normality, in
line with sample size (>50), the distribution histogram and Q-Q plot were
examined, and both suggested that the data’s distribution closely
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
15
Table 2. The Interdisciplinary Competences Assessment (ICA): questions, skills, scoring
rubric and examples.
Question on Interdisciplinary Competences
Assessment (ICA)
1. What similarities do you identify between the
two sources? In what ways are they similar?
2. What differences do you identify between the
two sources? In what ways are they different?
3. Does one of the sources help you in any way to
understand the other source? If so, how?
4. Can you combine the sources to understand
something new and interesting? If so, what did
you learn?
5. Think about another source or idea that you
could bring to the conversation between these
two sources. Why would you choose to add it
to the conversation?
6. How do you personally relate to these sources?
How do they connect to your own life and
experiences?
Scoring rubric for questions (0–3)
Action required
Comprehension 1: Drawing analogies
Comprehension 2: Contrasting and distinguishing
Integration 1: Cross-disciplinary application
Integration 2: Convergent Insight-drawing
Synthesis 1: Divergent creative expansion
Synthesis 2: Reflective connection to self/identity
Examples of answers
0 – No answer: The student did not produce any 0 – “Don’t know;” “I can’t think of any similarities;”
evidence of this a link between the sources
student offered a point of similarity when
prompted for a difference; student left the
question blank.
1 – Partial link: The student did not make the
1–”I don’t think the texts are similar because their
required link but expressed understanding of
time-periods make them incomparable;” “I
the required action and offered a reasonable
don’t connect to these stories since I’ve never
explanation for lack of answer. Vague answers
been in love;” “I think the two texts are very
or answers expressing unclear reasoning also
similar” (no explanation offered); “I can’t think
coded “1.”
of another text that can be in dialogue with
these ones, but I remember reading a story
once like that.”
2 – Single link: The student offered a single
2 – “The Biblical story of Jacob and Leah is
adequate suggestion of how to relate to the
different from the story of the prince who built
texts in accordance with the type of action
Taj Mahal because we have no monument to
called for.
actually prove Jacob’s love, unlike the prince’s
case;” Prompted for another text, a student
suggested the story of Romeo and Juliet,
noting that it fits the idea of paying a heavy
price for love.
3 – Multiple and/or complex links: The student 3 –When asked about personally relating to the
generated two or more distinct ideas about
texts, a student noted that she too is a young
how to relate to the texts in accordance with
woman deserving equal rights and thus
the type of action called for.
identifies with the women in both texts, added
that she has had skirmishes with authority
figures in her life, and noted that in contrast to
these women, her rights are protected by law,
so her experience of discrimination is not as
strong.
approximates normality. Skewness (−0.17) and Kurtosis (0.79) were accep
table as well. The aggregated scores on overall competences on a 0–18 scale
ranged from 0–16. The choice to employ the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test for
analyzing changes in final scores was made to ensure methodological con
sistency across our analyses, particularly for ordinal variables. Note that at
16
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
large sample sizes, the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test yields results that are
broadly analogous to those obtained via the t-test.
Qualitative data collection
During the implementation of the units, ethnographic data was collected from
two schools. One researcher was assigned to Tikvah middle school as
a participant-observer, and two researchers were assigned to Tel Nof secondary
school (pseudonyms). These schools were selected for the qualitative study
based on the principle of maximum variation (Patton, 2015, pp. 428–29).
Located in Israel’s northern region, Tel Nof is large and well established,
with some 1800 students in grades 7–12, and serves a wealthy population.
The principal had first launched an IL-Humanities curriculum six years before
our study. Tikvah is a recently established small school located in a lower SES
city in Israel’s central district. In 2022, it numbered about 300 students, grades
7–9. The core values at Tikvah were community and identity, and it comprised
mainly Mizrachi students (i.e., Jews hailing from a North African and Middle
Eastern heritage).
We collaborated with four teachers (all names are anonymized to preserve
participants’ privacy): David and Anna at Tel Nof, and Ruth and Lia at
Tikvah. David had become a civics teacher, after a long military career, six
years before our study. He was a seventh-grade homeroom teacher and was
well-regarded by his students. Anna, the director of Tel Nof’s interdisciplin
ary humanities curriculum, was highly experienced. Several years after start
ing out as a physical education teacher, she shifted to teaching literature, and
ultimately gained the confidence of the school head, who promoted her to
her current role. Ruth was an energetic founding member of Tikvah in her
late twenties and was in the final stages of completing her master’s degree in
the humanities. Lia was a first-year homeroom teacher at Tikvah, who
perceived herself as having been involuntarily assigned to teach an inter
disciplinary unit, despite preferring to teach history within a disciplinary
framework.
As ethnographers, we forged meaningful relationships with teachers and
principals, and in general immersed ourselves into the social fabric of the
schools as much as possible over the course of the school year. We observed
and transcribed video and/or audio recordings of seventeen lessons lasting
between 45–90 minutes each, conducted six hour-long semi-structured
interviews with the teachers, collected students’ end-of-year assignments
from two classes, and collected field notes (see Table 3).
Qualitative data analysis
The overall aim of this qualitative analysis is to understand how teachers’ and
students’ discourse mediated interdisciplinary learning. Our analysis began
with a segmentation of the data, as we divided each transcript into episodes.
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
17
Each episode comprised 3–15-minute segments of speech surrounding
a single theme or topic (Huguet et al., 2017). For each episode, we noted
participants, topic, and activity (e.g., explaining, giving instructions, etc.). We
then conducted a second round of coding to identify the relationship
between each episode and knowledge building discourse (codes included
perspective-taking, integrative reasoning and Both/And reasoning, which
involves considering multiple perspectives to be valid simultaneously, see
Novis-Deutsch, 2018) and identity work (codes included references to self,
values, and culture). These codes were based on themes that teachers and
principals whom we previously interviewed had tied to interdisciplinary
learning (Cohen et al., 2024). Following these two initial rounds of coding,
we employed discourse analysis tools to conduct a turn-by-turn analysis of
all 143 episodes (Gee, 2014; Wortham & Reyes, 2015).
These steps led us to (1) distinguish more clearly between knowledge
building and identity work; and to (2) identify a large degree of variation in
how each of the participating teachers approached the challenge of inter
disciplinary teaching and learning. David and Lia put a greater emphasis on
knowledge building discourse, and invited students to engage in inquiry
projects aimed at advancing their understanding of out-in-the-world phe
nomena: religious leadership and the Renaissance period. David provided
scaffolding and mentorship that mediated IL-Humanities very effectively,
leading to novel insights and understanding among students. In contrast,
Lia’s students were typically left confused about how an interdisciplinary lens
might advance their understanding of the phenomena under investigation.
Table 3. Qualitative data corpus.
School
David
Tel Nof
Anna
Tel Nof
Tikvah
Ruth
Tikvah
Lia
Grade
7th
7th
8th
8th
Number of
students
37
39
25
27
Topic of
Religious
Individual and
curriculum
leadership
collective
change
Heritage and family
history
Innovation and discovery
in the Renaissance
Subjects
History,
integrated
Bible,
literature.
History, Bible,
literature.
History, cultural studies,
literature.
History, cultural studies,
science, art.
Lessons
recorded
3
5
4
5
Episodes
coded
21
33
37
52
Additional
data
Interview
with the
teacher
Interview with
the teacher
2 interviews with the
2 interviews with the
teacher, students’ final
teacher, students’ final
assignments
assignments
18
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
Ruth and Anna leaned more toward the view that IL-Humanities offered
an opportunity to look inwards, so that students might engage in selfauthorship. However, here too we found a large degree of variation. Ruth
was often effective in engaging students in an open and candid identity
discourse, whereas Anna missed many opportunities to do so. Our turn-byturn analysis also revealed that (3) although one facet of IL-Humanities
(knowledge building or identity work) was typically foregrounded, the
other was easily discernable.
Upon completing the initial two rounds of coding and the analysis of all
episodes that followed, we purposefully selected two episodes—one for each
process—to illustrate our findings. These episodes were selected based on
two criteria. First, our ethnographic data, including fieldnotes, observations,
and interviews, indicated that they were representative of each respective
teacher’s approach to IL-Humanities (e.g., the first episode, which was drawn
from David’s class, was representative of his approach). Second, we purpose
fully selected episodes that we found to be especially telling with regards to
IL-Humanities (i.e., theoretically rich; see Mitchell, 1984).
The discourse analysis followed the methodology outlined by
Wortham and Reyes (2015). We chose this method because it is
especially suitable for interpreting learning processes that link the
content of classroom discourse (i.e., IL-Humanities) with the learning
processes that classroom discourse mediates (i.e., knowledge building
and identity work). According to Wortham and Reyes (2015), the goal
of discourse analysis is to identify and characterize social actions that
interlocutors are performing in the present, here-and-now, by talking
about certain events—real or hypothetical; past, present or future—in
certain ways. To accomplish this, an analyst begins by mapping the
narrated events (“what is being talked about;” Wortham & Reyes, 2015,
p. 3). These can include characters, roles, traits, courses of action, etc.
Next, the analyst identifies indexical signs, which are signs that have
a particular meaning within a given context, and seeks out the ones
that seem especially meaningful. Meaningful indexicals often include—
but are not limited to—deictics (words that can only be understood in
light of their context, e.g., “me,” “they,” “yesterday,” or “over there”),
and reported speech (e.g., “I told you so”). Finally, in light of their
interpretation of the narrated events, analysts can also provide a rich
explanation of the social action unfolding in the narrating event, hereand-now, and can interpret how the narrative positions interlocutors
vis-à-vis one another. In connecting the narrated and narrating events,
we took particular note of any participant examples offered by narrat
ing participants. Participant examples are sections of narrated events
“in which at least one participant [in the interaction] takes part”
(Wortham, 1992, p. 5). Wortham (1992) has shown participant
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
19
examples to be powerful means by which students and teachers engage
in identity work in the classroom, by simultaneously discussing nar
rated and narrating events. Our focus on discourse in general, and
participant examples in particular, aimed to shed light on the ILHumanities processes, addressing our second research question. We
also used the Interdisciplinary Competences schema (Figure 1) as a key
interpretive lens while conducting the discourse analysis of these
episodes.
The trustworthiness of our interpretations was established through
deliberate steps designed to ensure credibility, transferability, confirm
ability, and reflexivity throughout the data analysis process (Korstjens
& Moser, 2018). Credibility, which refers to the accuracy of qualitative
interpretations, was enhanced by implementing several measures,
including: (1) prolonged ethnographic engagement with participating
teachers and students; (2) persistent analysis procedures that incorpo
rated all previously detailed steps; and (3) triangulation of interpreta
tions from our primary data sources (recorded lessons) by comparing
them with additional data sources (fieldnotes, interviews, and lesson
plans).
Transferability, a further dimension of trustworthiness, was achieved by
providing detailed descriptions in our qualitative “Results” section. This
allows readers to determine the applicability of our findings to their known
contexts. Confirmability, the third dimension, is the assurance that findings
are rooted in the data. We facilitated this through transparent reporting in
our “Methodology” and “Results” sections. Lastly, we upheld a reflexive
stance by maintaining journals during data collection and analysis, and by
hosting weekly meetings throughout the analysis period. In these meetings,
we extensively discussed our data and considered “rival explanations” (Yin,
2012).
Results
Learning outcomes: Quantitative findings using the ICA
Following the administration of the ICA, we found that students in the
intervention group significantly improved their interdisciplinary compe
tences. Improvement in the comparison group was not significant, indicating
that developmental maturation cannot fully explain these results. Table 4
presents the medians and interquartile ranges (IQR) of each of the six types
of interdisciplinary competences that the ICA assignment measured before
and after the IL unit, as well as the results of Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Tests
between pretest and posttest scores, for the intervention and comparison
groups separately.
Reflective synthesis
Divergent synthesis
Convergent integration
Cross-disciplinary application
Pretest
post-test
pretest
post-test
pretest
post-test
pretest
post-test
pretest
post-test
pretest
post-test
pretest
post-test
Stage
2
2
2
2
0
0
0
0.5
0
0
1
1
5
7
Med
[2, 3]
[2, 3]
[0, 2]
[2, 2]
[0, 0]
[0, 1]
[0, 1]
[0, 2]
[0, 0]
[0, 2]
[0, 2]
[0, 2]
[4, 8]
[5, 9]
IQR
187
195
193
196
194
194
195
n
3439.5
2225
371.5
1490
874
1699.5
1822
V
<.001***
.047*
<.001***
.003**
.018*
.019*
.027*
p
.45
.22
.61
.35
.32
.27
.25
rrb
2
2
2
2
0
0
0
0.5
0
0
0
1
6
6
Med
[2, 3]
[2, 3]
[0, 2.5]
[0, 2]
[0, 1]
[0, 1]
[0, 1]
[0, 1.75]
[0, 0]
[0, 0]
[0, 2]
[0, 2]
[2.5, 8]
[4, 9]
IQR
95
96
99
98
99
99
99
n
1541.5
623
148.5
578.5
256.5
767
929.5
V
Comparison
* = significant at p < .05, ** = significant at p < .001, *** - significant at p < .000.
Med = median score, IQR = interquartile range, n = sample size, p = probability (p value), V = Wilcoxon statistic, rrb = Rank Biserial Correlation.
Overall interdisciplinary
Synthesis
Integration
Analogies
Comprehension
Contrasts
Skill
Competency
Intervention
Table 4. Results of Wilcoxon signed-rank test for the change in students’ interdisciplinary competences assessment (ICA) scores.
.155
.207
.200
.412
.476
.631
.915
p
.18
.19
.27
.13
.14
.07
−.02
rrb
20
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
21
As Table 4 indicates, students’ interdisciplinary competency levels were
low overall, both pre-intervention and post-intervention. They were highest
for the two comprehension questions, intermediate for the integration ques
tions, and lowest for the synthesis questions.
For the intervention group, all posttest scores (aggregated 6 items)
showed a significant improvement from the pretest to the posttest with
a moderate-to-large Rank Biserial Correlation effect sizes, suggesting
that students enhanced their interdisciplinary competences signifi
cantly, following IL. For the comparison group, the change between
pretest and posttest scores was not significant, indicating no substan
tial improvement.
The same pattern appeared at item-level: Each of the six actions
significantly improved (with small effect sizes) in the intervention
group but none improved significantly in the comparison group. No
other systematic differences were found between the comparison and
intervention groups.
To statistically assess differences in changes between the interven
tion and control groups, a mixed-effects model framework was
employed accommodating the nested structure of the data (measure
ments within individuals and individuals within classrooms). Given the
potential non-normality of the response variable and to ensure robust
ness to violations of ANOVA assumptions, the Aligned Rank
Transform (ART) was applied to the score variable. Significant inter
action effects between time (pre vs. post) and group were observed for
the divergent synthesis question, F(1, 460.7) = 5.4, p = .020, and for
overall interdisciplinary competency, F(1, 401.5) = 7.4, p = .007. These
results suggest that, compared to control participants, those in the
intervention group exhibited greater gains in both divergent synthesis
and overall interdisciplinary competency.
Learning processes: Qualitative findings from the discourse analysis
An overview of the qualitative findings
In what follows, we shall delve more deeply into two episodes that shed light
on the moment-to-moment classroom discourse that mediated crossdisciplinary knowledge building and transdisciplinary identity work. The first
episode sheds light on the process of methodological cross-application (a form
of knowledge building) and the second episode features reflective synthesis (a
form of identity work; see Figure 1). These two examples were purposefully
selected because we found them to be particularly telling, but they were not
exceptional. The first episode was representative of David’s approach to ILHumanities, whereas the second episode was representative of Ruth’s
approach.
22
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
Cross-disciplinary knowledge building
Tel Nof’s 7th grade IL-Humanities teachers jointly designed an inter
disciplinary unit on religious leadership that combined history, litera
ture, and Bible studies. David saw this IL-Humanities unit as a means
to hone students’ cross-disciplinary knowledge building skills. Indeed,
in an interview we conducted with him, he shared his belief that crossdisciplinary knowledge building competences would enable students to
become independent learners, attain deeper understandings, and grasp
complex phenomena. In the weeks that we spent observing his lessons,
David divided his class into groups of 4–5 students and required each
group to conduct an independent inquiry project into the notion of
religious leadership. He held meetings with each of the groups in his
office to touch base and provide students with constructive feedback.
Below is a sequence from one of those meetings, with three female
students named Liat, Michal, and Noa (pseudonyms):
101
102
103
104
105
Teacher/David:
Student/Liat:
Student/Michal:
Teacher/David:
Student/Michal:
106 Teacher/David:
107 Student/Noa:
108
109
110 Teacher/David:
111 Student/Michal:
112 Teacher/David:
113 Student/Michal:
114 Student/Noa:
115 Student/Michal:
116 Teacher/David:
117 Student/Noa:
What about religious leadership?
We did that too.
It needs to be elaborated a bit.
What material did you use to get to it and what did you write about it?
We found something online about political leadership and basically did the
opposite.
[surprised] Political leadership? Where? In what period?
We saw, we first went to some websites because we weren’t able to
understand and get the definition of religious leadership.
And we found a Center for Educational Technology website that had a link
to a book but in the abstract it said about political leadership.
And then we realized that political leadership is kind of the opposite of
religious leadership.
Why?
Because religious leadership is leadership of what happens here and is a lot
more, a lot less, in my opinion, about, like, less about the goal and more
about the person.
Political leadership?
[nodding] Like, less about the goal – let’s say peace [an example of
a political goal] – and more about the person working toward the goal.
I don’t really agree with that because it is in the Prime Minister’s interest
that his country will . . . [trails off]
Obviously, right [laughing].
So, what is, what is, religious leadership? Where did you end up?
Religious leadership is basically that they [the followers] believe what you
[the leader] believe in. You help them and like convince them about
something you believe in, it’s not that you go and - [hesitates] like you
have too much control over them, you get them to believe in something
that you believe is really true.
To conceptualize the learning process that learners were engaged in here-andnow, our analysis began by mapping the contents of the discussion. This initial
mapping led us to distinguish between three focal points in the sequence. The
first, in lines 101–2, frames the entire narrated event. Chronologically, these two
lines are like brackets that frame the rest of the sequence, which begins with
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
23
a broad question about the team’s progress: “what about religious leadership?”
and ends after the process reported on the rest of the sequence is complete: “we
did that too.” What did they do? How did they do it? The answers to these
questions can shed light on the cross-disciplinary knowledge building processes
we observed.
The second focal point, portrayed in line 107, and then again in 116–7, is
the group’s understanding of religious leadership. As the group members
discuss their understanding of religious leadership, they differentiate
between two phases. Initially, they were stumped: “we weren’t able to
understand and get the definition of religious leadership,” line 107; but
by the end, they had articulated a sophisticated classification: religious
leaders influence individual followers’ faith without resorting to coercion.
In other words, their definition addressed three key tensions to any under
standing of religion: (1) individual versus communal; (2) internal and
spiritual versus publicly accessible and tangible; and (3) internal versus
external motivations. Touching on these tensions demonstrates a complex
grasp of religion that echoes some influential religious philosophers (e.g.,
James, 1982/1902).
Going from no understanding to such a advanced definition required Liat,
Michal, and Noa to engage in cross-disciplinary knowledge building, by
utilizing one source that they understood well (politics) to decipher another
(religion). According to our schema (see Figure 1), this methodological
cross-application, which appears in lines 105 and 108–113, constituted an
act of integration. As secular adolescents from a well-off community, it was
not surprising that at the outset their understanding of politics and political
leadership was more advanced than their understanding of religion and
religious leadership. For example, in line 113–4, when Michal defined
peace as an example of a tangible political goal, Noa suggested that the
current Prime Minister wasn’t actually working toward peace at all, because
it contradicted his electoral interests. This exchange demonstrated these
students’ nuanced understanding of the political sphere and their confidence
in discussing political leadership.
Lines 111–3 contain the most direct reference to the act of integra
tion. Michal explains that in contrast to politics, which is about achiev
ing tangible goals in the shared, real, world, religion is about “the
person . . . working towards the goal” by which she alludes to
a private and internal realm. The reference to Israel’s Prime Minister
in line 114, who is typically unpopular among the population of TelNof, evokes the coercive nature of politics, which the group juxtaposed
with religion. In lines 105 and 109, Michal and then Noa articulate the
method by which they drew on their knowledge of politics to develop
a better understanding of religion: “we realized that political leadership
is kind of the opposite of religious leadership.”
24
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
The segment ends with a deictic that connects between the contents
of the conversation and the interaction unfolding here-and-now, as
Noa explains the function of religious leaders by referring to her
teacher, David, in the second person, to elaborate on their understand
ing of the concept: “You help them and like convince them about
something you believe in, it’s not [. . .] like you have too much control
over them, you get them to believe in something that you believe is
really true.” Although she is ostensibly still talking about the narrated
events, Noa’s use of this deictic drew the interlocutor’s attention back
to the present, signaling that the discussion of their inquiry into
religious leadership was complete and that the question posed in line
101 had been answered by means of a methodological cross application
(Figure 1).
Transdisciplinary identity work
We hypothesized that the interdisciplinary humanities learning environment
would mediate learning on themes that were relevant to students’ everyday
lives. One theme that emerged repeatedly in the lessons we observed and the
interviews we conducted was the notion of identity, which we understood
simultaneously as a reference to recognizable social categories such as gen
der, ethnicity, faith, and nationality (Gee, 2000) and as a process of selfnarration (McAdams & McLean, 2013).
Some of the teachers designed learning environments with the explicit
aim of mediating acts of synthesis, including reflections on identity and
self, and creative expression. Ruth was especially drawn to explorations
of identity, and particularly to the ways in which the tension between
Ashkenazi (European Jews) and Mizrachi (North African and Middle
Eastern Jews) identities shaped public discourse in Israel (Ruth herself
came from a mixed ethnic background). Because most of Ruth’s students
at Tikvah were Mizrachi, she saw her humanities lessons as an oppor
tunity to celebrate their marginalized heritage. This was accomplished
through an extended inquiry project into students’ family histories. At
one point in the inquiry the students took advantage of an online tool
made available by the diaspora museum to investigate their surnames.
The following segment offers a glimpse into one case of transdisciplinary
identity work. According to Ruth’s lesson plan leading up to the follow
ing interaction, students were supposed to investigate their surnames.
However, when Ruth brought up the topic of surnames, a student named
Amit raised a question surrounding middle names, and the following
discussion ensued:
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201
202
203
204
205
206
Teacher/Ruth:
Student/Amit:
Teacher/Ruth:
Student/Amit:
Teacher/Ruth:
207
208
209 Student/Ella:
210 Teacher/Ruth:
211
212 Student/Rena:
213 Teacher/Ruth:
214
215 Teacher/Ruth:
216 Teacher/Ruth:
217 Student/Amit:
218 Teacher/Ruth:
219
220
221
222
Student/Amit:
Teacher/Ruth:
Student/Amit:
Student/Amit:
223 Teacher/Ruth:
224 Student/Amit:
225 Student/Itai:
226 Student/Amit:
25
Now we are continuing one step further with surnames.
Ruth, I have a question. Is it customary to give a middle name?
Yes, often.
Whose custom is it?
There are all kinds of possibilities.
Let’s say if suddenly a child, I don’t know, let’s say I had a relative who got
sick at a very young age, so they added the name Chaim [life in Hebrew],
so he was called Isaac Chaim. Suddenly in the middle of his life they
added that name to strengthen him.
Because according to the Jewish belief, I think in general also, names carry
lots of meaning. A name can strengthen a person, tell about their
character traits, there are all kinds of views.
Raise your hand please.
My cousin had a different name and then she got sick when she was little
[unclear word] and the rabbi said to change her name.
Right, that can happen too. When someone is sick.
Yes Rena. Raise your hand please.
My brother is called Alex Daniel, but we call him Daniel because Alex is my
grandfather’s name but [officially] Alex is his first name.
Right. So, a lot of times there is an additional name after a relative,
a grandparent, good.
Alex is the name of the grandfather and Daniel is what you call him, a more
modern name, too, right? Good.
Yes Amit? [another student interrupts]
Wait. Now Amit is speaking. Let’s strengthen our listening muscle. Let’s
practice that.
When my mother’s father died, he died one week before I was born. So, they
said they’d call me Amit Jacob, his name was Jacob.
Right. Some people name after grandparents who have passed away and
others after those who are still alive.
But there was an argument when I was born.
Why was there an argument? Between whom?
Between my father’s family and my mother’s family.
They didn’t want to call me after someone who passed away, after someone
- [trails off]
Oh, right. People disagree about whether to name after someone who has
passed away or someone who is still alive, they disagree.
If I could speak up [at the time] I would have said it’s OK [to name me after
someone who died].
It’s true. Just yesterday he asked to be called Jacob [by his second name].
Yes, it’s true.
This sequence combines two types of narrated events (“what is being talked
about,” see “Methods” section), which together constituted an act of synthesis
(Figure 1) that was accomplished in the narrating event, here-and-now. The first
topic is the custom of giving middle names (lines 202–5, 207, 210, 213, 218, 223),
and the second is a series of examples in which learners tell stories about people
they know as a means of elaboration and clarification (206, 209, 212, 214, 217,
219–22, 224–226). The topic of middle names is broached from several direc
tions: who gives them, under what circumstances, and for what reason. For
example, the teacher suggests that some people believe that a middle name might
provide strength in cases of severe illness (207), or that it can serve to commem
orate someone who has passed away (218).
26
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
The second set of narrated events includes a series of five examples
(Table 5). A closer look at the deictics and reported speech in each of
these examples is revealing. What is particularly striking is how the
identities of the name givers/users, and the people being named within
the examples move increasingly closer from a far-off then-and-there to
an immediate here-and-now. The final three examples are participant
examples, in which class members feature within the example itself,
enabling students to simultaneously index narrating and narrated
events, and thus engage in meaningful identity work by drawing
a connection between them. In the first example, Ruth recounts the
tale of a relative who fell ill at a very young age and was given a new
middle name “to strengthen him” (206). The relative is apparently
distant, and the identity of those giving/using the name remains
anonymous. In the second example, a student named Ella tells
a similar story—an infant who fell ill was given a second name in
the hope of curing her. But in this case, the identity of the name giver
is revealed (“The Rabbi,” line 209), as is Ella’s relationship with the
infant (“my cousin”). Rena’s third example is a participant example:
she and other family members call her brother by his middle name
because it is more modern than his first name, which is after
a grandfather (212). In the fourth example, Amit brings the topic of
conversation to bear upon himself, sharing that his own middle name
was given in memory of his late grandfather (217). And finally, the
sequence culminates with a fifth participant example, as a student
named Itai reveals that Amit had indeed asked his classmates to call
him by his middle name, Jacob (225).
The final two participant examples offer a rich illustration of transdisci
plinary identity work within an IL-Humanities lesson. Amit seized on the
topic of names, which afforded him the opportunity to engage in an act of
synthesis as he reflected on the nature of his relationship with his family
heritage, and identified with his late grandfather, who was also his name
sake. Ruth’s choice to divert her lesson plan from surnames to middle
names was clearly a deliberate one, as was her decision to allow for so
many examples, while calling on the students to hear each other out (e.g.,
line 216). These strategies enabled meaningful identity work that deepened
the students’ connections with one another in addition to strengthening
their family ties. Indeed, the final participant example brought the con
versation round full circle. Initially, the discussion began with Ruth’s story
of a nameless distant relative who was named, then-and-there, by an
anonymous “them.” By the end, in Itai’s participant example, both name
giver and name holder were participants in the narrating event (Itai and
Amit).
Summary of example
I had a relative who got sick at a very young age, so they
added the name Chaim [life in Hebrew]
My cousin had a different name and then she got sick
when she was little [unclear] and the Rabbi said to
change her name.
Student/Rena (line Participant example My brother is called Alex Daniel, but we call him Daniel
212)
because Alex is my grandfather’s name but [officially]
Alex is his first name.
Student/Amit (line Participant example When my mother’s father died, he died one week before
217)
I was born. So, they said they’d call me Amit Jacob, his
name was Jacob.
Student/Itai (line
Participant example Just yesterday he asked to be called Jacob
225)
Speaker
Type of example
Teacher/Ruth (line Non-participant
206)
example
Student/Ella (line Non-participant
209)
example
Table 5. Five examples about middle names.
Out
of respect for
grandfather.
Because he asked to.
Class member
(Amit)
Class member
(Amit)
Close relative (parents)
Class members (Itai and
others)
To strengthen her.
Reason for middle
name use
To strengthen him.
Because it’s more
modern.
Distant relative
(cousin)
Whose middle
name
Distant relative
Class member (Rena and her Close relative
family)
(brother)
The Rabbi
Who uses a middle name
Anonymous “They”
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
27
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NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
Discussion
This study examined interdisciplinary learning in K-12 humanities units by
asking about changes in learner competences and by exploring how such
learning occurred in classrooms. We now turn to an integrative discussion of
our answers to these questions.
Our conceptual and empirical reviews suggested that IL-Humanities may
promote two types of learning: cross-disciplinary knowledge building, which
is rarely the goal of single subject learning; and transdisciplinary identity
building, which can readily be brought to the fore in interdisciplinary con
texts, by focusing on immersion, embeddedness and reflectiveness.
To gain a sense of how effective IL-Humanities is in promoting these two
processes of interdisciplinary learning, we developed the novel
Interdisciplinary Competences Assessment (ICA). Our findings offered pre
liminary affirmation of the reliability of the ICA for assessing IL-Humanities
outcomes: the reliability levels of the measure were satisfactory, the coding
scheme lent itself to satisfactory Inter-rater reliability, pre and post scores on
the assignments were highly positively correlated indicating consistency,
data distribution approximated normality, the range of scores was broad,
and the factor analysis indicated a single construct behind all the questions,
which we conceptualized as interdisciplinary competency. While these find
ings indicate a satisfactory level of reliability, there remains work to be done
to enhance the psychometric robustness of the ICA. Future research could
explore the inclusion of additional items to better capture the multidimen
sional nature of interdisciplinary competences, potentially leading to
a multifactor solution that could explain a larger portion of the variance,
and further investigation into the discriminant and convergent validity of the
measure could test whether the tool accurately captures the construct it is
intended to assess, distinct from related disciplinary competences.
Building on the satisfactory psychometric properties of the measure, we
tested middle school students before and after engaging in IL-Humanities
units and found that interdisciplinary competences were amenable to
improvement following such learning, in contrast to the comparison
group, where improvements were not statistically significant. This indicates
that when students learn in interdisciplinary environments, their abilities to
comprehend, integrate and synthesize sources across different subjects and
disciplines improve. However, the small magnitude of change, although
statistically significant, indicates that further pedagogical development is
needed to help students enhance these competences, and to help teachers
mediate them.
We also asked how learners engage in cross-disciplinary knowledge build
ing and transdisciplinary identity work. Coding the class discourses enabled
us to ascertain that both major categories (knowledge building and identity
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
29
work) were reflected in real classroom dialogue and were in fact represented
in nearly equal proportions, while discourse analysis revealed some of the
ways in which these learning processes unfolded.
A close reading of two telling episodes (Mitchell, 1984) offered insights
into the learning processes that could explain these advances in interdisci
plinary competences: The removal of disciplinary boundaries for students in
the case of David’s class meant that students could draw on their under
standing of one subject domain (in this case, the political realm) to advance
their understanding of another (in this case, of religion). In terms of the
Interdisciplinary Competences schema, this is an example of how
“Methodological cross-application” (part of “Integration;” see Figure 1) can
be enacted in the humanities. The case of Ruth and her students offered
a glimpse into the inner workings of transdisciplinary identity work, which
was afforded by several elements in the learning environment, including the
teacher’s willingness to diverge from the original lesson plan, classroom
norms that included openness and respect, and the empathy of both teacher
and students toward participant examples, which were personal and even
intimate. This is an example of how “Reflective synthesis: Connecting to self/
identity” (part of the “Synthesis” component; see Figure 1) can be performed
in interdisciplinary humanities environments.
These findings can offer directions for future design-based research stu
dies related to the question of how IL-Humanities can be applied successfully
in classrooms. We tentatively suggest that such research could begin by
encouraging teachers to facilitate identity work in IL-Humanities by allowing
students to shift the lesson’s focus, so that it revolves around issues relevant
to them across domains of knowledge, and by making space for personal
stories and for self-authoring in the context of learning communities. Future
research could then use the ICA to explore how these design principles affect
the students’ interdisciplinary learning competences.
The quantitative and qualitative findings do not triangulate a single ques
tion; instead, they commence from a common conceptual framework,
employed for complementary objectives. The quantitative factor analysis
indicates that cross-disciplinary knowledge building and transdisciplinary
identity work could be part of a single construct which we termed “inter
disciplinary competences.” Conversely, the qualitative findings offer data on
the appearance and frequency of both processes in a classroom setting
(rather than in a predesigned assignment) and offer insights into how these
competences can be promoted.
Although the interdisciplinary learning that we observed included
a significant element of cross-disciplinary knowledge integration, a caveat
is in order: The kind of cross-disciplinary knowledge integration that we
observed in the classrooms (in the episode of David and his students which
we presented, and in other analyzed episodes) tended to revolve around
30
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
exploring topics or questions from different perspectives. It was rarely of the
kind that is described in theoretical models of interdisciplinarity (e.g., Boix
Mansilla et al., 2000; Spelt et al., 2009) or in empirical studies on IL in higher
education settings (e.g., Schijf et al., 2023). Class discussions did not often
focus on what we termed “comprehension” competences (Figure 1). In fact,
learning was rarely concerned with disciplinary distinctions, such as how
a historian’s thought process differs from that of a philosopher. Perhaps
disciplinary categories were simply not salient enough to these students; their
limited familiarity with the characteristics of various disciplines hindered
meaningful engagement in this aspect.
However, interdisciplinary learning in K-12 settings need not be of
a meta-disciplinary nature, that is, about disciplines and how they interact.
Other challenges relating to knowledge building loom large for students
today, who face an overload of information, fake news and post-truth
(Chinn et al., 2021). To successfully navigate this knowledge-scape, students
need to be able to make sound knowledge connections across subjects. Our
findings show that they can improve the competences required to accom
plish this (to a certain degree at least) and shed light on some of the specific
ways in which it plays out.
Contemporary life also poses new challenges to identity and belonging, as
students grapple with the ever-growing venues for self-realization and parti
cipation in local and global communities, online and offline. Simultaneously,
identity politics have been fueling an increasingly radical political discourse.
Hitherto, identity discourse tended to be considered out of bounds in public
schools that were ostensibly apolitical. Yet, to counter the challenges posed
by this new reality, schools today may need to allocate more space to mindful
identity work to sustain liberalism and value pluralism (Alexander, 2015;
Novis-Deutsch, 2018). By mediating meaningful identity work and cultivat
ing students’ competences to engage with it fruitfully, IL-Humanities can
play a part in realizing this goal too.
Limitations and future directions for study
Our findings beg caution for several reasons. IL-Humanities is a large field,
and as with any specific study, our context-dependent findings may be
difficult to replicate. This study was additionally limited by the scope and
short duration of the class interventions, in part due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
One of the promising aspects of this study was a focus on competences
that undergird IL-Humanities, especially considering recent work on mea
suring interdisciplinary understanding in higher education (Schijf et al.,
2023). Due to the preliminary nature of the ICA measure, further research
is recommended to corroborate these findings. Such work includes testing
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
31
the measure using different pairs of texts, different subjects in the humanities
(e.g., literature and philosophy), and different contexts (e.g., countries, age of
students). This could bolster the internal validity of the measure and enhance
its applicability in diverse educational settings. Further testing of the rela
tionship between the two processes of interdisciplinary learning—crossdisciplinary knowledge building and transdisciplinary identity work—is
warranted as well. We took preliminary steps in this direction by coding
class interactions using the learning actions suggested by our conceptual
model, but further work is needed. Future studies could also link the schema
of interdisciplinary competences with designs for learning environments,
thereby enabling more robust assertions regarding the ICA’s implications for
learning. Finally, Future studies could examine the impact of different
pedagogies within the broad range of what we termed “interdisciplinary”
learning on interdisciplinary competences.
As we noted in the “Literature Review” section, STEM research, which
covers another form of interdisciplinary learning, is far more developed,
cohesive, and theoretically advanced than research on IL-Humanities. It is
worth considering some of the steps taken in the STEM field, as inspiration.
STEM researchers developed a large body of work on knowledge integration
(Linn & Eylon, 2011) including a Design Principles database (Kali, 2006). We
envision a similar process in IL-Humanities, perhaps gradually leading to
a third body of research where the two sets of findings and learning princi
ples can be integrated.
Conclusion
The humanities have a major role to serve in any society, but especially in
those experiencing fragmentation, threats to their democratic infrastructure,
and deficiency of pluralism. If a humanistic approach to public discourse
offers a chance of repairing societal breaches, then a good place to begin is in
defining goals for humanities education. Interdisciplinary humanities educa
tion can help learning communities focus on the big questions of humanity,
by allowing learners to integrate the insights attained in various disciplines
such as philosophy, literature and history, about the human condition. It also
has the capability, as this study demonstrates, to promote an identitycentered discourse about who we are as a society and who we want to
become. One of the postulates of the relations-based ecological perspective
on knowledge (Markauskaite, et al., 2023) is that “in learning, not only
knowledge but also the whole person is transformed. Learning is seen as
a process of constant becoming, in which knowledge is continuously (re)
constructed based on information available in the environment” (p. 35). This
study suggests that interdisciplinary learning contexts in the humanities,
32
NOVIS-DEUTSCH ET AL.
may be especially suitable for both mediating and studying such coconstitutive knowledge-building and identity-developing processes.
We noted that our research team began this project challenged by our own
disciplinary differences. As our work progressed, we identified three strate
gies that enabled us to overcome these differences: (1) articulating a shared
commitment (in our case, to a pluralistic, liberal democratic society), (2)
identifying a shared goal (furthering humanities education in preparing
citizens for such a society) and (3) a willingness to engage in open dialogue
and in learning from each other. This shared positionality may be key to
other successful IL-Humanities programs, and our findings support our
recommendation to develop IL-Humanities that center on integration, dia
logue and reflection and help learners develop the competences necessary to
engage in such activities. This can allow learners to weave together the
complex historical, literary, artistic, ideational, and social strands of the
humanities, thus enhancing their knowledge and their identities.
Acknowledgment
The authors acknowledge the financial and substantive support offered by the Bureau
of the Chief Scientist of the Education Ministry and especially of Dr. Odette Sela,
Chief Scientist. We gratefully acknowledge the collaboration and support of the
Be’eri Program at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem for managing the PD
programs, and especially the support of Alon Mor, head of the Be’eri Program, and of
Dr. Noga Baror who managed the PD courses. We are grateful for the advice and
input of Prof. Anat Zohar, Prof. Sarit Barzilai, Dr. Racheli Levin Peled and Prof.
Adam Lefstein. We cannot thank editor Prof. Lina Markauskaite enough for her
support and advice during the publication process. We would also like to thank the
anonymous reviewers whose thoughtful and wise comments helped us improve the
manuscript. We are deeply appreciative of the hard work of research assistants and
data analysts Nofar Mizrachi, Tamar Zohar, Gili Bublil, Einav Levi, Rana Swaid;
Brian Oren, and Maya Elazar. Finally, we extend our grateful thanks to all the
principals, teachers, and students who participated wholeheartedly in this study.
Disclosure statement
We confirm that there are no known conflicts of interest associated with this
publication and that no financial supporters of this work influenced its outcome.
All the sources of funding for the work described in this publication are acknowl
edged: the Israel Ministry of Education and the Center for Jewish Education,
University of Haifa.
Funding
This work was supported by the Israel Ministry of Education under Grant [316556].
JOURNAL OF THE LEARNING SCIENCES
33
ORCID
Nurit Novis-Deutsch
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8683-3008
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3812-8689
Etan Cohen
Author’s contribution
Nurit Novis-Deutsch: Conceptualization, methodology, formal analysis, writing
(original draft, review and editing) visualization, supervision. Etan Cohen:
Conceptualization, methodology, data curation, writing (original draft, review
and editing). Hanan A. Alexander: conceptualization, supervision, review,
funding acquisition. Liat Rahamian: Project administration, Uri Gavish, Ofir
Glick, Oren Yehi-Shalom, Gad Marcus and Ayelet Mann: Investigation, data
curation.
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