How to bring ‘interdisciplinarity’ into your teaching

Every time you bring a real-world issue into the classroom – public health, migration, AI – you may have noticed how awkward it feels to squeeze it into a single subject. Real-world problems don’t arrive labelled ‘history’ or ‘physics’, yet our teaching timetables often insist they should. That tension is exactly where interdisciplinarity comes in.

In practical classroom terms, it’s the intentional blending of academic subjects to help students build deeper, more connected understanding of topics. It’s not about ‘doing lots of subjects at once’, but rather integrating concepts, skills and ways of thinking so that one subject informs another.

Interdisciplinarity is different from multidisciplinarity, where subjects sit alongside one another without really interacting. You may teach a geography lesson about the climate crisis and a science lesson about the greenhouse effect is a good start, but interdisciplinarity goes further.

In this blog, we’ll unpack what interdisciplinarity really looks like in classrooms and explore low-pressure ways to put it into practice.

What is interdisciplinarity?

At its core, interdisciplinarity is about connection. Instead of teaching knowledge and skills in isolation, you help students draw on ideas, tools and ways of thinking from more than one subject to explore a topic or problem.

In practice, you could ask students to analyse how a novel reflects the political tensions and social hierarchies of its time, using historical sources to support their interpretations. Or, you might provide students with real climate datasets in maths to calculate trends, and then use the results to discuss climate models and future impact.

Another example is to have students evaluate a piece of technology, e.g. facial recognition software, and apply ethical frameworks from philosophy to it.

The key is that students actively transfer what they’ve learned in one classroom to another, often realising for the first time that the skills they develop aren’t just for an exam – they relate to multiple aspects of life.

The benefits of interdisciplinarity

For students

One of the biggest gains of interdisciplinarity is depth of understanding. When students encounter the same concept through different lenses, they’re more likely to grasp it properly. Seeing an idea resurface in another subject helps them challenge assumptions and accept complexity rather than just memorising one explanation.

Interdisciplinarity also supports retention. When knowledge is taught in context, with connections to real questions or applications, it sticks. Students remember why something matters, not just what it is. That’s key when you want them to transfer learning across units or year groups.

Another advantage is the development of transferable thinking skills. Instead of collecting isolated facts, students practise analysing evidence, spotting patterns, evaluating arguments and applying concepts in unfamiliar situations. These skills prepare them for university and future careers, where problems are rarely neatly defined nor subject-specific.

It can also make learning more accessible, as tasks often anchor abstract ideas in concrete examples. This can be especially helpful for students who struggle with non-tangible content.

For teachers

Interdisciplinarity opens the door to meaningful collaboration for teachers. Planning with colleagues across departments can spark ideas and reduce the feeling that you’re tackling big themes alone. Even informal conversations about what each of you is covering can lead to richer lessons.

When subjects coordinate, you avoid re-teaching content to students, and therefore have more time to go deeper into topics with your classes. You build on material that has already been discussed and students notice that their learning feels less fragmented.

How to bring interdisciplinarity into your classroom

You don’t need a whole-school overhaul to introduce interdisciplinarity. It works best when it grows naturally out of what you already teach.

Start by identifying natural partnerships. Some subjects pair almost automatically: science and maths, history and literature, geography and economics. Look at your scheme of work and notice where there are already similar concepts or skills across subjects.

Instead of trying to align an entire department, keep collaboration manageable and coordinate with one colleague to start. A shared unit, assessment task or enquiry question is more than enough to begin with and far easier to sustain over time.

Similarly, organise learning around broad themes. Themes like sustainability, identity, innovation or conflict naturally cut across subjects and give students a clear connection, even if content and assessments remain distinct.

Another practical move is to make transferable skills visible. Explicitly name when students are analysing data, building an argument, conducting research or solving problems. Hearing about the same processes across subjects helps students recognise patterns in learning.

Create shared vocabulary among departments too. Agreeing on terms for common processes, such as ‘evaluate’, ‘justify’, or ‘provide evidence’ allows students to spend less energy decoding expectations and more on the thinking itself.

You can also integrate interdisciplinarity within your own subject. For example, persuasive writing doesn’t only belong in English; teaching it through scientific lab reports makes its relevance more obvious for students.

Possible challenges facing interdisciplinarity

Some educators worry that interdisciplinarity can lead to superficial learning – like being a jack of all trades but master of none. This usually happens when connections are rushed or lack a strong grounding in subject knowledge. Students need solid foundations before they can meaningfully transfer ideas across contexts.

That’s why preserving disciplinary thinking matters. Interdisciplinarity should extend subject-specific approaches, not replace them. A historian evaluates sources differently from a scientist analysing data, and those distinctions are worth protecting. The aim is to help students recognise when and how to apply different ways of thinking, not to blur them into something vague.

Practical constraints can also get in the way of implementation. Timetables rarely line up, shared planning time is limited and school structures don’t always encourage cross-department work. These barriers are real, but not impossible to overcome.

Some schools find success with occasional shared planning time, or staggered lessons where different subjects tackle the same topic within the same half-term rather than the same week. Online collaboration can also help, through shared documents or joint resource banks that don’t require extra meetings.

Make interdisciplinarity work for you

Interdisciplinarity reflects how the world actually works. Outside of school, problems don’t announce which subject they fall under, and solutions don’t rely on one way of thinking alone. When learning mirrors this reality, students are better prepared for life and the world.

Give yourself permission to experiment with interdisciplinarity. Not every attempt will work perfectly and that’s fine, but take care to collect insights into what your students can handle and where collaboration works best.

After all, interdisciplinarity is about curiosity, growth and interaction among both students and teachers alike.

Further reading

Discover more strategies to diversify your approach to teaching. Read What are enrichment activities and why should you be doing them with your students?, How to use the UN Sustainable Development Goals in the classroom and Five ways to foster global citizenship in your classroom.