Interdisciplinary Learning 

Learning Targets

Students will be able to understand what Interdisciplinary learning is, and be able to identify examples of Interdisciplinary learning both inside and outside of the classroom.

What exactly is Interdisciplinary learning?

Interdisciplinary learning is an education technique in which educators teach their students about one subject using a variety of viewpoints. Interdisciplinary learning serves to link common ideas and themes across different cultural/idealogical viewpoints. Interdisciplinary learning can combine any subject of study with any amount/type of viewpoints in order to provide knowledge on said subject. 

For example if an educator wanted to teach about food sources locally available and how  has impacted various geographically separated culture groups across the world, they could explain how in virtually every society some form of what is known as "Oatmeal" has been around using different forms of locally available grains, even though throughout history these separate regions would have had no contact with each other, or access or knowledge of each-others culinary practices.

Interdisciplinary learning and its discovery of the theory of archetypes and the "Heros Journey"

Some of the most groundbreaking discoveries have come from Interdisciplinary learning. A great example is Joseph Campbell and his studies on archetypes throughout human history. Campbell studied the historical mythologies of various cultural groups, and discovered that across all of these mythologies and legends, the same "archetypes" keep reappearing. An archetype is a reoccurant symbol, message, or motif. He used his study to argue that humans naturally idealize certain values or idealogiesm, no matter where they were born, or what culture they were raised in. The best example he identified is the presence of the literary style of the "Heroes Journey", where the archetype "The Hero" goes through a set of events that are replicated throughout many facets of historical storytelling (The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama by Lord Raglan, Dover Publications, 1936)

Above is a diagram of the Heros Journey, below is its application to modern cinema, as well dividing characters into their "archetypes" which is discussed below the image.

The Hero's Journey essentially in occurs in almost every mythos across the world, in ancient Greece the epic "The Oddyssey and the Illiad" and in ancient Sweden "The Völsung saga". Even to this today the Hero's Journey manifests in modern story telling, with the Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars being more recent examples (The Sympathetic Plot, Its Psychological Origins, and Implications for the Evolution of Fiction, 2021). Campbell was a psychologist by trade, and he wanted to learn about human nature, so he studied as much diverse knowledge of human history as he could, and things like the Hero's Journey are what he found. Another great example of a psychologist who used interdisciplinary learning is Carl Jung,  who discovered the presence of the 12 personality archetypes across human mythology and stories, which would go on to influence the creation of the popular MBTI personality test. Interdisciplinary learning is important because levying one concept against various viewpoints serves to discover ideas and concepts that would be impossible to learn or understand without using interdisciplinary learning.

Using Interdisciplinary learning in everyday life.

It may seem difficult off the bat, but think about all of the popular movies/television being made, then pick one common archetype, like the hero, the villain, or the rogue, and relate that archetype to a couple of your favorite shows/movies. If you can think of a couple characters that serve the same roll across different movies, youve successfully used Interdisciplinary learning to discover a common archetype!

Multiple Choice #1

What is an example of an Interdisciplinary learning styled lesson?

Teaching about popular fashion styles using the Gucci Fashion Week event runway models A

Teaching about popular fashion using ODU's student population B

Teaching about popular fashion using a documentary about the Inuit tribespeoples fight against hypothermia C

Teaching about popular fashion using Dr. Kidds various outfits D

Multiple Choice #2

What is interdisciplinary learning?

Studying one concept, and using various diverse viewpoints to analyze said concept A

Studying one viewpoint, and using various diverse concepts to analyze said viewpoint. B

Studying many viewpoints, and using many various diverse concepts to analyze said viewpoints C

Studying nothing, and expecting to learn something D

Question

Can you use interdisciplanary learning? Think of a couple of your favorite movies. Now think of a character archetype discussed in the above pictogram, such as the hero. Now try and identify "The Hero" in each of your favorite movies. 

References :

Lord Raglan. The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama by Lord Raglan, Dover Publications, 1936

•  Singh, Manvir (July 2021). "The Sympathetic Plot, Its Psychological Origins, and Implications for the Evolution of Fiction". Emotion Review. 13(3): 183–198. doi:10.1177/17540739211022824. ISSN 1754-0739. S2CID 235779612.