Interdisciplinary learning in the humanities: Knowledge building and identity work

Figures & data

Figure 1. A schema of interdisciplinary competences and actions in the humanities.

Table 1. ICA sample details by school, classroom: intervention and comparison groups.

Schools (N = 5)	Intervention group		Comparison group
	n of classrooms	n of students–distribution (in brackets: completion)	n of classrooms	n of students–distribution (in brackets: completion)	Total n of students (in brackets: completion)
#1	2	75 (70)			75 (70)
#2	2	59 (59)			59 (59)
#3	2	76 (76)			76 (76)
#4	3	96 (81)	2	61 (36)	157 (117)
#5	2	74 (56)	4	145 (133)	219 (189)
Total	11	380 (342)	6	206 (169)	586 (511)

Table 2. The Interdisciplinary Competences Assessment (ICA): questions, skills, scoring rubric and examples.

Question on Interdisciplinary Competences Assessment (ICA)	Action required
1. What similarities do you identify between the two sources? In what ways are they similar?	Comprehension 1: Drawing analogies
2. What differences do you identify between the two sources? In what ways are they different?	Comprehension 2: Contrasting and distinguishing
3. Does one of the sources help you in any way to understand the other source? If so, how?	Integration 1: Cross-disciplinary application
4. Can you combine the sources to understand something new and interesting? If so, what did you learn?	Integration 2: Convergent Insight-drawing
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?	Synthesis 1: Divergent creative expansion
6. How do you personally relate to these sources? How do they connect to your own life and experiences?	Synthesis 2: Reflective connection to self/identity
Scoring rubric for questions (0–3)	Examples of answers
0 – No answer: The student did not produce any evidence of this a link between the sources	0 – “Don’t know;” “I can’t think of any similarities;” 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 required link but expressed understanding of the required action and offered a reasonable explanation for lack of answer. Vague answers or answers expressing unclear reasoning also coded “1.”	1–”I don’t think the texts are similar because their time-periods make them incomparable;” “I don’t connect to these stories since I’ve never been in love;” “I think the two texts are very similar” (no explanation offered); “I can’t think 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 adequate suggestion of how to relate to the texts in accordance with the type of action called for.	2 – “The Biblical story of Jacob and Leah is different from the story of the prince who built Taj Mahal because we have no monument to 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 generated two or more distinct ideas about how to relate to the texts in accordance with the type of action called for.	3 –When asked about personally relating to the texts, a student noted that she too is a young woman deserving equal rights and thus 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.

Table 3. Qualitative data corpus.

	David	Anna	Ruth	Lia
School	Tel Nof	Tel Nof	Tikvah	Tikvah
Grade	7^th	7^th	8^th	8^th
Number of students	37	39	25	27
Topic of curriculum	Religious leadership	Individual and collective change	Heritage and family history	Innovation and discovery in the Renaissance
Subjects integrated	History, 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 teacher, students’ final assignments	2 interviews with the teacher, students’ final assignments

Table 4. Results of Wilcoxon signed-rank test for the change in students’ interdisciplinary competences assessment (ICA) scores.

			Intervention						Comparison
Competency	Skill	Stage	Med	IQR	n	V	p	rrb	Med	IQR	n	V	p	rrb
Comprehension	Analogies	Pretest	2	[2, 3]	195	1822	.027*	.25	2	[2, 3]	99	929.5	.915	−.02
		post-test	2	[2, 3]					2	[2, 3]
	Contrasts	pretest	2	[0, 2]	194	1699.5	.019*	.27	2	[0, 2.5]	99	767	.631	.07
		post-test	2	[2, 2]					2	[0, 2]
Integration	Cross-disciplinary application	pretest	0	[0, 0]	194	874	.018*	.32	0	[0, 1]	99	256.5	.476	.14
		post-test	0	[0, 1]					0	[0, 1]
	Convergent integration	pretest	0	[0, 1]	196	1490	.003**	.35	0	[0, 1]	98	578.5	.412	.13
		post-test	0.5	[0, 2]					0.5	[0, 1.75]
Synthesis	Divergent synthesis	pretest	0	[0, 0]	193	371.5	<.001***	.61	0	[0, 0]	99	148.5	.200	.27
		post-test	0	[0, 2]					0	[0, 0]
	Reflective synthesis	pretest	1	[0, 2]	195	2225	.047*	.22	0	[0, 2]	96	623	.207	.19
		post-test	1	[0, 2]					1	[0, 2]
Overall interdisciplinary		pretest	5	[4, 8]	187	3439.5	<.001***	.45	6	[2.5, 8]	95	1541.5	.155	.18
		post-test	7	[5, 9]					6	[4, 9]

* = 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.

Table

101	Teacher/David:	What about religious leadership?
102	Student/Liat:	We did that too.
103	Student/Michal:	It needs to be elaborated a bit.
104	Teacher/David:	What material did you use to get to it and what did you write about it?
105	Student/Michal:	We found something online about political leadership and basically did the opposite.
106	Teacher/David:	[surprised] Political leadership? Where? In what period?
107	Student/Noa:	We saw, we first went to some websites because we weren’t able to understand and get the definition of religious leadership.
108		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.
109		And then we realized that political leadership is kind of the opposite of religious leadership.
110	Teacher/David:	Why?
111	Student/Michal:	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.
112	Teacher/David:	Political leadership?
113	Student/Michal:	[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.
114	Student/Noa:	I don’t really agree with that because it is in the Prime Minister’s interest that his country will … [trails off]
115	Student/Michal:	Obviously, right [laughing].
116	Teacher/David:	So, what is, what is, religious leadership? Where did you end up?
117	Student/Noa:	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.

Table

201	Teacher/Ruth:	Now we are continuing one step further with surnames.
202	Student/Amit:	Ruth, I have a question. Is it customary to give a middle name?
203	Teacher/Ruth:	Yes, often.
204	Student/Amit:	Whose custom is it?
205	Teacher/Ruth:	There are all kinds of possibilities.
206		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.
207		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.
208		Raise your hand please.
209	Student/Ella:	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.
210	Teacher/Ruth:	Right, that can happen too. When someone is sick.
211		Yes Rena. Raise your hand please.
212	Student/Rena:	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.
213	Teacher/Ruth:	Right. So, a lot of times there is an additional name after a relative, a grandparent, good.
214		Alex is the name of the grandfather and Daniel is what you call him, a more modern name, too, right? Good.
215	Teacher/Ruth:	Yes Amit? [another student interrupts]
216	Teacher/Ruth:	Wait. Now Amit is speaking. Let’s strengthen our listening muscle. Let’s practice that.
217	Student/Amit:	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.
218	Teacher/Ruth:	Right. Some people name after grandparents who have passed away and others after those who are still alive.
219	Student/Amit:	But there was an argument when I was born.
220	Teacher/Ruth:	Why was there an argument? Between whom?
221	Student/Amit:	Between my father’s family and my mother’s family.
222	Student/Amit:	They didn’t want to call me after someone who passed away, after someone - [trails off]
223	Teacher/Ruth:	Oh, right. People disagree about whether to name after someone who has passed away or someone who is still alive, they disagree.
224	Student/Amit:	If I could speak up [at the time] I would have said it’s OK [to name me after someone who died].
225	Student/Itai:	It’s true. Just yesterday he asked to be called Jacob [by his second name].
226	Student/Amit:	Yes, it’s true.

Table 5. Five examples about middle names.

Speaker	Type of example	Summary of example	Who uses a middle name	Whose middle name	Reason for middle name use
Teacher/Ruth (line 206)	Non-participant example	I had a relative who got sick at a very young age, so they added the name Chaim [life in Hebrew]	Anonymous “They”	Distant relative	To strengthen him.
Student/Ella (line 209)	Non-participant example	My cousin had a different name and then she got sick when she was little [unclear] and the Rabbi said to change her name.	The Rabbi	Distant relative (cousin)	To strengthen her.
Student/Rena (line 212)	Participant example	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.	Class member (Rena and her family)	Close relative (brother)	Because it’s more modern.
Student/Amit (line 217)	Participant example	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.	Close relative (parents)	Class member (Amit)	Out of respect for grandfather.
Student/Itai (line 225)	Participant example	Just yesterday he asked to be called Jacob	Class members (Itai and others)	Class member (Amit)	Because he asked to.