Interdisciplinary approaches and interdisciplinary work

Summary

There is a tension between the disciplinary approach and the interdisciplinary approach in educational world nowadays. Is this tension inevitable? Can both perspectives be held? This article states that students should spend most of their time and effort to acquire domain of the discipline, but at the same time they should always be aware that the most specific issues are better approached using, simultaneously, different disciplinary perspectives. The argument is illustrated by examining a didactic unit on Nazi Germany, where students and teachers analyze different aspects involved, using historical, scientific and psychological disciplinary knowledge and methods. In this way, each disciplinary perspective was enriched through a process of deep understanding of historical events.