ABSTRACT
Discipline-based teaching focuses on the strong primary influence of the disciplinary context, its signature ways of thinking and practising, its generally accepted conceptual structures and boundaries and the tribal norms and values of its community of practice. Depending on discipline and context, knowledge might be troublesome because it is ritualised, inert, conceptually difficult and complex, counterintuitive, alien or tacit, because it requires adopting an unfamiliar discourse, or perhaps because the learner remains 'defended' and does not wish to change or let go of their customary way of seeing things. To some extent disciplines have traditionally served to reduce the complexity and boundless nature of knowledge through establishing their own structures, internal logic and epistemes. It is imperative that teaching crosses disciplines, to better allow students to master threshold concepts: interdisciplinary teaching and learning requires a sometimes troubling conceptual integration of different perspectives, a letting go of a previous stance, an ontological shift, and acquisition of a new shared discourse.
