Training master’s students in integration: Principles and activities

By Sabine Hoffmann and Bianca Vienni-Baptista.

Given that integration is a key characteristic of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, how can we explicitly teach students how to integrate?

Our focus is on master’s students and teaching them how to constructively combine perspectives from different disciplines as well as from science, policy and practice.

Here we share key guiding principles underpinning integrative teaching and learning, as well as main teaching and learning activities.

Four principles to guide integrative teaching and learning

We propose four guiding principles.

1. Recognise integration as a key competence
   Recognising integration across different disciplines, and also science, policy and practice, as a key competence in academia and beyond requires operationalising competence-oriented learning objectives. Such learning objectives define the subject- and method-specific, as well as social and personal, competencies required to proactively lead and actively engage in integration.
2. Connect theory with practice
   This involves using empirical case studies, ie., interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research projects, to illustrate core elements of integration (eg., theories, concepts, conditions, strategies, dimensions, principles, roles, competencies) and to exemplify strategies, methods and tools of integration used in these projects.
3. Create opportunities for experiential learning
   Designing hands-on exercises as a means for experiential learning enables students to apply and experience different integration strategies, methods and tools. It also allows them to draw on their direct experiences in proactively leading and actively engaging in integration and critically reflecting, thinking and acting on the various challenges and opportunities they experience in their collaborative and integrative efforts.
4. Build in critical reflection
   Allowing time and space for critical reflection on integration, including by teachers, as well as leaders and team members of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research projects, involves sharing struggles and serving as role models for critical reflection.

Four main teaching and learning activities

The figure below encapsulates the main teaching and learning activities and how they relate to the cornerstones of studying, leading, teaching and learning integration. The basic assumption is straightforward: students learn integration best when theory and practice continuously inform one another.

We propose four main teaching and learning activities, as well as describing how they are combined.

1. 1. Introducing core elements of integration
      Core elements of integration include integration theories, concepts, dimensions, principles, conditions, strategies, methods, tools, researchers’ roles and competencies in integration. To link conceptual insights on integration with empirical insights, it helps if the teachers draw on experiential knowledge in leading and engaging in integration in different interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary projects.
   2. Using empirical case studies
      Empirical cases ideally highlight (i) a particular environmental and societal problem, (ii) the integration process and related outputs, and (iii) the integration methods and tools used. Students analyse and cross-compare these empirical cases using what they have learned about the core elements of integration.
   3. Providing hands-on exercises and team building exercises
      Hands-on exercises are usefully focused on a case study, allowing students to apply and experiment with particular integration methods or other tools (for example, theory of change) and to assess their strengths and weaknesses, as well as potentials and limitations. Team-building exercises (for example, team charters) are used to create an experimental and safe space in the classroom.
   4. Supporting reflective learning journals
      Reflective learning journals allow students to consider (after each course module or group work): what happened, why, so what and now what. Students bring their individual reflections to the classroom to share key insights within their groups.
   5. Combining the activities
      Returning to the figure above, the core elements of integration, the empirical case studies, the hands-on exercises and the reflective learning journals enable the teachers to bridge conceptual and empirical insights from studying and leading integration (left side of the figure) with a view to teaching students integration in theory (eg. understanding, analysing, distinguishing, combining, discussing, reflecting and assessing integration), and concurrently enabling them to learn integration in practice (eg., applying, experiencing and experimenting with integration methods and tools; designing, planning and implementing integration processes; generating integrated outputs) (right side of the figure).

Conclusion

These principles and activities are based on a master’s degree course in environmental sciences that we co-taught in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.

What do you think? Do the principles and activities we outline resonate with you? Are there others that you would add? Are there other ways of teaching integration that you have found to be effective?

To find out more:

Hoffmann S. and Vienni-Baptista, B. (2026). Training integration in science, policy and practice: Insights from designing and implementing integrative teaching and learning. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 13, 1. (Online) (DOI): https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-06523-6

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Statement: Microsoft Copilot Chat (M365 A5 Faculty (educational institution) plan; Basic tier) was used in October 2026 for brainstorming the structure for a draft of this i2Insights contribution. The authors then revised the structure and filled it with content. (For i2Insights policy on artificial intelligence please see https://i2insights.org/contributing-to-i2insights/guidelines-for-authors/#artificial-intelligence.)

Biography: Sabine Hoffmann PhD is group leader of inter- and transdisciplinary research at Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, in Duebendorf, Switzerland. Her research focuses on integration and integrative leadership in large inter- and transdisciplinary research programs.

Biography: Bianca Vienni-Baptista PhD is a social anthropologist and Professor of Transformative Sustainability Science at BOKU University (Universität für Bodenkultur / University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences) in Vienna, Austria. Her research examines practices, institutional dynamics, funding and evaluation systems for interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. In addition, she co-designs transformative transdisciplinary processes for sustainable development.