In interdisciplinary education, students’ group collaboration is often used to simulate real-world collaboration, where individuals from different disciplinary backgrounds work together to solve complex problems (Klein, 1990; Repko & Szostak, 2020). Although this pedagogical strategy is widely adopted, empirical understanding of how interdisciplinary student teams collaborate around classroom-based tasks remains limited. Prior studies have predominantly focused on learning outcomes (e.g., grades, productivity, and knowledge gains), tending to rely on self-report measures, rather than closely examining collaborative processes as they unfold in practice. Some empirical studies have focused on collaborative processes in group work more generally. For example, Van Leeuwen et al. (2014) showed that students’ interaction patterns and role negotiations change dynamically during collaboration, suggesting that collaborative roles and forms of participation are not fixed but continuously renegotiated over time. Similarly, Han and Ellis (2021) found that interdisciplinary teamwork is shaped by uneven role distributions , in which students differed in their levels and forms of participation, as well as by recurring interaction patterns, such as stable participation roles and repeated sequences of engagement, which influenced students’ involvement and engagement. Beyond interactional processes, theoretical work has emphasized the broader context in which collaboration takes place. Jornet and Damşa (2021) argued that collaboration should be understood as a sociomaterial process, in which knowledge emerges through students’ interactions with peers, tools, and learning environments. Markauskaite et al. (2023) further conceptualized interdisciplinary collaboration as part of an “educational ecology,” highlighting the interconnected roles of individual factors (e.g., students’ disciplinary backgrounds and prior experiences), social factors (e.g., interaction patterns, role relations, and norms of collaboration), material factors (e.g., tasks, tools, and digital platforms), and institutional factors (e.g., course structures, assessment requirements, and instructional arrangements).

While these studies have significantly advanced our understanding of interdisciplinary collaboration by focusing on interactional and ecological perspectives, less attention has been paid to how interdisciplinary collaboration is enacted in classroom practice. This study focuses on the question of how students experience, enact, and reflect on collaborative processes within interdisciplinary team-based projects. Adopting a process-oriented focus, the study traces students’ collaborative work over time by following group meetings and discussions and observing how teams jointly conduct system analysis, engage in interdisciplinary investigation, develop and negotiate critical arguments, and integrate knowledge across disciplines as they progress toward completing their projects. It examines multiple cases across different courses and team contexts to enrich and contextualize this understanding, and to explore similarities and variations in how collaboration unfolds.

The study adopts a multiple-case qualitative research design, integrating naturalistic observation and semi-structured reflective interviews. Phase 1: Naturalistic Observation Six interdisciplinary student teams drawn from different interdisciplinary courses were recruited. Each team was treated as a distinct case. Data included detailed field notes and audio recordings of in- and out of class teamwork, informal discussions, and online collaboration sessions. The researcher acted as a non-participant observer to preserve the authenticity of collaborative activity. The aim of this phase was to capture in-situ evidence of how students engage in interdisciplinary group collaboration as it unfolded in practice. Phase 2: Semi-Structured Reflective Interviews After student projects were completed, individual semi-structured reflective interviews (30–45 minutes) were conducted with students from each team. The interview protocol was designed to elicit reflection on students’ collaborative processes and learning experiences using six interconnected dimensions: (1) perceived contributions and group formation, (2) evolving problem understanding, (3) interdisciplinary investigation strategies and methods, (4) argumentation and decision-making processes, (5) knowledge integration across disciplinary perspectives, and (6) evaluation of collaboration and perceived teacher support. Data Analysis Group interaction data will be analyzed with a focus on students’ dialogue and interactional sequences during collaborative problem-solving. An interaction coding scheme will be used to capture key collaborative processes, including problem framing, negotiation of meanings, disciplinary positioning, idea elaboration and challenge, conflict management, and the co-construction of shared understanding. Coding will be conducted at the level of interactional episodes, enabling close examination of how collaborative practices emerge and shift over time within each group. Interviews are still in progress. The data will be analyzed using thematic analysis. Inductive coding will be used to identify themes related to perceptions of interdisciplinary roles, communication challenges, group dynamics, and learning experiences. These themes will be compared with patterns from interaction analysis to examine how students’ interpretations correspond to, or differ from, their observed practices. Through cross-case analysis shared patterns and context-specific variations in interdisciplinary collaboration may be identified. Finally, findings from group interaction and interview analyses will be triangulated to enhance analytic credibility and develop a comprehensive understanding of interdisciplinary collaboration in authentic group work settings.

At the time of writing, data collection and analysis are still ongoing. The current data and analysis already provide insight into how interdisciplinary collaboration unfolds in practice. Firstly, students consistently engaged in problem framing and task negotiation. They devoted substantial interactional effort to clarifying assignment requirements, selecting and refining project topics, and defining the core challenges. These negotiations reflected disciplinary differences in how students framed sustainability problems, with some prioritizing technical feasibility and others emphasizing ethical, social, or normative considerations. Secondly, collaboration involved continuous knowledge integration and joint decision-making. Students combined perspectives from multiple domains relevant to their project to co-construct workable solutions. Thirdly, the data reveal strong patterns of collaborative problem-solving and adaptive regulation. Teams encountered technical, conceptual, and organizational difficulties and responded through experimentation, peer scaffolding, redistribution of responsibilities, and simplification of goals. Socio-emotional processes—such as encouragement, humor, emotional regulation, and shared responsibility—were crucial for sustaining collaboration, particularly under frustration and uncertainty. Further data analysis will further explore the collaborative processes, students’ reflections on collaboration and the differences and similarities between distinct interdisciplinary programmes in which students complete collaborative tasks. These comparisons will offer insight into how interdisciplinary settings and contexts shape collaborative processes and learning in interdisciplinary group work.

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