Interdisciplinarity, the crossing of traditional boundaries between academic disciplines to advance understanding of a complex world, is lauded as the salve to wicked problems, such as climate change and disease, and solution to multifaceted real-world questions. When embedded in curricula and course design, interdisciplinary teaching enables students to step back from the narrow lens of one subject specialism and get a broader understanding of how things work in practice. It can augment engineering or healthcare, for example, with insights from the social sciences or humanities. But such ambitious cross-disciplinary goals must overcome culture clashes and difficulties around assessment, accreditation and pedagogy. This collection offers advice for instructional design, inter-faculty collaboration, inclusive classrooms and integrating technology to advance the mission of interdisciplinarity.
Developing interdisciplinary classes, courses and curricula
The higher education teaching toolbox offers a dazzling array of possibilities – from flipped learning to virtual internships – to help students acquire the silo-busting interdisciplinary skills that can lead to novel solutions and innovation. Find out how to teach interdisciplinarity by example.
Can you teach interdisciplinarity in 10 weeks? Interdisciplinarity is an ambitious and rewarding research process, but how realistic can we be in a 10-week module? Simon Scott of the University of Birmingham explains how to frame the task, structure the process and balance workloads.
Active, flipped, micro, virtual learning: a toolbox for interdisciplinary teaching: Young engineers need interdisciplinary skills more than ever to communicate science clearly, both to inform the public and to protect resources such as the environment. Here are lessons from a cross-course project, shared by Martin Morgeneyer and Esteban Zúñiga Domínguez of Université de Technologie de Compiègne.
How to balance tension in interdisciplinary teaching and learning: An interdisciplinary approach to programme development comes with inherent tensions, which need to be balanced and worked through. Here are tips from Adam Matthews of the University of Birmingham.
Four questions to ask when bringing students from different disciplines together: With interdisciplinary teaching, we need to look at ‘how’ as well as ‘what’. Focus on these four elements of course design to create a space where integration and interdisciplinarity can flourish, says Jessica Oudenampsen of Utrecht University.
Navigating uncertainty with interdisciplinary teaching: The siloed approach to education – where students in technical, business, humanities and arts disciplines learn separately – is no longer adequate, writes Lisa McNair of Virginia Tech.
What is interdisciplinarity in teaching and how can we make it work? Loy Hui Chieh of the National University of Singapore explains what true interdisciplinarity is and how to successfully embed it into university courses.
Interdisciplinarity makes us greater than the sum of our parts: The real world is complicated. Let’s give our students the tools to take it on with interdisciplinary education, writes Jillian Terry of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Assessment and other challenges in interdisciplinary teaching
The question of how to quantify interdisciplinary work often raises concerns. The answer, according to educators engaged in this work, lies in designing contextual assessments – based on a particular challenge or project and the varied skills and processes needed to complete it – rather than on set capabilities and knowledge associated with particular subjects. These resources explain how this works in practice.
How can we assess interdisciplinarity? Effectively assessing interdisciplinarity involves encouraging students to ask the right questions and critically evaluating the quality of the knowledge created, explains Simon Scott of the University of Birmingham.
How can we measure interdisciplinary learning? A benchmark of success for interdisciplinary learning is graduates who have the flexibility to examine their areas of interest and develop attributes that deliver practical value to future employers, Elvin Lim and Daniel Seah of Singapore Management University explain.
Can non-assessed creative play help students develop confidence and critical thinking? Supporting and enhancing students’ drawing skills improves not only their visual communication but also their mental health and well-being. Chris Wright and Zoë Allman of De Montfort University offer low-stakes ways to use creativity to build community.
Universities need to move interdisciplinary professional associations to the next step: Inter- and transdisciplinary teaching is going beyond communities of practice – but it’s still too small to compete with discipline-based professional associations. Gabriele Bammer of the Australian National University shares the questions academics should be asking to move forward.
Interdisciplinarity as a gateway to teaching real-world skills
The working world requires skills that extend far beyond the confines of one subject-specific degree. Inter-professional courses, that bring students on different career paths together to tackle authentic, complex challenges, can prepare students for this future reality. Interdisciplinarity can also create space for students to engage with topics on multiple levels, for a more holistic understanding. A benefit illustrated here is healthcare education, where effective communication and collaboration skills are vital, alongside technical knowledge.
Tips for designing interprofessional education courses in healthcare: Adapting to and collaborating with other professionals is essential in medicine. Here’s how to nurture an interdisciplinary mindset from the very start, by Hajer N. Sheikh and Umamah Rehman of Dubai Medical University.
How to enhance teaching skills in a multidisciplinary environment: Technical challenges as well as the personal demands that teachers face make support programmes at higher education institutions all the more important. Borbála Kozma of Semmelweis University explains how self-paced, modular training can boost teacher engagement and student satisfaction.
How to get students interested in interdisciplinary work: Providing real-world opportunities, incentives and spaces for interdisciplinary work enables undergraduate students to explore important solutions to complex issues, says Sambit Dash of Manipal Academy of Higher Education.
For truly practical learning, embrace an interdisciplinary approach: Bringing different fields of study together into one practical assignment, focused on a real-world problem, proved to be a game-changer for Zulkifli Merican Aljunid Merican and Lim Jun Wei of Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP). Here's how it worked.
An inter-university and interdisciplinary approach to dental education: A degree course that blends engineering and dentistry prepares students for their future practice. Here, Szandra Kormendi and Peter Hermann of Semmelweis University explain how it works.
Building the future - the case for inter-faculty learning: Launching an innovative inter-faculty way of working has brought great benefit to students, especially in the post-Covid period, say Gemma Ahearne and Matt Murphy of the University of Liverpool.
When interdisciplinarity meets artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is a multidisciplinary tool, so it can be used to help students and lecturers break out of subject silos and draw on broader expertise. And an interdisciplinary approach to engaging with AI is likely to herald better results, as these resources explain.
Interdisciplinarity is a core part of AI’s heritage and its future: To train students to engage responsibly with artificial intelligence, a genuinely interdisciplinary perspective – from the language used to recognising that human and machine work in concert – is essential, write Elvin Lim and Jonathan Chase of Singapore Management University.
How a liberal arts college can embrace AI tools: Lingnan University president Joe Qin offers advice on using generative AI, building up the science side of liberal arts education and how to encourage staff to share their ideas.
Interdisciplinarity as a key to inclusive education
Crossing disciplinary boundaries means stepping out of one’s comfort zone, to think and learn in new ways. It can also mean collaborating with colleagues from very different academic backgrounds and learning how to work well together. All this requires an inclusive approach to teaching, learning and working, as these resources explain.
What’s the crucial element for interdisciplinary teamwork? Psychological safety: Foster radical openness in your interdisciplinary online learning environment by establishing psychological safety. Helena Robinson of the University of Technology Sydney and Fabian Held of the University of Sydney describe how.
How to humanise engineering education and why we must: Despite years of effort across the education sector, engineering sciences are still not gender equitable. Incorporating more social sciences into engineering education could help address the imbalance, says Rich McIlroy of the University of Southampton.
What a transdisciplinary lens brings to university teaching: Why is it important to integrate knowledge and methodologies across disciplines? Catherine Amelink of Virginia Tech has recommendations to encourage the student engagement needed to address complex, weighty problems.
Each discipline has a part to play: A guide to conducting preliminary research, setting goals and defining each member’s level of input to an interdisciplinary research project, by Estu Putri Wilujeng of the University of Indonesia.
Thank you to all who contributed their expertise and insight to this guide.
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