Angelique Chettiparamb Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Group Interdisciplinarity: a literature review (original) (raw)
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Interdisciplinarity in Education: Overcoming Fragmentation in the Teaching-Learning Process
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The importance of interdisciplinarity in the teaching-learning process has been much debated. This topic has challenged schoolteachers, who do not always manage to integrate interdisciplinarity into the school routine. This paper emerged from the discipline Research Methodology taught at the postgraduate course in education of Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro. During this course, we sought to gain knowledge about the academic production related to interdisciplinarity in the teaching-learning process, mainly in terms of teacher training and teaching practice, published in dissertations and theses. We explored contents published from 2011 to 2016 in Brazil. The covered period was based on a search for recent productions on the proposed theme, conducted by using the database of the Brazilian Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations. Analyses of the documents pointed to the need to work interdisciplinarity during teacher training courses and to adopt an interdisciplinary pos...
Towards an understanding of interdisciplinarity: The case of a British Univerity
ISSUES IN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES No. 31, pp. 149-173 , 2013
This study explores what academics in one major university in Great Britain perceive interdisciplinary research (IDR) to be, and in doing so, differentiates it from associated concepts, such as multidisciplinary research and transdisciplinary research, found in the research literature. This study is important because the university in which the study is set has undertaken a complete restructuring of colleges and departments to support interdisciplinary research. The inquiry utilized a two-phased, mixed methods, descriptive case study to examine perceptions of the nature, significance, and benefits of multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research. The methods of the data collection were semi-structured interview (25 participants), survey (127 participants), and analysis of archival documents. The findings indicate that the restructuring of The Great Western University to support interdisciplinary research began on less than firm footing. While scholars seem to have clarified the definitions of interdisciplinary approaches, in practice there still is a lack of clarity in sectors which are less familiar with interdisciplinary approaches to solving major problems facing society. We identified issues of clarity of terminology and mission, flexibility of implementation, and alignment of faculty incentives as involving necessary but unmet conditions for fostering and promoting interdisciplinarity throughout the university.
Interdisciplinarity is widely practised and theorised. However, relatively few studies have reflected on university-wide attempts to foster the concept. This article examines interdisciplinary teaching and learning at Griffith University, Australia. It reflects on the foundations of interdisciplinarity at the university and situates them within the broader context of innovations in worldwide practice; it draws from the literature on interdisciplinarity to traverse the broad understandings of the term; it discusses the Griffith University innovations implemented in support of the concept; and, it reports on the likely outcomes of current methods designed to improve interdisciplinary practice. Whilst challenging barriers to interdisciplinarity continue to exist, compounded by varied conceptions of what interdisciplinarity entails, positive learning and research outcomes have been accomplished at the university from its interdisciplinary foundations, which also provide a platform to go forward. 168 D. Franks et al. authors have reflected on the process or outcomes of university-wide attempts to implement it in teaching and research.
Towards an understanding of interdisciplinarity: The case of a British university
Issues in Interdisciplinary Studies, 2013
This study explores what academics in one major university in Great Britain (The Great Western University 2) perceive interdisciplinary research (IDR) to be, and in doing so, differentiates it from associated concepts, such as multidisciplinary research and transdisciplinary research, found in the research literature. This study is important because the university in which the study is set has undertaken a complete restructuring of colleges and departments to support interdisciplinary research. The inquiry utilized a two-phased, mixed methods, descrip-plinary and interdisciplinary research. The methods of the data collection were semi-structured 1 The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Adam Smith Foundation, University of Glasgow, UK, for the support of this research, and to our anonymous reviewers who through suggestions and encouragement substantially improved this article. 2 Pseudonym.
"Edited by Davies, M., Devlin, M., and Tight, M., (Eds) (2010). This book is about interdisciplinary higher education. The book comes at a time when interdisciplinary higher education is enjoying a resurgence of interest globally. As one of the contributors to this book puts it, ‘Talk of interdisciplinarity it seems, is everywhere in higher education – no matter what the discipline, profession or field of inquiry’ (Peseta et al.). Arguments for the necessity of interdisciplinarity in university teaching and learning and more broadly are made throughout the chapters included in this volume. These arguments include the need for interdisciplinary approaches to global issues that are too complex to be managed within one disciplinary domain and the need for knowledge economy graduates who can work within and across multi-disciplinary and multi-professional teams. The book is the first attempt, to our knowledge, to document interdisciplinarity in higher education with an emphasis—though not exclusively—on the Australasian and South-East Asian region. The book includes dual foci – on ‘perspectives’, that is, chapters focused on definitional and theoretical aspects of interdisciplinary higher education, and ‘practicalities’, that is, chapters presented as vignettes of current interdisciplinary practice across a range of contexts. This range ensures that there is something for a wide range of readers – from those experienced in the notion of interdisciplinary higher education to those who are earlier in their journey of becoming familiar with interdisciplinarity. The books objectives are to provide critical discussion of interdisciplinarity from a range of perspectives and to outline and provide responses to some of the practical challenges inherent in interdisciplinary endeavours. The points of difference for this book are the focus on the Oceania region and the dual foci on conceptions and pragmatic concerns. Some of the prominent themes in interdisciplinary higher education include: the necessity to have good reason to introduce and pursue interdisciplinarity in higher education; the benefits and challenges of collaboration in interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning; the importance of institutional and other systems to support interdisciplinary endeavours; the centrality of disciplines per se and in various aspects of interdisciplinarity; the balance of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity; and the place of interdisciplinarity in graduate outcomes and attributes. Together, the chapters in this book address all of these critical themes. For more details and reviews, see: http://martindavies.com.au/publications/"
Studies in Higher Education, 2007
Interdisciplinarity is widely practised and theorised. However, relatively few studies have reflected on university-wide attempts to foster the concept. This article examines interdisciplinary teaching and learning at Griffith University, Australia. It reflects on the foundations of interdisciplinarity at the university and situates them within the broader context of innovations in worldwide practice; it draws from the literature on interdisciplinarity to traverse the broad understandings of the term; it discusses the Griffith University innovations implemented in support of the concept; and, it reports on the likely outcomes of current methods designed to improve interdisciplinary practice. Whilst challenging barriers to interdisciplinarity continue to exist, compounded by varied conceptions of what interdisciplinarity entails, positive learning and research outcomes have been accomplished at the university from its interdisciplinary foundations, which also provide a platform to go forward. 168 D. Franks et al. authors have reflected on the process or outcomes of university-wide attempts to implement it in teaching and research.
Weingart, Peter and Nico Stehr (eds)., PRACTISING INTERDISCIPLINARITY
2000
Academic disciplines provide a framework for the transfer of knowledge from one generation to the next. Not only do they shape our education and understanding, they structure our professional lives. Interdisciplinarity, the reconfiguration of academic disciplines and the boundaries between them, has lately become a field of major interest to scholars and policy-makers. This collection brings together the latest research and analysis from this emerging field. The editors take as their central thesis the idea that the existing matrix of disciplines is dissolving, leading to fundamental changes in the traditional order of knowledge. Contributors to the volume include specialists from Canada, Australia, Europe, and the United States who focus on the actual practice of interdisciplinarity: the ways in which it is researched, organized, and taught in institutes and universities around the world. The role of funding bodies is also considered, revealing the relationship and the delineation of disciplines and their resource bases. Together, the essays offer first-hand insights into the operations and successes of some of the world's foremost interdisciplinary research centres. In acquainting us with the current state of interdisciplinary research the volume also considers the social and economic contexts that make such research possible.
Pedagogical Explorations: Understanding the Nature of Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning
Education India Journal: A Quarterly Refereed Journal of Dialogues on Education, ISSN 2278- 2435, Vol. 8, Issue-1, February-2019. Page 82, 2019
An emerging viewpoint in Indian Education System emphasizes that the Indian graduates and post graduates need to develop certain specific skills to tackle the myriad issues they face in their professional life and ventures. It is agreed by many that a thorough understanding of today’s real-life problems requires interdisciplinary reflection. This is the reason which necessitates interdisciplinary approach to teaching and collaboration in higher education, so very popular in USA and several European countries. In India too, it is being seen as the ‘mantra’ to raise the quality of Indian Universities and higher education and to make it competitive at global level. So what do we mean by the term, ‘interdisciplinary’? Through a review of ground breaking literature in the field of interdisciplinarity, the present study explores the meaning and nature of the interdisciplinary approach and interdisciplinary studies to teaching & learning.