Interdisciplinary Higher Education, International Perspectives on Higher Education Research (original) (raw)
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"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/"
Interdisciplinary higher education
2010
Abstract: In higher education, interdisciplinarity involves the design of subjects that offer the opportunity to experience 'different ways of knowing'from students' core or preferred disciplines. Such an education is increasingly important in a global knowledge economy. Many universities have begun to introduce interdisciplinary studies or subjects to meet this perceived need. This chapter explores some of the issues inherent in moves towards interdisciplinary higher education. Definitional issues associated with the term 'academic ...
Interdisciplinary curricula provide students the opportunity to work with knowledge drawn from multiple disciplines. Following suit, interdisciplinary learning requires interaction of knowledge from different disciplines; integration of knowledge from different disciplines; and an overarching topic, theme, or problem that shapes the learning experience. Since the university curriculum is commonly structured by academic disciplines, and faculty are socialized to their respective disciplinary norms, interdisciplinarity is a complex endeavor for colleges and universities. These endeavors include developing interdisciplinary courses, sustaining interdisciplinary initiatives, and financing interdisciplinary programs. Given the multiple challenges facing 21st-century society, the question of interdisciplinarity is urgent. How knowledge is defined and disseminated; how and what students learn; and how higher education can be responsive to its external environment are crucial issues facing educators. Responding to these issues does not diminish the role of the discipline in education, but rather acknowledges that knowledge is unbounded and potential discoveries lie outside compartmentalized structures. Disciplines provide the organizational foundation for academic departments in higher education, as well as the curricular foundation for major fields of study and the dominant basis of preparing future faculty. Upon completion of their doctoral degrees, most faculty assume positions that perpetuate the division of knowledge, reinforcing a cycle of disciplines as normative and irrevocable. The disciplinary structure stems from a greater diversification and specialization of labor that occurred over the last two centuries. As bodies of knowledge grew and new areas developed, institutions focused human, financial, and social resources on segmented organizational units. These units have changed over time, however. Disciplines expand, integrate, and scale down—for example,
Understanding Interdisciplinary Challenges and Opportunities in Higher Education
Interdisciplinary teaching, learning, and research are often heralded as necessary responses to the many pressures facing contemporary higher education. Defined as the integration of knowledge from two or more disciplines, interdisciplinary work requires a change in the boundaries and norms that have long defined the academy. Through examples from a range of disciplines and institutional types, this volume considers how successful interdisciplinary engagement necessitates a focus on the structure and rewards of academic behavior. This change is an intensely social process, involving dialogue and interation among diverse ideas, individuals, learning environments, and bodies of knowledge. It is this diversity that enables the rich potential of interdisciplinary engagement but also presents the greatest challenges for institutions. This volume considers the obstacles and opportunities inherent in interdisciplinary initiatives. Academic administrators, faculty, and graduate students interested in understanding the disciplinary norms of higher education and cultivating interdisciplinary engagement will benefit from this volume. The author provides theoretical perspectives and practical applications for advancing interdisciplinarity in the classroom, the research laboratory, across the university campus, and outside institutional boundaries. Such endeavors entail not only interaction between scholars and professionals from normally distinct disciplines but also articulation of shared problems or topics that underscore the integration of disciplinary bodies of knowledge. This is the second issue in the 35th volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph in the series is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education problem, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.
The Pedagogical Challenge of Interdisciplinary University Programs
2015
Multiand interdisciplinary education is currently being widely discussed and promoted in the academic world. Several interdisciplinary programs are being created, and new curricula are being formed. However, the terms multi-, interand transdisciplinarity are being exploited carelessly, without taking a closer look at the theoretical framework or the vast literature on the topic that is commonly accepted by interdisciplinarians. In academia, where the segregation and ever-deepening expertise of disciplines over decades has produced siloed structures of faculties and departments, it is difficult to facilitate interdisciplinary studies that genuinely integrate disciplinary insights. Part of the problem in academia can be seen as inconsistencies in pedagogical thinking. Traditionally, researchers and university teachers are expected to be specialists in the substance of their discipline. Only recently have pedagogical studies become available and offered to faculty members, which is lik...
Interdisciplinary trends in higher education
The knowledge economy requires an adept workforce and cadre of leaders to help address the many challenges and needs facing companies, governments and societies worldwide. Many of the challenges we face today are new and there will undoubtedly be others arise in the future that will require innovative approaches and solutions to overcome them. No longer are higher education institutions able to train graduates to address all of the current and emerging challenges from a singular disciplinary source. Interdisciplinary (ID) approaches to research and training are essential underpinnings to best meet the dynamic needs of today's higher education students. As the first in a series of forthcoming articles on ID research, this article examines ID trends in higher education research, instruction and degree offerings. It highlights how central ID solutions are in helping to address some of the most complex needs and challenges in higher education today, including how best to prepare higher education graduates for future employment and leadership positions.
Interdisciplinary Studies: A Critical Review of the Concept, Paradigm, and Difficulties
Journal of Islamic Thought and Civilization, 2024
Interdisciplinarity constitutes one of the main drivers for the development of scientific knowledge as it contributes instimulating scientific research from different perspectives and methodologies and inreducing the isolation between disciplines. Although interdisciplinarity has become a common trend in scientific and academic circles of universities and research centers in recent years, the concept of interdisciplinarity remains largely controversial. The concept of interdisciplinarity is still fraught with confusion and ambiguity on many levels, including terminology, the model through which interdisciplinarity can be applied, and the methods or criteria through which interdisciplinarity can be detected. In this context, this research engages with the interdisciplinary studies through three main questions closely related to interdisciplinarity. The first question delves into the nature of interdisciplinarity research, scrutinizing prevalent ideas surrounding it. The second question explores proposed models for interdisciplinary research, their criteria, and examines whether a normative interdisciplinary model emerges from the literature. Whereas, the third question focuses on difficulties and opportunities facing interdisciplinary research in academic environments. In an attempt to answer these questions, several researchers from different disciplines participated in writing this research paper, where they engaged critically with the prevailing literature on interdisciplinarity, and presented a comprehensive theoretical review based on three levels of analysis.
Interdisciplinary higher education and the Melbourne model
Creativity, enterprise, policy: new directions in …, 2011
The so-called 'Melbourne Model' has recently been adopted by the Council of the University of Melbourne, Australia after a long consultation process and widespread media attention. It proposes the design of new subjects which offer what are referred to as 'different ways of knowing' from students' 'core' disciplines, partly through 'the delivery of breadth subjects that are interdisciplinary in character'. This paper explores interdisciplinary higher education in the light of The Melbourne Model'. Definitional issues associated with the term 'academic discipline', as well as the newer terms 'interdisciplinary ', 'pluridisciplinary', 'crossdisciplinary', 'transdisciplinary' and 'multidisciplinary' are examined. Some of the pedagogical issues inherent in a move from a traditional form of educational delivery to that underlined by the Melbourne Model are outlined. Some epistemological considerations relevant to multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity are discussed.
Teaching and Learning in Interdisciplinary Higher Education: A Systematic Review
Educational Psychology Review, 2009
Interdisciplinary higher education aims to develop boundary-crossing skills, such as interdisciplinary thinking. In the present review study, interdisciplinary thinking was defined as the capacity to integrate knowledge of two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive advancement in ways that would have been impossible or unlikely through single disciplinary means. It was considered as a complex cognitive skill that constituted of a number of subskills. The review was accomplished by means of a systematic search within four scientific literature databases followed by a critical analysis. The review showed that, to date, scientific research into teaching and learning in interdisciplinary higher education has remained limited and explorative. The research advanced the understanding of the necessary subskills of interdisciplinary thinking and typical conditions for enabling the development of interdisciplinary thinking. This understanding provides a platform from which the theory and practice of interdisciplinary higher education can move forward.