Page 103 - Teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking in higher education in engineering

Learning challenges, student strategies, and the outcomes of education in interdisciplinary thinking
structured in two parts: part A, the description of the challenge, and part B, the description of strategies pursued to overcome the challenge faced. The latter description took the form of five statements.
The other reflective journal was intended to collect data on disciplinary knowledge connections. This journal was completed on one occasion at the end of the course. Students were asked to reflect on two disciplinary knowledge connections as described in their final reports. The journaling activity was based on the evaluation criterion ‘usefulness’ that is recommended for the critical evaluation of research activities conducted in the FQM research phases (Luning & Marcelis, 2009b). This criterion considers three sub-criteria: (1) relevance, (2) reliability, and (3) validity. The journal format was an author-devised form structured in two parts: part A, the description of the disciplinary knowledge connection made, and B, the critical evaluation of the connection. The evaluation took the form of four statements.
In completing both journals, students were free in their choice of which challenges and connections they wished to report. Instruction on the added value of reflection was provided on two occasions during the course with respect to reflection in general (Boud, 2001; Langer, 2002), reflection in interdisciplinary research (Morse et al., 2007; Repko, 2012), reflection during IDT learning (Boix Mansilla & Duraising, 2007; Nardone & Lee, 2011; Woods, 2007), and reflection in becoming a capable professional (Groen, 2011; Shön, 1987). The population of 30 students ranged in age from 23 to 41-years-old, where 22 students were women and eight were men, and 13 nationalities were represented. All 30 students were novice IDT learners. The data collection yielded 150 journals with respect to the challenges and strategies and 30 journals with respect to the outcomes. All journals were processed digitally and anonymously.
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