Page 111 - Teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking in higher education in engineering

Learning challenges, student strategies, and the outcomes of education in interdisciplinary thinking
In view of this freedom of choice, it seems that students prefer to reflect on the tc–hd and tc– ac knowledge connections more than on the fd–hd and fd–ac knowledge connections, or it might be that during research phases III and IV, the students needed to make more tc–hd and tc–ac knowledge connections than in research phases I and II, or it might be that reflection on tc–hd and tc–ac knowledge connections is more obvious to students, or it might be that the teachers provided more examples of these particular kinds of knowledge connections. Further research should clarify whether students tend to make some types of knowledge connections rather than others and whether they tend to reflect on some types of knowledge connection rather than others.
5.5.4 Justification of the knowledge connections made (research question 4)
Table 5.6 shows the subcategories of justifications given per category of IDT subskill. The identified subcategories show similarities with the three assessment criteria applied to student interdisciplinary work (Boix Mansilla & Duraising, 2007, p. 223), namely: (a) disciplinary grounding, (b) critical awareness, and (c) advancement in student understanding through integration. As shown in Table 5.6, the subcategories of justifications within the category of having disciplinary knowledge were: in depth-disciplinary and factual reasoning. Students produced in-depth reasoning that justified the disciplinary knowledge connections made by explaining the disciplinary facts and practical information used to make the connection. An example is “Thus if the packaging properties is [are] not sufficient to maintain the [modified atmosphere] gas composition, the gas composition of the package altered. This will then result in the [negative] effects of modified atmosphere composition being reversed and thus revering [reverting to] the normal atmospheric composition. This reversing process will create an optimal environment for spoilage microbes like Pseudomonas fluorescens and Candida sake to grow as no more hurdles are present to inhibit their growth [references].”
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