Page 115 - Teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking in higher education in engineering

Learning challenges, student strategies, and the outcomes of education in interdisciplinary thinking
Palmer, Baranger, Gerard, & Stone, 2015; Nieveen & Folmer, 2013). The use of the self- reflection method in this research has advanced understanding of both IDT learning processes and the practicality of the implemented instructional design.
A second consideration is the potential added value design-based research brings to an examination of the learning processes. This is because (1) the learning is examined within a particular ‘engineered’ context (Cobb et al., 2003; Sandoval & Bell, 2004), (2) the investigation environment is naturalistic (Barab & Squire, 2004; Tabak, 2004), (3) usable knowledge about how students learn is produced through the methodological alignment of existing theories and implemented instructional designs (Hoadley, 2004), (4) the achievement of goals between the researchers' goals, designers' goals and practitioners' goals is facilitated (Joseph, 2004), and (5) design refinements are made possible by means of teaching, learning, and assessment conjectures (Sandoval, 2004, 2014). Design-based research to examine the teaching and learning of IDT is therefore encouraged in line with Gouvea et al. (2013).
Another consideration is the way in which the systematic analysis of student learning has been conducted using the perspective provided by the integrated learning theory of Illeris (2002, 2007) and the adoption of the naturalistic research paradigm (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005). As Saljö (2009) has discussed, when researchers studying and making claims about learning, researchers clarify the theoretical perspective they are using. They also clarify the unit of analysis being used, which depends on the chosen theory. This reduces the complexity of learning. This reductionist step was taken in the present research by separating the learning into cognitive, emotional, and social processes (Illeris, 2002, 2007). Obviously, the tension between capturing the complexity of learning, on the one hand, and conducting a rigorous systematic research methodology, on the other hand, was also present in this research. This reductionist approach may have limited the gain in understanding concerning the learning processes.
105