Page 35 - Teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking in higher education in engineering

Teaching and learning in interdisciplinary higher education: A systematic review
learning (Ivanitskaya, Clark, Montgomery, & Primeau, 2002), a proposed research agenda based on teaching and learning theories to encourage research in the field of interdisciplinary higher education (Lattuca et al., 2004), a framework illustrating three major cognitive movements in interdisciplinary thought (Nikitina, 2005), three strategies for interdisciplinary teaching (Nikitina, 2006), four dimensions of a potential interdisciplinary pedagogy (Manathunga, Lant, & Mellick, 2006), an empirically grounded framework for assessing students’ interdisciplinary work (Boix Mansilla & Duraising, 2007), and a framework for conceptualizing interdisciplinary classroom communication (Woods, 2007). Second, best practices dealt with the relationship between disciplinary background and interdisciplinary education (Newell, 1992), with the lack of adequate and appropriate methods for assessing interdisciplinary higher education programs (Field & Lee, 1992), with the experiences of graduate students who pursued interdisciplinary studies (Graybill et al., 2006), and a successful course approach (Eisen, Hall, Soon Lee, & Zupko, 2009). Third, the following essential conditions were identified through the evaluation of two interdisciplinary training programs: participation, training in group skills, information sharing, networking, critical reflection (Gilkey & Earp, 2006), participation in a collaborative interdisciplinary team project, and faculty mentors (Misra et al., 2009).
As a rule, the empirical studies (ten out of 13) used surveys, interviews, observations, product appraisal, and reflection on experiences as their research methods. The theoretical studies (three out 13) put forward several theories such as Perry and Vygotsky (e.g., Lattuca et al., 2004) to describe the phenomenon under examination, but lacked empirical evidence. The educational context of the reported studies varied: undergraduate and graduate curricula in sciences, social sciences, and humanities and the studies were mainly conducted in the United States (12 out of 13).
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