Page 91 - Teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking in higher education in engineering

Chapter 5
Learning challenges, student strategies, and the outcomes of education in interdisciplinary thinking
Abstract
The teaching of interdisciplinary thinking (IDT) in higher education in engineering (HEE) is necessary to prepare students for working in interdisciplinary teams. While research on IDT teaching is steadily increasing, research on IDT learning is lagging behind. Therefore, the present research examined IDT learning processes with respect to the challenges, strategies, and outcomes involved, using two theoretical perspectives. The research context was an interdisciplinary graduate course on food quality management (FQM) in which students had to solve an authentic complex problem. A constructively aligned course design was implemented and reflection journals were developed to enable students to reflect upon their challenges, strategies, and outcomes during IDT learning. The results showed that students tend to report more on the content-related and interaction-related challenges than on the incentive-related challenges. Students also tend to report more on the disciplinary knowledge connections technological conditions–human dynamics and technological conditions– administrative conditions than on the food dynamics–human dynamics and food dynamics– administrative conditions disciplinary knowledge connections in FQM. Replication studies to validate these empirical results across HEE are recommended. The present research suggests the importance of the provision of pedagogical support in coping with challenges and with making disciplinary knowledge connections during IDT learning.
This chapter has been submitted for publication as:
Spelt, E. J. H., Luning, P. A., Van Boekel, M. A. J. S., & Mulder, M. (under review for publication). Learning challenges, student strategies, and the outcomes of education in interdisciplinary thinking