Page 92 - Teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking in higher education in engineering

Chapter 5
5.1 Introduction
The learning of interdisciplinary thinking (IDT) is necessary to prepare students in higher education in engineering (HEE) for their job requirements (Adams, 2007; Andrade et al., 2014; Chanan et al., 2012; Haase et al., 2013; Mascarelli, 2013; McGregor, O'Shea, Brewer, Abuodha, & Pharo, 2014; Redish & Smith, 2008; Schaefer et al., 2012; Vale et al., 2012), which are: complex problem-framing (Eisen et al., 2009; Pharo & Bridle, 2012), complex problem-solving (Fortuin et al., 2013), innovating new products and processes (Cantillon- Murphy, McSweeney, Burgoyne, O'Tuathaigh, & O'Flynn, 2015; Linnemann et al., 2011), and analysing phenomena (Repko, Newell, & Szostak, 2012). These requirements necessitate that engineers have skills in working in interdisciplinary teams and across disciplinary departments, and that engineers have skills in integrating disciplinary knowledge (Schmidt et al., 2012; Sharp, 2015). In other words, engineers need to be practitioners of IDT (Augsburg et al., 2013; Eisen et al., 2009; Lattuca et al., 2013). However, this practice is experienced as being challenging. The challenges include language barriers, epistemic differences, a lack of mutual respect, and a lack of willingness to learn from each other (Bossio, Loch, Schier, & Mazzolini, 2014; Davidson, 2015; Golde & Alix Gallagher, 1999; Lach, 2014; Morse et al., 2007; Nikitina, 2005; Nuijten, 2011; O'Rourke et al., 2013; Sill, 2001; Thompson, 2009; Turner, Benessaiah, Warren, & Iwaniec, 2015). Smooth interdisciplinary teamwork is fostered once engineers are capable of coping with these challenges (Bruce et al., 2004; Lyall & Meagher, 2012; Öberg, 2009). Learning how to cope with these challenges should therefore start early in HEE (Fortuin et al., 2013; Lund et al., 2006; MacKinnon et al., 2013; Tong, 2010).
However, student learning of IDT in HEE is yet not well understood due to limited empirical research (Lattuca et al., 2004). IDT has been defined as the ability to integrate
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