Page 97 - Teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking in higher education in engineering

Learning challenges, student strategies, and the outcomes of education in interdisciplinary thinking
Cognitive
CONTENT
Emotional INCENTIVE
INTERACTION
Social
Figure 5.1 Triangle of learning dimensions, based on Illeris (2002, 2007)
The proposed ‘socio-emotional-cognitive platform’ of successful interdisciplinary collaborations in interdisciplinary teams (Boix Mansilla et al., 2012) resembles the three processes of learning of Illeris. In addition, the short-term IDT learning processes of students in HEE also resemble these three learning dimensions (Spelt, Luning, Van Boekel, & Mulder, under review). Hence, short-term IDT learning processes may also feature multiple challenges on these three learning dimensions. These challenges are then content-related, incentive- related, and interaction-related challenges. A content-related challenge is to connect disciplinary knowledge in a meaningful way, an incentive-related challenge is to release anxiety to cope with the ambiguity inherent to learning across disciplines and the interaction- related challenge is to discuss with disciplinary experts conflicting disciplinary knowledge. Illeris’s theory considers the concept of learning to be constructivist in nature, which means that the learner him- or herself constructs his or her learning as mental structures, schemes, and patterns (Illeris, 2003). During IDT learning students are required to ‘make meaning’ of
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