Interdisciplinary education: a case study

Klaassen, R.G.

doi:10.1080/03043797.2018.1442417

Cited by 152 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…For example, in the arena of health, large teams of researchers from such biological sciences, epidemiology, and social sciences have contributed to the literature regarding HIV/AIDS, aging, and mental health and human development (Rowe, 2008). Environmental sciences and engineering have also assembled expertise from a variety of disciplines to address critical challenges related to climate change and technological development (Brister, 2016;Klaassen, 2018;MacLeod & Nagatsu, 2018).…”

Section: Interdisciplinarity In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, enhancing interdisciplinarity may also act as a lever by which to fulfill American workforce needs in science and technology fields (National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Despite consensus on the need for and benefits of interdisciplinary research, there is little agreement on what interdisciplinary research is, how it should be conducted, and the skills researchers need to do it (Klaassen, 2018;Lattuca, 2001Lattuca, , 2003Lindvig, 2018;Lindvig & Hillersdal, 2019;MacLeod & Nagatsu, 2018;Müller & Kaltenbrunner, 2019). This disagreement presents challenges for higher education institutions seeking to train doctoral students to conduct research that crosses disciplinary boundaries (Boden, Borrego, Newswander, 2011;Borrego & Newswander, 2010;Carr, Loucks, & Blöschl, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In this case study, we explore how one nationally and internationally recognized interdisciplinary graduate education program at the University of Maryland shaped doctoral students' scholarly identities as interdisciplinary scientists. By interdisciplinary, we refer broadly to scholarly work that uses methods, concepts, frameworks, or perspectives from two or more academic fields or disciplines, or scholarly work aimed at addressing research problems that spans multiple academic fields or disciplines (Gantogtokh & Quinlan, 2017;Gardner et al, 2012Gardner et al, , 2014Klaassen, 2018). For instance, computational linguistics makes use of computer science methods to understand natural language research problems.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Plugging In: How One Graduate Program Shaped Doctoral Students’ Scholarly Identities as Interdisciplinary Scientists

Culpepper

O’Meara

Ramirez

2020

IJDS

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Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how one graduate program shaped doctoral students’ scholarly identities as interdisciplinary scientists. Background: Scholarly identity refers to the ways individuals see themselves as legitimate, contributing members of their academic community. However, much of the research on scholarly identity focuses on students and faculty within traditional, discipline-bound contexts. We therefore know little about how doctoral students develop scholarly identities that are interdisciplinary in nature. By interdisciplinary, we refer broadly to scholarly work that uses methods, concepts, frameworks, or perspectives from two or more academic fields or disciplines, or scholarly work aimed at addressing research problems that spans multiple academic fields or disciplines. Methodology: This qualitative, ethnographic case study focuses on the University of Maryland’s Language Science Center (LSC), which houses a National Science Foundation Research Traineeship (NRT) Program for doctoral students in the interdisciplinary language sciences, which includes fields such as linguistics, hearing and speech, computer science, and neuroscience. The LSC is nationally and internationally known for its interdisciplinary graduate training program and thus provides a platform for understanding the components of graduate training that contribute to students’ scholarly identity development as interdisciplinary scientists. We draw from four years of qualitative data collection, including student interviews, student and faculty focus groups, ethnographic observations, and document analysis. Contribution: Across the public and private sectors, there is a strong push for developing interdisciplinary solutions to society’s problems. However, many colleges and universities are not organized to encourage interdisciplinary collaboration and research. Focusing on the ways one graduate program facilitated interdisciplinary scholarly identity development for doctoral students therefore provides graduate programs with a potential roadmap for navigating the barriers that may block the development of students with interdisciplinary research interests. Findings: We found curricular and co-curricular NRT program activities contributed to students’ scholarly identity development as interdisciplinary scientists by connecting them (or “plugging them in”) to a pre-existing, interdisciplinary network of students and faculty; increasing doctoral student competence in the methods, cultures, and perspectives of other disciplines; encouraging doctoral students to find common ground with scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds; and broadening doctoral students’ views of the potential impact and application of their work. Recommendations for Practitioners: Graduate training programs in the interdisciplinary sciences should think strategically about the kinds of activities that help students develop a scholarly identity and the conditions and contexts in which scholarly identity development might be undermined. We offer multiple examples of the kinds of activities graduate programs can consider using to facilitate scholarly identity development and the underlying mechanisms that make such activities successful. Recommendation for Researchers: Developing a scholarly identity is an important component of doctoral student success and should be considered as a useful potential theory for individuals who study graduate education. Impact on Society: Graduate programs play a critical role in training not only the next generation of faculty, but also the next generation of scientists in government and industry. If more graduate programs can successfully train doctoral students to be interdisciplinary scientists, societal benefits could include more responsive and adaptive solutions to pressing social problems. Future Research: Future researchers should consider how different graduate training elements produce students with different types of interdisciplinary scholarly identities, how the scholarly identity of students trained in interdisciplinary graduate programs continues to evolve as they transition into both academic and non-academic careers, and the strategies and experiences of faculty members who mentor students from outside of their own disciplines.

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Section: Interdisciplinarity In Higher Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plugging In: How One Graduate Program Shaped Doctoral Students’ Scholarly Identities as Interdisciplinary Scientists

Culpepper

O’Meara

Ramirez

2020

IJDS

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“…The theory behind such targeted approaches seems to be that, Starting as early as possible for lifelong learning seems to be one of the keys to successful interdisciplinary education and work. Once ingrained in a certain discipline it will be hard to lower the disciplinary egocentrism [33].…”

Section: The Lost Generations: Acquiring Connective Aboutknowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Connective knowledge: what we need to know about other fields to ‘envision’ cross-disciplinary collaboration

Priaulx

Weinel

2018

Eur J Futures Res

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This paper centralises the question of what academics in higher education settings need to know about other fields to stimulate cross-disciplinary collaborative work. The concept of 'knowledge', while recognised as important within cross-disciplinary studies, has failed to be properly problematized. Little attention has been paid to what cross-disciplinary knowledge actors should possess, the purposes that knowledge might serve and few pause to consider the concept of collaboration itself, as an inherent source of situated learning. The result is recommendations about what researchers should 'know' that cannot be operationalised in practice. Highlighting a distinction between 'Of-Knowledge', entailing a detailed understanding of a field, and 'About-Knowledge', a rudimentary form of knowledge about fields, we explore two key points of the cross-disciplinary collaborative lifecycle to evaluate the needs, purposes, limits and possibilities of knowing. Noting that cross-disciplinary learning is a long process, and for which no pre-packaged 'knowledge' emerges to address the kinds of cognitive deficits that researchers typically identify, we argue that collaboration itself provides a non-substitutable venue for crossdisciplinary learning. In contrast, focusing on the point of 'envisioning' where specialisms are 'scoped out' and collaborative horizons 'mapped', we argue for efforts to be placed in enhancing researchers' 'About-Knowledge', a form of connective knowledge that extends researchers' basic knowledge about other fields prior to constructing collaborative projects. Critical for the aspirations of futures research, and the importance of fostering global, national, regional and local collaboration, we highlight how a little knowledge can go a long way.

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“…The article goes on to explain that integration of content across disciplines makes material meaningful because it becomes connected to something (Duerr, 2008). Traditional instruction presents concepts in an isolated nature with a focus primarily on assessment of that concept (Klaassen, 2018). This isolation does not promote helping students see the connection between concepts in different subject areas, lending to the mindset that math only happens in math class, science in science class, and so on.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding food processing and systems: Pilot testing a standards‐aligned middle school curriculum

Swart¹,

Richards

Zhao³

2020

J of Food Science Edu

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Consumer confidence and trust, as it relates to the food system, is one of the most sensitive areas within consumers' understanding of food. Surveys have shown that a large majority of people would like to learn more about agriculture and food manufacturing, with young people being among those most eager for more information about where their food comes from.Food-focused educational resources often go unused due to teachers' lack of familiarity with the subject area, the pressures of standardized testing, and lack of alignment to state content standards. Building on the success of the Hands On Classrooms platform that developed and validated curricula with high adoption rates by teachers and a demonstrated impact on student knowledge and self-efficacy, a new curriculum on food system and food processing was developed and pilot tested. Two teachers from rural Virginia and Tennessee participated in the study. Both teachers received online professional development prior to implementation. Students were given pretests and posttests to measure (a) what impact does the curriculum have on students' knowledge of food systems and processing and (b) to what extent does the curriculum have an impact on student's self-reported skills related to these topics? A total of 87 students completed the assessments and showed significant improvements from pretest to posttest on both knowledge (p < .001) and skills (p < .001) related specifically to where food comes from and how it is processed, content that is typically not covered in middle school curriculum. Further research can be undertaken to measure the impact on others in different geographic and socioeconomic areas to provide additional data to validate the program.

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Interdisciplinary education: a case study

Cited by 152 publications

References 13 publications

Plugging In: How One Graduate Program Shaped Doctoral Students’ Scholarly Identities as Interdisciplinary Scientists

Plugging In: How One Graduate Program Shaped Doctoral Students’ Scholarly Identities as Interdisciplinary Scientists

Connective knowledge: what we need to know about other fields to ‘envision’ cross-disciplinary collaboration

Understanding food processing and systems: Pilot testing a standards‐aligned middle school curriculum

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