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1 – 10 of over 17000Halcyon St Hill and Hulya Julie Yazici
The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated model of didactic, practice and interdisciplinary service learning in healthcare education, and determine the students’…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated model of didactic, practice and interdisciplinary service learning in healthcare education, and determine the students’ perceptions on the benefits of this integration.
Design/methodology/approach
A pre and post survey design was utilized to examine health professions students’ perspectives with respect to learning outcomes relevant to professional benefits of a service learning capstone. The surveys consisted of 36 items for measuring the interdisciplinary course characteristics and perceived benefits of the integrated approach. The required interdisciplinary (used interchangeably with interprofessional) course was constructed as an integrated didactic, practice interdisciplinary service learning model. The sample consisted of undergraduate students (n=53) who completed the interdisciplinary senior seminar capstone course taught by one faculty member in one of three course sections. Structural equation modeling based on partial least squares was used to analyze the significance of constructs. Students’ reflections on interdisciplinary service learning were also collected and summarized.
Findings
The study demonstrated the significance of interdisciplinary course and team preparation on perceived professional benefits and positive community service learning experience.
Research limitations/implications
Further studies are needed and being pursued to address practitioners’ perceptions of interdisciplinary education. To fully complete the assessment of interdisciplinary education, longitudinal studies must be pursued with graduates and their employers. A larger sample size could be used to repeat this study.
Practical implications
The model employed in this study may be utilized as a component of practice education and clinical practice to address accreditation requirements, quality patient-centred care, and engaging students in valuing interprofessionalism and service.
Originality/value
This study presents an integrated model of didactic, practice and interdisciplinary service learning in health professions education, and demonstrates the benefits of the model with health profession students’ perceptions of interprofessional education (IPE). This study contributes to professional learning research as the impact of IPE has been questionable due to lack of rigorous evidence.
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Hyunjung Rhee, Jinyoung Han, Minha Lee and Young-Wan Choi
This study explores the effects of interdisciplinary education on engineering students by observing students' competencies before and after the programme.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores the effects of interdisciplinary education on engineering students by observing students' competencies before and after the programme.
Design/methodology/approach
The effects of interdisciplinary education were studied over three years through the use of a survey to test the social competencies of organisational life and the interdisciplinary competencies of college students. A total of 5,185 responses were collected from engineering students who took part in interdisciplinary education programmes. The survey was conducted during weeks 3 and 14 of each semester, and a comparison test was used to reveal any changes.
Findings
Among the 12 competencies developed or adapted, leadership significantly improved during all six semesters. Analytical thinking, interpersonal competency, professional attitude, global-mindedness, and creative attitudes also improved in some of the semesters.
Research limitations/implications
It was not possible to control for the effect of classes that students were attending in addition to the targeted interdisciplinary class. However, this study was able to examine empirically the improvement of competencies for future engineers, and its findings provide a basis for future researchers to elaborate on other competencies as well.
Originality/value
The study recommends competencies needed by engineers working in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, examining the effects of interdisciplinary education on competency development. It contributes to strengthening the current trend in universities that seek to reform interdisciplinary education by empirically verifying its effectiveness.
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Peter van Baalen and Luchien Karsten
This paper aims to provide insights into the evolution of the concept of interdisciplinarity in management science and management education.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide insights into the evolution of the concept of interdisciplinarity in management science and management education.
Design/methodology/approach
A range of recently published (1993‐2002) works, which aim to provide practical advice rather than theoretical books on pedagogy or educational administration, are critiqued to aid the individual make the transition into academia. The sources are sorted into sections: finding an academic job, general advice, teaching, research and publishing, tenure and organizations.
Findings
The paper finds that in the evolution of management education and management science interdisciplinarity took different forms: synoptic and instrumental. Both forms resulted from different knowledge strategies of competing and cooperating disciplines. It concludes that in The Netherlands instrumental versions of interdisciplinarity in management research and education prevailed.
Research limitations/implications
The paper studies the evolution of interdisciplinarity in management education and management science in the Dutch higher education context. It assumes that the pattern of evolution differs from country to country.
Practical implications
Interdisciplinarity is a complex concept. This study provides practical insights into the dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration.
Originality/value
Much has been written about interdisciplinarity in science and education. However there is hardly any empirical and historical research on this topic.
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Monica Nandan and Manuel London
The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for developing interprofessional competencies among graduates from professional and graduate programs, so that they are well…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for developing interprofessional competencies among graduates from professional and graduate programs, so that they are well prepared to participate in local, national and global social change strategies.
Design/methodology/approach
After reviewing the literature on strategic social change initiatives the authors briefly describe two such initiatives: corporate social responsibility initiatives and social entrepreneurial ventures. After reviewing the interprofessional literature from various disciplines and professions, the authors categorized them into “competencies,” “rationale,” “conceptual framework,” “principles” and “challenges.” An examination of exemplar pedagogy from this body of literature suggests ways to prepare students to lead and actively participate in innovative, collaborative social change initiatives.
Findings
Interdisciplinary competencies include teamwork, communication, contextual understanding, negotiation, critical thinking, leadership, openness and adaptability. Interprofessional educational models are difficult to implement, however, ethical responsibility of educators to prepare students for complex realities trumps the challenges.
Practical implications
Interprofessional educational experiences can enable students to engage in generative and transformational learning which can later facilitate in creation of innovative solutions for society's recalcitrant physical, social and environmental issues.
Originality/value
Based on the system's perspective, the paper provides guidelines and strategies for implementing interprofessional pedagogical initiative.
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KerryAnn O’Meara and Dawn Culpepper
Using the lens of social physics, this study aims to examine how, if at all, one graduate training program fostered collisions or meaningful interactions, between students and…
Abstract
Purpose
Using the lens of social physics, this study aims to examine how, if at all, one graduate training program fostered collisions or meaningful interactions, between students and faculty from different disciplinary backgrounds.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative, ethnographic case study methods.
Findings
The University of Maryland’s National Research Traineeship program fostered collisions between students and faculty from different disciplinary backgrounds by facilitating exploration, idea flow and engagement within an interdisciplinary scholarly community. These collisions generated productive opportunities for student learning, development and collaborations, but at times also produced non-generative outcomes.
Practical implications
This study names specific, strategic activities (e.g. regular research talks, physical space) that graduate programs can use to facilitate interdisciplinary collaborations among students and faculty and considers the extent to which such activities contribute to organizational change.
Originality/value
This paper applies new theories (collisions and social physics) to understanding interdisciplinary collaboration and identifies aspects of graduate training programs that may be replicable in other institutional settings.
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Cathy Howlett, Jo-Anne Ferreira and Jessica Blomfield
This paper aims to argue that substantive changes are required in both curricula and pedagogical practice in higher education institutions to challenge dominant epistemologies and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to argue that substantive changes are required in both curricula and pedagogical practice in higher education institutions to challenge dominant epistemologies and discourses and to unsettle current ways of thinking about, and acting in relation to, the environment. Central to such a shift, it is argued, is the need for higher education curricula to be interdisciplinary and for pedagogical practices to work to build capacities in students for critical and reflective thinking.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, a case study of our reflections is offered on a subject designed to promote capacities in students for critical and reflective thinking via an interdisciplinary approach. The paper uses data from student reflective essays and student course evaluations to make an argument for the success of this approach.
Findings
Genuine transformative learning can occur within a constructivist informed pedagogical approach to teaching for sustainability.
Research limitations/implications
Research implications are that genuine transformation can occur in students’ thinking processes (which the paper argues is critical for effective education in sustainability) with appropriately designed courses in higher education.
Practical implications
More effective environmental actors and thinkers, who can critically engage with the complexity of environmental problems.
Social implications
Social implications include a more effective and socially just higher education for sustainability
Originality/value
The authors know of no other narrative that addresses attempts to educate for sustainability using this approach.
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Ashlee Tziganuk and Travis Gliedt
This study aims to examine and compare faculty perceptions of the process of institutionalizing sustainability, developing sustainability pedagogy and activating key…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine and compare faculty perceptions of the process of institutionalizing sustainability, developing sustainability pedagogy and activating key sustainability competencies between the University of Oklahoma (OU) and Arizona State University (ASU).
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 professors in the Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability at OU and 10 professors in the School of Sustainability at ASU.
Findings
The results highlight the complexity of teaching sustainability in an interdisciplinary manner in both programs. Professors are incorporating many of the key competencies of sustainability teaching, but in a patchwork manner that does not necessary follow the comprehensive frameworks from the literature.
Practical implications
The comparative analysis leads to recommendations for teaching sustainability in higher education.
Originality/value
This study contributes to theories of sustainability teaching by identifying gaps between what professors are actually doing and experiencing and a set of best practices from the literature.
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Soo Jeoung Han, Mehrangiz Abadi, Bora Jin and Jie Chen
The authors examined team-learning processes in short-term student project teams operating in an intensive design competition at a public university. The purpose of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors examined team-learning processes in short-term student project teams operating in an intensive design competition at a public university. The purpose of this paper is to explore the critical facilitators, inhibitors and processes for fostering students' creativity within interdisciplinary design teams in higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used a qualitative design to explore facilitators, inhibitors and critical processes in interdisciplinary student project teams. They conducted focus group interviews with three winning interdisciplinary teams that participated in a three-day design competition and used a constant comparison to analyze the data.
Findings
The authors identified themes that contributed to creativity at the individual level, the team level and the resource level. The key findings included 12 critical team process phases to achieve one common goal.
Originality/value
The findings of the study yielded to a holistic model of interdisciplinary team development for creativity. Implications for educators and practitioners and suggestions for researchers to expand the interdisciplinary team process model were discussed to facilitate interdisciplinary team creativity in higher education.
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Aysem Berrin Çakmakli, Ipek Gursel Dino, Esin Komez Daglioglu, Ekin Pinar and Pelin Yoncacı Arslan
This paper aims to discuss the potentials of interdisciplinary exercises that bring together art and design methodologies in expanding as well as redefining the given methods and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss the potentials of interdisciplinary exercises that bring together art and design methodologies in expanding as well as redefining the given methods and principles of basic design in architecture education. The primary purpose is to improve the conventional, well-established principles and methodologies of basic design studios into fresh perspectives.
Design/methodology/approach
Focussing on the case study of a basic design studio assignment that translated Richard Serra's Verb List (1967-68) into space-generating operations, the authors analyse how a diagonal interdisciplinary approach to studio pedagogy opened up the basic design studio into the exploration of new concepts and approaches. The assignment encouraged architecture students to productively and creatively engage with a significant art historical work for the purposes of design thinking and exploration.
Findings
Findings reveal that the students explored the possible reciprocal influences between materials, actions, and issues of form and organisation, thereby operating in an interface between art, architecture and design surveying the possible interactions between these disciplines. Based on the outcome of this studio exercise, the authors argue that designing assignments that would bring together various and sometimes even conflicting approaches of different fields allow us to reassess and conceptualise anew the pedagogical aims and modi operandi.
Originality/value
The research is original in the ways in which it suggests many possibilities of dialogue, interaction and collaboration between art, design and architecture studios.
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Catherine Mobley, Cindy Lee, John C. Morse, Jeffery Allen and Christine Murphy
The paper aims to report on the experiences moderating an interdisciplinary graduate-level sustainability seminar. Initiated in Fall 2002, the seminar has explored diverse…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to report on the experiences moderating an interdisciplinary graduate-level sustainability seminar. Initiated in Fall 2002, the seminar has explored diverse sustainability topics and reached approximately 150 faculty and students. The paper describes how the course shaped participants' perceptions of sustainability and influenced their viewpoints on interdisciplinarity. The paper discusses the implications of this seminar format for communicating about sustainability and provides suggestions for replicating the course at other institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
Information about the course is complemented by analyses of the results of 15 in-depth interviews of students and faculty who have participated in the course.
Findings
The course facilitated positive outcomes for students and faculty by expanding their familiarity with interdisciplinary perspectives on sustainability and environmental issues, increasing respect for other disciplinary perspectives, learning the basic vocabulary of disciplines outside their area of expertise, and strengthening collaborations between faculty. The course can be strengthened with more involvement from colleagues from the humanities and social sciences, and with attention to equal participation from all involved.
Originality/value
The experience is unique in that it represents a nearly decade-long initiative to teaching about sustainability and biocomplexity from an interdisciplinary perspective. The innovative format, content, and pedagogical approach used for this course can be easily implemented in other disciplines. The learning community has facilitated other teaching and research endeavors. This model of sustainability education can advance understanding of complex environmental issues at a time when both interdisciplinarity and sustainability are becoming more common in higher education.
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