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Bridging the Gap: Interdisciplinary Research in the Mainstream Curriculum

Explore the benefits of interdisciplinary research and learn how to implement it into the undergraduate curriculum. This project aims to develop an interdisciplinary research curriculum framework and build a community of learners among academic staff and undergraduate students.

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Bridging the Gap: Interdisciplinary Research in the Mainstream Curriculum

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  1. DON’T MIND THE GAP BETWEEN ART AND SCIENCE! From an interdisciplinary research summer school towards interdisciplinary research modules embedded in the mainstream curriculum at undergraduate level Ana Baptista Queen Mary University of London

  2. INTERDISCIPLINARITY – A definition • Interdisciplinarity exists when disciplines mix with and encounter each other, and when different perspectives, methods and academic areas intersectwith each other. (…) Research cooperation (…) entails a common research topic and some degree of synthesis, integration or fusion of the methods, theories and concepts of different disciplines. Applied to the educational system, an interdisciplinary approach would entail the establishment of entirely new educational programs on the background of synthesis, integration, etc by different academic fields. our emphasis - DEA & FBE, 2008, p.24

  3. INTERDISCIPLINARITY – Why? • The need of answering today’s uncertain ‘supercomplex’ knowledge society. The complexity of today’s problems requires different approaches and creative, integrative solutions. • The emergence of new fields which do not fall within ‘traditional’ disciplinary boundaries. • The stimulus for generating ground-breaking knowledge in an accelerated pace. • The existence of more practices and experiences of ‘cross-fertilization’ processes amongst several disciplines. • The need of empowering of ‘glocal’, active, informed, ethical, responsible, critical citizens • The need of learning spaces that are promoted by a network of ideas as well as top-down and bottom-up initiatives, which (i) empower individuals, (ii) expand their knowledge, (iii) question their ways of acting and thinking, (iv) stimulate them to go beyond mainstream thinking, and (v) lead them to enhance sophisticated (and even disruptive) ways of thinking, of establishing connections and approaching problems.

  4. Premises • Undergraduates should be exposed to interdisciplinary research curriculum since year 1. • An interdisciplinary research summer school is a pilot initiative to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing modules of this nature into the mainstream curriculum. • The institution and two/three departments are willing to take the pilot initiative forward. INTERDISCIPLINARY TEACHING AND RESEARCH IS TODAY’S NEW ‘CREATIVE PEDAGOGY.

  5. NEW INTERACTIVE PEDAGOGICAL SPACE

  6. Audience and fields • Departmental leaders • Academic staff • Undergraduate students From diverse disciplines in the Arts and Sciences

  7. Objectives • To develop a credit bearing one-month interdisciplinary research summer school that should progress into interdisciplinary research modules within the mainstream curriculum; • To design a co-constructed curriculum, where both academic staff and undergraduates are change agents; • To develop a community of learners amongst academic staff, undergraduates, and both, that has a positive transformative impact.

  8. Outcomes • Design of an interdisciplinary research curriculum framework, after the pilot, that can be embedded into the mainstream curriculum since year 1, and adaptable by departments/institutions; • Production of a rationale/case to convince departmental managers, selective academic staff and undergraduates that such interdisciplinary research curricula are manageable.

  9. my input/role in the project • Help shaping the overall project, by demonstrating an integrative, in-depth perspective over the project and simultaneously a perspective ‘from above’, so the main objectives are accomplished; • Bring staff together, as a mediator/guide in the conversations; • Add my expertise in teaching, learning and curriculum design, by helping with the design of an interdisciplinary research curriculum framework at undergraduate level; • Monitor the effectiveness and evaluate the impact of the initiative.

  10. Questions • Are academics and students prepared for interdisciplinary research programmes? • How to create the conditions/space/environment to prepare them? / How to move from a ‘disciplinary mindset’ to an ‘interdisciplinary mindset’? • How to deal with ‘intersubjectivities’ when academics and students are co-constructing (and involved in a process of mutual meaning-making of) an interdisciplinary research curriculum? • How to make a transition between a ‘normal/disciplinary curriculum’ to a ‘interdisciplinary research curriculum’? • How do external stakeholders (namely employers) view ‘interdisciplinary research curriculum’? What is the value they give to this sort of practice?

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