Interdisciplinary Studies PDF

INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES LECTURE 1  2 POINTS Introduction Definitions Why is interdisciplinary studies considered basic to education? What are the six drivers of interdisciplinarity?  The video asks what all these changes i...

INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES LECTURE 1  2 POINTS Introduction Definitions Why is interdisciplinary studies considered basic to education? What are the six drivers of interdisciplinarity?  The video asks what all these changes in the world mean to us as learners and teachers. How do these changes affect the way we must teach and learn? How has the workplace also changed over the last years?  5 INTERDISCIPLINARY WHAT IS A DISCIPLINE? 6 “The term discipline refers to a particular branch of learning or body of knowledge such as physics, psychology, or history” (Moran, 2010, p. 2). To Allen F. Repko, Academic disciplines are scholarly communities that specify which phenomena to study, advance certain central concepts and organizing theories, embrace certain methods of investigation, provide forums for sharing research and insights, and offer career paths for scholars. It is through their power over careers that disciplines are able to maintain these strong preferences. Each discipline has its own defining elements—phenomena, assumptions, epistemology, concepts, theories, and methods—that distinguish it from other disciplines. (Interdisciplinary Research 4)  7 DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER EXAMPLES?? What are the disciplines that you have enjoyed the most while you were in elementary/ high school? What are the disciplines that you have enjoyed the least while you were in elementary/ high school? What are academic disciplines you are interested to learn now? DEFINITION OF 8 INTERDISCIPLINARY The prefix inter- means “between, among, in the midst” or “derived from two or more.” Veronica Boix Mansilla (2005) in "Assessing Student Work at Disciplinary Crossroads": [Interdisciplinary studies gives] the capacity to integrate knowledge and modes of thinking drawn from two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive advancement -for example, explaining a phenomenon, solving a problem, creating a product, or raising a new question-in ways that would have been unlikely through single disciplinary means. (p. 25)  9 TO AUGSBURG, JULIE KLEIN’S AND WILLIAM NEWELL’S DEFINITION REMAIN THE MOST AUTHORITATIVE AND WIDELY USED:  10 HOW DIFFERENT IS IT FROM OTHER CONCEPTS? Interdisciplinary: analyzes, synthesizes and harmonizes links between disciplines into a coordinated and coherent whole. Multidisciplinary: draws on knowledge from different disciplines but stays within their boundaries. (additive, not integrative) Transdisciplinary: far more comprehensive in scope and vision, transcending while crossing the barriers of the disciplinary rules or views. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ pubmed/17330451  11 SO WHAT EXACTLY IS THE DIFFERENCE? According to Lakehead University’s “Essential Guide to Writing Research Papers”: Multidisciplinarity contrasts disciplinary perspectives in an additive manner, meaning two or more disciplines each provide their viewpoint on a problem from their perspectives. It involves little interaction across disciplines. Interdisciplinarity combines two or more disciplines to a new level of integration suggesting component boundaries start to break down. Interdisciplinarity is no longer a simple addition of parts but the recognition that each discipline can affect the research output of the other. Transdisciplinarity occurs when two or more discipline perspectives transcend each other to form a new holistic approach. The outcome will be completely different from what one would expect from the addition of the parts. It results in a type xenogenesis where output is created as a result of disciplines integrating to become something completely new. WHY IS INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES CONSIDERED BASIC TO EDUCATION? We must be adaptive to change We must be able to deal with ambiguity We must be able to deal with massive amounts of information We must be able to adapt to different work environments and skill requests What others can you think of?  13 WHAT ARE THE SIX DRIVERS OF INTERDISCIPLINARITY? 1. the complexity of nature, society, and ourselves 2. the complexity of the globalized workplace 3. the need for systems thinking 4. the changing nature of university research 5. the public world and its pressing need 6. a knowledge society’s need for both disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity  14 1. THE COMPLEXITY OF NATURE, SOCIETY, AND OURSELVES When we think of a problem as complex as the war in Syria, for example, we cannot simply turn to the experts in one discipline We need the insights from multiple disciplines to help us understand such a complex problem What disciplines might be helpful to consider the conflict in Syria?  15 History Religious Studies Economics Political Science Others?  Car Traffics in Riyadh 16  17 Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe THE HUMANITIES The humanities (art history, history, literature, music education, philosophy, and religious studies) engage the complexity of real-world problems by focusing on expression, effect, values, meaning, and how the stuff natural and social sciences study plays out in human lives (i.e., lived experi-ence). Every generation seeks its own self-understanding. This explains the perpetual reinterpretation of Shakespeare's plays, the writing of new biographies of historical figures, and the creation of new forms of artistic expression, the latter contributing to the ever-expanding variety of phenomena studied by the humanities 2. THE COMPLEXITY OF THE 18 GLOBALIZED WORKPLACE  19 It’s unlikely that these jobs will even still be around It’s even more unlikely that the kind of job, your colleagues, and the nature of the work will be the same as it has been for your predecessors. WHY? Because of the Changes in technology Diversity in the workplace New markets Demands placed on workers in a dynamic economy  20 This fundamental restructuring of the economy and the workplace demands a new type of worker with a new set of skills. Most tangible products are the result of integrating information from multiple and diverse knowledge domains, and they require working in teams. For example, designing an "app" for the Apple iPhone requires, at a minimum, the ability to integrate software, art, math, gaming, English grammar, marketing, law, database management, finance, and interpersonal communication- everything that goes into an application. In other words, designing an app requires a lot more training and creativity than just writing software code.  21 3. THE NEED FOR SYSTEMS THINKING AND CONTEXTUAL THINKING The world is full of complex systems: The environment The financial system The movement of people in the world These systems are made up of many interrelated parts. All of the parts are important to consider when examining the issue as whole  Think of something closer to your experience 22 The system used by your university to enroll you in classes The system used by your university to enroll you in classes Think of all the parts of that complex whole: Class name Faculty to teach the class Room space Number of Students Credit hours awarded Compensation for faculty Grading system Overlooking any element of this complex whole jeopardizes the possibility of understanding the whole Interdisciplinarians also recognize the importance of examining complex problems in context. “Contextual thinking is the ability to view a subject from a broad perspective by placing it in the fabric of time, culture, or personal experience” (7)  23 Think of a complex problem Consider Climate Change If you consider this complex problem only from the discipline of “Biology” for example (which is an important perspective) You will miss historical perspective – how did we get here? You will miss cultural perspective – why are some countries and cultures more adept at making changes to combat climate change than others? You will miss personal experience – what are your own attitudes toward climate change, why do you have them, how will policy changes related to climate change affect you?  24 4. THE CHANGING NATURE OF UNIVERSITY RESEARCH Interdisciplinary Research is being encouraged at the academy because: Interdisciplinary research produces more creative results because it leverages the insights from different disciplinary departments, avoiding siloed thinking Students who engage in interdisciplinary research are more employable because they have been exposed to ways of thinking from more than one academic department  25 A KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY NEEDS BOTH DISCIPLINARITY AND INTERDISCIPLINARITY Just because you are interdisciplinary doesn’t mean you don’t need the disciplines As instrumental interdisciplinarians, we believe that the disciplines are foundational to our work As the knowledge within the disciplines grows, as interdisciplinarians, we must be able to draw this into our own understanding of complex problems This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY  26 THE MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THIS COURSE IS to appreciate the interdisciplinary texts as good examples and to learn how to understand the interdisciplinary approach. You are not initiating a new study nor a research. Nonetheless, you are expected to:  find the merits of each discipline  How the process of the disciplinary integration is creative and enriching for each field.  Find out the purpose of the author in using this approach? THANK YOU Next Class Read Bradbury’s A sound of Thunder