Avoiding pitfalls in interdisciplinary education

Abstract

As the world's social-environmental problems increasingly extend across boundaries, both disciplinary and political, there is a growing need for interdisciplinarity, not only in research per se, but also in doctoral education. We present the common pitfalls of interdisciplinary research in doctoral education, illustrating approaches towards solutions using the Nordic Centre for Research on Marine Ecosystems and Resources under Climate Change (NorMER) research network as a case study. We provide insights and detailed examples of how to overcome some of the challenges of conducting interdisciplinary research within doctoral studies that can be applied within any doctoral/postdoctoral education programme, and beyond. Results from a selfevaluation survey indicate that early-career workshops, annual meetings and research visits to other institutions were the most effective learning mechanisms, whereas single discipline-focused courses and coursework were among the least effective learning mechanisms. By identifying the strengths and weaknesses of components of NorMER, this case study can inform the design of future programmes to enhance interdisciplinarity in doctoral education, as well as be applied to science collaboration and academic research in general.

Can multi-use of the sea be safe? A framework for risk assessment of multi-use at sea

“…It is widely acknowledged that such an interdisciplinary approach is rather time consuming (Jones, 2010), as a common ground for analysis needs to be developed. This requires, next to developing a common credible framework, developing a common language and understanding of terms (Holt et al, 2017).…”

Education and Evaluation for the NRT: Accounting for Numerous Requirements, Multiple Disciplines, and Small Cohorts

“…In lieu of that, we examined the literature on interdisciplinary research in an attempt to identify instruments able to measure student progress related to the areas noted above. In searching, we examined published instruments in related areas, identified skills perceived to be essential for the scientific workforce of the future (Begg et al, 2015); read about pitfalls and complexity in defining, fostering and assessing interdisciplinary skills (Holt et al, 2017); and, found an interdisciplinary collaboration framework by Carr (Figure 2), which represents how challenging it is to operationalize all of the constructs and variables associated with interdisciplinary research and career preparation in an efficient and sustainable evaluation program. Given the challenges listed above, we chose three major thrusts for our internal assessment and evaluation efforts to be able to track progress and meet NSF's annual reporting requirements.…”