Bringing Meaning to Learning: An Interdisciplinary Project for First-Year Community College Students

Abstract

Interdisciplinary pedagogy can enhance Introduction to Psychology curricula. We developed an interdisciplinary project to make meaning in a learning community (LC) clustering Introduction to Psychology with Introduction to Criminal Justice. Our purpose is to describe the project as a model and report on students’ evaluations of the project and their academic progress. We collected questionnaire data about students’ experiences completing the project. Results were positive with most students valuing make meaning, feeling more connected to psychology and expressing satisfaction. We measured student learning using project grades and final grades in the psychology course. Participants performed satisfactory on the project and outperformed a comparison group in the Introduction to Psychology course. Findings demonstrate the value of interdisciplinary pedagogy in psychology curricula.

What Did We Learn?

“…The project creates opportunities for students to discover shared experiences with Kalief and to also view their own lives through a new lens that is informed by the course content. For a full description of the interdisciplinary project see Rima and Rodriguez (2021).…”