Interdisciplinary trends in higher education

Abstract

The knowledge economy requires an adept workforce and cadre of leaders to help address the many challenges and needs facing companies, governments and societies worldwide. Many of the challenges we face today are new and there will undoubtedly be others arise in the future that will require innovative approaches and solutions to overcome them. No longer are higher education institutions able to train graduates to address all of the current and emerging challenges from a singular disciplinary source. Interdisciplinary (ID) approaches to research and training are essential underpinnings to best meet the dynamic needs of today's higher education students. As the first in a series of forthcoming articles on ID research, this article examines ID trends in higher education research, instruction and degree offerings. It highlights how central ID solutions are in helping to address some of the most complex needs and challenges in higher education today, including how best to prepare higher education graduates for future employment and leadership positions.

Longitudinal perspectives of faculty and students on benefits and barriers to transdisciplinary graduate education: program assessment and institutional recommendations

“…For example, the departmental and disciplinary boundary disputes noted at baseline were not mentioned by any focus group at five years; further, students and faculty alike noted the value of collaboration, networks, and support across and between disciplines and programs at five years. Regarding faculty promotion concerns, these may lessen as we approach a paradigm shift in the structure of academia and doctoral training, as TD science and collaboration become the new norm (Bennett et al, 2010;Chastin et al, 2016;Hirsch et al, 2008;Rimer and Abrams, 2012;Stokols et al, 2008b). Existing TD training programs must continue to gather and evaluate data in order to build evidence-based approaches to TD training and pedagogy and to spur innovation at the institutional level in order to support team science that can solve complex global problems.…”

“…Increasingly, the concept of convergence between life sciences, engineering, social sciences, and other fields is viewed as a key to unlocking innovative solutions to complex global problems such as childhood obesity (National Research Council (NRC), 2014). Higher education plays a critical role in teaching and cultivating transdisciplinary (TD) team science, which we define in this paper as approaches that vertically integrate theories and bodies of knowledge across diverse disciplines and horizontally integrate approaches from stakeholders at multiple levels of the social ecology from individuals and families to communities to policy makers, in order to generate novel ways to address grand challenges (Bernstein, 2015;Hirsch et al, 2008;Jacob, 2015;Neuhauser et al, 2007;Neuhauser and Pohl, 2015;Stokols, 2006Stokols, , 2013. However, the institutional and programmatic infrastructure and practical pedagogical strategies to support training in TD science are still emerging (Jacob, 2015;NRC, 2014;Neuhauser et al, 2007;Willetts and Mitchell, 2016).…”

Desarrollo de Competencias Docentes en Educación Infantil: Una Experiencia Interdisciplinar en la Formación Inicial de Profesores

“…A pesar de todas estas iniciativas, se constata que la interdisciplinariedad es un campo poco abordado en las experiencias que pretenden ser innovadoras, pese a que tal y como afirman López et al (2016) "el carácter integrador, transferible y multifuncional de las competencias requiere diseños y desarrollos curriculares más coordinados e interdisciplinares" (p.12), al mismo tiempo que se pone de relieve (Jacob, 2015) su importancia para ayudar a resolver algunas de las necesidades y desafíos de la educación superior actual.…”

Making eco logic and models work : an integrative approach to lake ecosystem modelling

“…I postulate here that if we can make such improvements on a local scale, we can also do it on a global scale, even if it can only be achieved by taking the sum of a myriad of local improvements. In this light there is much to expect from the multidisciplinary trends in higher education, as it implies that in the years to come numerous students will graduate that have learned to cooperate in multidisciplinary research teams, and can take the role of broker within such teams (Jacob, 2015). A fortiori, many university courses have been completely designed based on the new paradigm of 'Mode 2' knowledge production (Nowotny et al, 2003), implying that university students are subjected to real world learning, carrying out multidisciplinary consultancy projects for a real-life client (Bootsma et al, 2014).…”