Student experiences of multidisciplinarity in the undergraduate geography curriculum

Abstract

This paper explores the student experience of multidisciplinarity within the undergraduate Geography curriculum. It considers the drivers that have underpinned this development before considering the findings of research into student experiences in two universities in the south of England. The results suggest that most students view this development positively and recognize a number of advantages that it brings, citing expanded opportunities for learning, working with people from other disciplines, expansion of perspectives and perceived benefits to employability. However, for a minority this development is more problematic. The research points here to issues with specialist knowledge and disciplinary pedagogies, social issues within the classroom and class organization and some reservations regarding groupwork. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations.

Unveiling interdisciplinary horizons: students’ experiences in a first-year calculus course

“…These observations parallel Davies et al, 2010 viewpoint on the influence of past disciplinary knowledge on perplexing and frustrating experiences, disrupting interdisciplinary encounters. Additionally, the insights of Hall et al (2018) on students' familiarity with discussed concepts and the confidence emanating from shared professional language contribute to shaping participants' varied experiences. This phenomenon may also impact student engagement and their perception of assessments, contributing to the intricacies of interdisciplinary exercises (Self and Baek, 2017).…”

“…Several authors have explored the student experience within pedagogical projects focused on integrating knowledge from various disciplines (Jennett et al, 2017;Self and Baek, 2017;Hall et al, 2018;Munge et al, 2018;Hero and Lindfors, 2019;Power and Handley, 2019). For example, Hall et al (2018) present findings from a questionnaire surveying the experiences and perceptions of undergraduate students from different higher education institutions that shared exposure to multidisciplinary modules within geography programs. Similarly, Hero and Lindfors (2019) employed a phenomenographic approach to explore how undergraduate students engage with learning in multidisciplinary teams.…”

Multidisciplinarity in economics education and how it can shape economic thinking in the future

“…Watanabe (2003) writes that there is a trend towards diversifying one's training by adding more layers to it from other discipline, invoking that there are several advantages associated with multidisciplinary training, such as: greater professional prospects; higher quality research; enriching their core training with novel perspectives; better research methodologies. Hall et al (2017) investigated how students gauged their experience with a multidisciplinary curriculum in Geography, with results pointing towards a positive opinion of this format, citing among others increased learning opportunities, interaction with peers from various disciplines and better job market openings, with a minority of students perceiving challenges, mostly associated with "specialist knowledge and disciplinary pedagogies, social issues within the classroom and class organization and some reservations regarding groupwork".…”