Using communities of practice to enhance interdisciplinary teaching: lessons from four Australian institutions

Abstract

We report on the establishment of communities of practice at four Australian institutions and evaluate their effectiveness and durability as a means of building staff and institutional capacity for interdisciplinary teaching. A community of practice approach is a potentially valuable methodology for overcoming dynamics of fragmentation, isolation and competition within universities. The communities we established were anchored by a shared focus on the topic of climate change and they worked collaboratively to build relationships of trust and reciprocity between teachers in a wide range of disciplines. The aim of each community was to improve the teaching of climate change through enabling members to integrate diverse disciplinary perspectives, to teach collaboratively, to promote innovation through exchange and to demonstrate leadership within their institutions. The key factors that made our communities effective and durable are: (1) designation of two leadership roles, activator and facilitator, (2) provision for institutional autonomy in domesticating the model to fit local circumstances and (3) a pragmatic emphasis on opportunities for teaching innovation and leadership within existing administrative structures, teaching programs and workloads. We conclude that suitably designed and resourced communities of practice are a viable means of improving interdisciplinary teaching of complex problems by facilitating both staff development and institutional learning.

Developing leaders to tackle wicked problems at the nexus of food, energy, and water systems

“…(Wenger and Snyder, 2000). Within graduate training programs, CoP offer opportunities for universities to leverage their relative strengths, find synergies, and disseminate information across different campuses (Pharo et al, 2014). For example, through a CoP, participating students could select from a suite of FEWS-related workshop modules all of which a single campus could not offer because of limited resources.…”

Interdisciplinary knowledge exchange across scales in a globally changing marine environment

“…Many of the most successful interdisciplinary scientists active today have informally acquired knowledge through the course of their career (Davison et al., ; McCright, O'Shea, Sweeder, Urquhart, & Zeleke, ), as traditionally interdisciplinarity has been taught in undergraduate courses (if taught at all) with little formal training conducted in later career stages. The strong disciplinary focus of most existing research and university systems means institutional changes will be necessary for routine interdisciplinary collaborations and education to take place (Pharo, Davison, Mcgregor, Warr, & Brown, ). Examples of what this might look like can be seen in the issue‐focused centres being created at Stanford ( https://interdisciplinary.stanford.edu/) which are intended to fluidly bring together disciplines around a common issue rather than being disciplinary‐focused.…”

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

“…Tomando como punto de partida las nuevas tecnologías, y más concretamente las wikis, Biasutti y EL-Deghaidy (2015) llevan a cabo un estudio centrado en el desarrollo de proyectos interdisciplinares para la escuela primaria con la ciencia como elemento nuclear que, al mismo tiempo, actuó como un centro de organización para la búsqueda de vínculos con otras disciplinas. Pharo et al (2014) realizan un estudio de campo centrado en las comunidades de práctica con el objetivo de mejorar la enseñanza del cambio climático, implicando a profesorado de una amplia gama de disciplinas. Por su parte, Spitzer (2013) refleja el éxito de dos cursos interdisciplinares sobre ciencia, ingeniería y sociedad, al mismo tiempo que identifica una debilidad común: su posible desaparición si no se produce una integración de los temas interdisciplinarios en el curriculum de la formación.…”