TAUU – UYA Meeting: Interdisciplinary teaching roundtable and workshop

TAUU and Utrecht Young Academy (UYA) (Rianka Rijnhout, Brianne McGonigle Leyh) organize a roundtable and workshop on interdisciplinary teaching on Thursday, 7 December. You can sign up via this link.

Interdisciplinary Teaching: Challenges and Possibilities
More and more often teachers in higher education are hearing about the importance of interdisciplinary education. But what does it mean exactly? And how can it be realized?

The idea of interdisciplinary education is to move beyond the limited of one discipline in order to find new integrated solutions to challenging and complex problems (de Greef et al. 2017; Repko 2008). Research suggests that it advances cognitive ability, promotes critical thinking, and helps develop an awareness of bias and ethical concerns (Newell 2001; Field et al. 1994). Students learn to appreciate a range of methodologies to foster greater understanding of a given topic and are better able to understand multiple viewpoints on that topic. Interdisciplinary education offers a more authentic experience because it highlights the complexity of real life challenges and how a one-dimensional, one-discipline approach is inadequate in solving them.

Realizing an interdisciplinary approach, however, is not easy. It requires teachers to plan ahead in order to foster such programs. It is important to be sufficiently knowledgeable of related disciplines, to find the appropriate level of interdisciplinary complexity, and to avoid bias of one discipline over another. If you are interested in learning more on how to engage students in this approach, then this roundtable and workshop are for you!

We will begin with a roundtable discussion on the importance of interdisciplinary education with teachers from the Utrecht Young Academy (UYA). The UYA is a diverse group of young academics committed to multi- and interdisciplinary education at Utrecht University. Members are from a wide range of UU Faculties and will share their experiences on implementing interdisciplinary education in their classrooms. Themes will be on program design, how things worked in practice, didactic methods and assessment. All participants are encouraged to take part in the roundtable in order to share their own experiences with interdisciplinary education initiatives. We will then have an interactive workshop where participants will work together in small groups to design and develop an interdisciplinary course around current global challenges.

References-
De Greef, L., Post, G., Vink, C. and Wenting, L., Designing Interdisciplinary Education: A Practical Handbook for University Teachers, Amsterdam University Press (2017).
Field, M., Lee, R., and Field, M.L., ‘Assessing Interdisciplinary Learning’, 58 New Directions in Teaching and Learning 69-84 (1994).
Newell, W.H., ‘A Theory of Interdisciplinary Studies’, 19 Issues in Integrative Studies 1-25 (2001).
Repko, A., Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory, Sage Publications (2008).

Mc Gonigle, B.N. (Brianne)