Transdisciplinary Learning Opportunities: Exploring Differences in Complex Thinking Skill Development Between STEM and Non-STEM Majors

IF 2.2 Q1 EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH Innovative Higher Education Pub Date : 2023-11-28 DOI:10.1007/s10755-023-09682-5
Catherine T. Amelink, Dustin M. Grote, Matthew B. Norris, Jacob R. Grohs
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Abstract

As higher education institutions look to educate and graduate degree earners that have the skills and knowledge necessary to design, communicate, and collaborate in ways that allow for innovative solutions to complex socio-technical challenges, new approaches to educational efforts are being considered and implemented. Institutional responses have included new courses that have a transdisciplinary focus and embedded course experiences that use problem-based approaches coupled with cross-disciplinary team exposure. Often these initiatives have a singular thematic focus (i.e., sustainability). Little is known about the efficacy of transdisciplinary learning initiatives, especially those that encompass a breadth of thematic areas, as it relates to development of complex thinking skills and whether these learning environments provide for similar benefits across student majors. This study, conducted at a Research I university, was designed to address this gap in the literature by examining whether a university level learning initiative using transdisciplinary approaches was achieving desired goals to advance undergraduate students’ complex thinking skills. Findings among the respondents (n = 592) indicate that the initiative is advancing fundamental complex thinking skills in that specific courses allow students to learn about other disciplines and provide exposure to different disciplinary perspectives. However, results reveal that across all majors courses would benefit from increased real-world problem-based exposure and opportunities to interact with community stakeholders. Additionally, results suggest that undergraduates may need opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of the complexities that exist in cross-disciplinary collaboration, including how to develop integrated solutions that leverage the strengths of technical and non-technical approaches.

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跨学科学习机会:探讨STEM与非STEM专业学生复杂思维技能发展的差异
由于高等教育机构希望教育和研究生学位获得者具备必要的技能和知识,能够设计、沟通和合作,为复杂的社会技术挑战提供创新的解决方案,因此正在考虑和实施新的教育方法。机构的回应包括以跨学科为重点的新课程,以及使用基于问题的方法和跨学科团队接触的嵌入式课程体验。这些倡议往往有一个单一的主题重点(即可持续性)。我们对跨学科学习计划的有效性知之甚少,尤其是那些涵盖广泛主题领域的学习计划,因为它涉及复杂思维技能的发展,以及这些学习环境是否能在不同的学生专业中提供类似的好处。本研究在一所研究型大学进行,旨在通过检查大学水平的学习倡议是否使用跨学科方法实现了提高本科生复杂思维技能的预期目标,从而解决文献中的这一差距。受访者(n = 592)的调查结果表明,该计划在特定课程中提高了基本的复杂思维技能,使学生能够学习其他学科,并提供不同学科视角的机会。然而,结果显示,所有专业的课程都将受益于增加现实世界中基于问题的暴露和与社区利益相关者互动的机会。此外,研究结果表明,本科生可能需要有机会深入了解跨学科合作中的复杂性,包括如何开发综合解决方案,利用技术和非技术方法的优势。
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来源期刊
Innovative Higher Education
Innovative Higher Education EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH-
CiteScore
4.30
自引率
9.10%
发文量
46
期刊介绍: Innovative Higher Education is a refereed scholarly journal that strives to package fresh ideas in higher education in a straightforward and readable fashion. The four main purposes of Innovative Higher Education are: (1) to present descriptions and evaluations of current innovations and provocative new ideas with relevance for action beyond the immediate context in higher education; (2) to focus on the effect of such innovations on teaching and students; (3) to be open to diverse forms of scholarship and research methods by maintaining flexibility in the selection of topics deemed appropriate for the journal; and (4) to strike a balance between practice and theory by presenting manuscripts in a readable and scholarly manner to both faculty and administrators in the academic community.
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