Catherine T. Amelink, Dustin M. Grote, Matthew B. Norris, Jacob R. Grohs
{"title":"Transdisciplinary Learning Opportunities: Exploring Differences in Complex Thinking Skill Development Between STEM and Non-STEM Majors","authors":"Catherine T. Amelink, Dustin M. Grote, Matthew B. Norris, Jacob R. Grohs","doi":"10.1007/s10755-023-09682-5","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>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.</p>","PeriodicalId":47065,"journal":{"name":"Innovative Higher Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Innovative Higher Education","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-023-09682-5","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
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.
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.