An Investigation of the Influence of Disciplinary Distance in Interdisciplinary Education Through Faculty’s Experience

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaoqi Feng ◽  
Katja Hölttä-Otto
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Interdisciplinary Education ◽  
Teacher Teams ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Disciplinary Differences ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teaching

Abstract Interdisciplinary initiatives have been encouraged in higher education curricula, especially in mechanical engineering as a result of the industry’s calls for talent with multidisciplinary competencies to solve complex real-world problems. However, disciplinary distance, due to disciplinary differences, poses great challenges in interdisciplinary teaching and learning. How can interdisciplinary faculty members collaborate effectively in teaching? How can students with different backgrounds learn significant knowledge? Collaboration for interdisciplinary education across disciplines is challenging, as co-teachers are usually affiliated with different departments or even schools, and they tend to speak different disciplinary languages and value different disciplinary cultures. Similarly, students in engineering design teams come from different backgrounds. Consistent with Klein’s concepts of Wide Interdisciplinarity and Narrow Interdisciplinarity, we propose the concept of disciplinary distance to present the research findings of disciplinary differences and their implications on interdisciplinary teaching and learning. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of disciplinary distance, as manifested in interdisciplinary education from faculty members’ perspectives. From 13 semi-structured interviews, we find that disciplinary distance plays a vital role in interdisciplinary teaching and learning. It influences teamwork — both in co-teacher teams and student teams. Interdisciplinary course content and interdisciplinary co-teacher teams can also create a wide disciplinary distance that serves as a barrier for interdisciplinary learning. We further find that interdisciplinary collaboration may help to mediate the negative impact of disciplinary distance.

Identifying The Competencies Possessed By The Engineering College Faculty In India

2019 ◽  
Vol 118 (4) ◽  
pp. 68-71
Author(s):  
Mohanakumari. D ◽  
R. Magesh
Keyword(s):  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Global Workforce ◽  
Content Domain ◽  
Technology Changes ◽  
Education In India ◽  
Pre Service Teacher

The main intention of the Paper is identifying the competencies possessed by the faculty in engineering college and adequate skills of all the disciplines required and that plays a vital role in educational institutions.In this era, engineering education in India faces major challenges as it requires meeting the demands of technical profession and emerging job market. Researchers have created some universally desired, yet challenging skills for global workforce. Nowadays, technology changes rapidly, so we have to update our self-according to the changing world, i.e., infrastructure, content/domain knowledge, educators/HR trainers. Thus, our technical faculty members should necessary to learn the innovative approaches to teaching and learning, which in turn will require effective professional development for both new and experienced instructors alike. It is right time now to redesign our curriculam, pedagogy and make the pre-service teacher preparation programme mandatory part of technical higher education.

scholarly journals Online Learning Amidst COVID-19 Emergency: A Case of the University of Malawi’s School of Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 346-364
Author(s):  
Bob Maseko ◽  
Foster Gondwe ◽  
Symon Winiko ◽  
Symon Chiziwa
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
School Of Education ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Concerns Based Adoption Model ◽  
Academic Leaders ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
The University ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Learning Data

This paper explores faculty members’ concerns and level of preparedness for open and distance learning (ODL) at the University of Malawi’s School of Education during the recent Covid-19 pandemic within a context that considers ODL as a means of mitigating the impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with four experienced academic leaders within the school of education. The Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM), particularly stages of concerns, served as a framework to understand the faculty’s concerns about the implementation of ODL initiatives. Inductive and deductive analysis approaches were used to analyse the interview transcripts to identify emerging themes. Deductive analysis revealed that faculty members expressed several concerns such as awareness, informational, as well as consequences concerns as they talked about their feelings and attitudes towards the implementation of ODL. Inductive analysis on the other hand revealed that faculty members’ perceptions such as minimal preparation, negative orientations, and lack of policy awareness hamper the implementation of ODL. These findings underscore the importance of members’ orientation change to ensure effective implementation of ODL in contexts like the institution under study. We discuss these and propose that professional development could help members develop positive attitudes towards ODL.

scholarly journals Toward Hybridity: The Interplay of Technology, Pedagogy, and Content across Disciplines at a Small Liberal Arts College

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Rust
Keyword(s):  
Content Knowledge ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Technological Knowledge ◽  
Pedagogical Knowledge ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Attitudes Toward Teaching ◽  
Digital Pedagogy ◽  
Knowledge Content

Through semi-structured interviews with sixteen faculty members representing a variety of experience levels and departments, this piece illuminates faculty theories and ideas about digital pedagogy through the conceptual lens of TPACK (Mishra & Koehler, 2006), which delineates the overlapping considerations teachers in designing learning through technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge.  Findings reveal widespread similarities in attitudes toward teaching and learning across all different departments and indicate that, while faculty members had a range of content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological knowledge inferences, the greatest tensions and successes were articulated when faculty discussed issues located at the nexus of technological knowledge, content knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge.

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary Connections:

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-44
Author(s):  
Catlin M. Pauley ◽  
Aaron J. McKim
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
Interdisciplinary Collaboration ◽  
Content Area ◽  
Core Content ◽  
School Based ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teaching ◽  
Science Educators ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Mathematics And Science

Agriculture, food, and/or natural resources (AFNR) content offers a tremendous context for interdisciplinary teaching and learning. Collaboration between AFNR and core content area educators has been recommended to increase interdisciplinarity in school-based AFNR Education; however, existing research lacks an empirical investigation of the relationship between interdisciplinary collaboration and outcomes associated with interdisciplinary teaching in school-based AFNR Education. Therefore, the current study explores the scope of collaboration between AFNR, leadership, mathematics, and science educators and the relationship between collaboration and interdisciplinary teaching in school-based AFNR Education. Findings indicate opportunities to initiate and strengthen interdisciplinary communities of practice through purposeful interactions, especially regarding length of interactions between AFNR and core content area educators. Recommendations for practitioners, teacher educators, and researchers are provided.

scholarly journals Complexity, interdisciplinarity and design literacy

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tore Andre RINGVOLD ◽  
Liv Merete NIELSEN
Keyword(s):  
General Education ◽  
Design Education ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Learning Processes ◽  
Educational Systems ◽  
Complex World ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teaching ◽  
Interdisciplinary Nature

In today’s complex world, a variety of perspectives are needed to better understand and solve challenges. For decades, global organisations and researchers have pointed to interdisciplinarity as a way forward for educational systems. Educational research offers great possibilities and gains for students involved in interdisciplinary teaching and learning processes, and the interdisciplinary nature of design thinking and practice can play a vital role in interdisciplinary general education. This paper explores how future scenariobuilding, as part of general design education, can serve as a framework for interdisciplinarity in general education and contribute to a better understanding of complex problems, challenges and design literacy.

Using Design Thinking to Write and Publish Novel Teaching Cases: Tips From Experienced Case Authors

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norman T. Sheehan ◽  
Mahendra R. Gujarathi ◽  
Joanne C. Jones ◽  
Fred Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Design Thinking ◽  
Management Education ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Wicked Problem ◽  
Scholarship Of Teaching ◽  
Framework Design ◽  
Practice Teaching ◽  
Teaching Cases

With increasing calls for a greater connection between management education and practice, teaching cases play a vital role in the business curriculum. Cases not only allow instructors to expose students to practical problems but also let educators contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning. An important reason why faculty members may refrain from writing cases is they perceive it is difficult to develop publishable cases that are also novel. Reviewers of the journals that publish teaching cases are increasingly asking authors to place the case in the extant literature and explain what makes their case unique. To overcome some of the challenges encountered when attempting to write and publish novel teaching cases, this article presents a useful framework—Design Thinking—for tackling the “wicked problem” of developing novel cases and provides experience-based tips to implement the framework. By introducing the concepts and language of design thinking, we provide case writers with an iterative approach that leads to the development of novel cases by identifying and innovatively addressing instructors’, students’, and editors’ demands. We argue that by applying a design-thinking approach, case writers can produce novel and publishable instructional cases.

Trouble In Paradise

2003 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 173-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
John H. Gunn ◽  
M. Bruce King
Keyword(s):  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Secondary Level ◽  
Pedagogical Issues ◽  
Teacher Teams ◽  
Interdisciplinary Teaching ◽  
Teaching Team ◽  
Laissez Faire ◽  
Shared Power ◽  
Three Phases

In this article, the authors recount and explore critical dilemmas in the development of a secondary-level interdisciplinary teaching team. Reaching consensus on significant pedagogical issues represents one of the promises of teaming: the strengthening of teachers' work by breaking down isolation and collectively struggling with substantive questions of teaching and learning. But this analysis reveals the complex and often contradictory work of teacher teams. Even within ostensibly democratic structures, hierarchies emerged, individualistic tendencies persisted, genuine agreement was elusive, and members were silenced. The authors discuss three phases in the development of the team, defined as consolidated, laissez faire, and shared power. They conclude with several lessons drawn from the experiences of the team.

scholarly journals Shifting Teaching and Learning in Online Learning Spaces: An Investigation of a Faculty Online Teaching and Learning Initiative

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayson W. Richardson ◽  
Ericka Hollis ◽  
Mikah Pritchard ◽  
John Eric M. Novosel-Lingat
Keyword(s):  
Learning Community ◽  
Teaching Strategies ◽  
Online Teaching ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research University ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Teaching Approaches ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Hybrid Teaching ◽  
E Learning

We examined the adoption of online teaching strategies by faculty members at a large midwestern research university who participated in a year-long learning community. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to investigate changes in teaching approaches resulting from a year-long e-learning professional development initiative; and 2) to understand the perceptions of factors that influenced faculty members’ decision to adopt online or hybrid teaching approaches. The analysis was based on survey data and semi-structured interviews. Barriers, challenges, and successes to the adoption of online teaching strategies are also described in this article. 

Teachers' views on a double transit in Grade 4: From Foundation Phase to Intermediate Phase and from Indigenous Language to English

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 109-129
Author(s):  
Maletšema Ruth Emsley ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Narrative Analysis ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Second Language Learners ◽  
Intermediate Phase ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Mother Tongue ◽  
Primary Objective ◽  
Indigenous Language ◽  
Structured Interviews

South African Grade Four learners cannot read and comprehend written language in their own mother-tongue. In the midst of this challenge, the Language in Education policy prescribes that these learners should use English as Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT). The primary objective of this study is to investigate the effects of double exit experienced in the transition from Grade 3 to Grade 4; and from indigenous language learning to learning in English. The study used semi-structured interviews in collecting data from 6 purposively sampled participants who teach Grade Four classes. Qualitative thematic and narrative analysis were used to scrutinize data. The research findings identified negative impact of transition on teaching and learning, teachers' diffidence and incompetence to teach in English, the overuse of code switching and lack of support by authorities, schools lack of focus and direction in mitigating the transition challenges, and participants' suggestions on how to mitigate the challenges of transition. The study recommends that the use of English as LoLT should be introduced at an advanced stage for second language learners.

scholarly journals Social Media Use and Expectations in the Teaching and Learning Process: The Opinions of the Faculty Members

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-468
Author(s):  
yüsra köse
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Classroom Environment ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Health Economy ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Learning And Teaching ◽  
Social Media Tools

Nowadays, social media tools used in all fields such as politics, health, economy, transportation, public services are also used in the learning and teaching process. The main aim of this research is to investigate academic administrators’ and faculty members’ perceptions concerning the reasons and the expectations of social media usage in the teaching and learning process. With this purpose, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 academic teaching faculty members from different academic units, titles, and positions at Aksaray University in Turkey. According to the findings of this research, the use of social media in the teaching and learning process was similar in terms of faculty that use or not use. In this study, both the benefits and challenges of using social media for teaching and learning purposes were identified. It has been determined that the faculty members who use social media prefer YouTube most and even the ones against find YouTube useful and use them effectively in their courses. The motives stated by the faculty that use social media were; student-centered reasons such as students’ preference to use these environments, contributing to students’ perceptions and learning, fast and effective communication with students, as well as accessibility and equal opportunities in education. Those who do not prefer to use social media claimed the students’ unethical behavior in these platforms, the difficulty of creating a traditional classroom environment, and maintaining the relationship between the learner and the teacher. As a result, in order to integrate social media tools with the teaching and learning process, it is necessary to raise awareness of faculty members and students and to use social media tools that have a code of ethics, appropriate and can be integrated into the learning environments.

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