The Day the Classroom Flipped: Lessons Learned from Interdisciplinary Science Education Online

The Covid‐19 pandemic, evolving needs of students & mentors, and the drive for global educational equality are collectively shifting how courses are packaged/distributed, ushering a more holistic approach and blending of fields. We recently created interdisciplinary courses in chemical biology aimed at massive open online and small private levels. These courses cover biology, chemistry, & physics, and concepts underlying modern chemical‐biology tools. We discuss what we learned while creating/overseeing these courses: content optimization and maintaining material freshness while fostering a stimulating learning environment. We outline mechanisms that help sustain student attention throughout rapidly‐moving courses, how to integrate adaptability to students’ needs in the short & long term, and speculate how we could have improved. We believe this will be an important guide for anyone wanting to develop online learning formats ideal for nurturing interdisciplinary scientists of tomorrow.

Interdisciplinary Education Model in the Study of Aging: Example and Course Design

Collaboration among various disciplines is essential to the gerontology curriculum because it is a a new and comprehensive subject. This presentation will discuss the design of interdisciplinary courses to include practical applications in the study of aging. The presenter will share examples based on personal experience to illustrate how music and psychology may be applied to the study of aging. In addition, the presentation will include analysis of actual course designs to show how different fields can be integrated in the classroom setting. This symposium presentation intends to improve cross-discipline applications as well as help students contribute to and benefit from the study of aging.

Relevance, Design Experience and Analysis of the Results of Point Implementation of Interdisciplinary Courses in the Educational Process at the University

The work points out the problems of adaptation of the subject to the activity and the possibility of their solution through the formation of the style of activity. The urgency of the use of non-subject resources for the formation of the style of activity in modern conditions is substantiated. The role of the engineer in creating the environment and means of labor, which can be used as extra- subject resources, is pointed out. The principles on which the professional training of engineers should be based, found on the need to solve the problems of "completing" the subject (the subject of labor, the subject of life activity) are indicated. The principles, on which the higher education is oriented, are analyzed, and the problems of the educational process in modern conditions are indicated. The importance of interdisciplinary courses in the training of engineers of the future is substantiated; the possibilities of their implementation in the educational process and the advantages and disadvantages are analyzed. The central part of the work is essentially a reflection of the process of design, development and in the depths of the interdisciplinary course "Introduction to Specialty", built on the basis of the disciplines chosen by the student "Psychology of Business Communication" and "Fundamentals of Business Communication and Presentation" in the educational process at a technical university, including analysis of feedback from students who took part in it. The results of the implementation of the course and its scaling for other levels and for other areas of training are presented. The article analyzes the assessments of the effectiveness of training, exhibited by students when filling out the feedback questionnaire, which indicates a high level of subjective assessment of the effectiveness of the course as a whole in the presence of certain differences in assessing the achievement of individual results by students of different areas of training. The main directions of further work are outlined. A description of the structure and options for constructing a number of interdisciplinary courses is given.

PhD courses and the intersectoral experience: a comprehensive survey

It has been found that most PhD graduates (>85%) do not achieve a long-term academic career and thus there is a growing need to re-imagine PhD education that incentivizes doctoral students to engage with research consumers, not only within their discipline, but also, across other disciplines and sectors to have real social impact for an improved society. The aim of this work is to identify intersectoral/interdisciplinary courses that are considered to broaden student career outside and inside academia. For this purpose, a survey was designed to identify modules which lead to the improvement of students' skills while an analysis of their attributes was also performed. Two target groups have been considered: (a) young researchers and (b) program directors each of which can provide different information regarding the courses of interest. 52 students and 11 directors from 5 European Universities, participated in the study. An absence of such courses in the standard PhD program was observed, while any intersectoral/interdisciplinary activities were conducted outside the PhD program, and organized by collaboration of academia and other organizations. The survey findings reveal the need to restructure the PhD programs.

Who Coaches the Coaches? The Development of a Coaching Model for Experiential Learning

This study explores a case of coaching deployed in experiential, interdisciplinary, and project-based courses. This study follows coaching in two courses that operated on a high-impact practice framework. In these courses, coaching was experienced by both students and faculty as a critical feature of the success of the courses. Students showed that coaching impacted their sense of the gravity of course content, their ownership of student-designed work, their relationships with faculty, and their experience of place-based learning. Faculty indicated that the coaching promoted transdisciplinary course planning, while their teaching benefited student engagement. We recommend practices for coaching that can support gains for students and faculty in experiential, project-based, interdisciplinary courses.

Navigating interdisciplinarity: negotiating discipline, embodiment, and materiality on a field methods training course

This article elucidates some of the opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching, drawing on our participant observation as both instructors of anthropological methods and honorary students of marine ecology and geomorphology methods on a research training field course. We argue that interdisciplinary methods training offers educators opportunities for self-reflexivity, recognition of the taken-for-granted aspects of our knowledge, and improved communication of the value of our work to others. However, we also show how decisions about course structure can reinforce disciplinary boundaries, limiting inter-epistemic knowledge production; how one epistemological approach may overshadow others, hindering interdisciplinary learning; and how methods training involves tacit and embodied knowledge and mastery of material methods, requiring repetition and experimentation. We offer insights into how we as educators can improve our communication of the value of anthropology and its methods. First, instructors in any discipline should develop an awareness of how their tacit knowledge affects the pedagogical process. Second, instead of enskilling instructors to teach a variety of methods, it may be more beneficial for instructors to teach their own areas of expertise, in dialogue and collaboration with other disciplines. Third, interdisciplinary courses must be carefully planned to allow equal participation of different disciplines, so that anthropology is understood on its own terms and embedded in the course from the outset.

Interdisciplinary education and authentic development

Whereas economists do not traditionally address social harmony, and sociologists or political scientists do not usually tackle economic development, the interaction of social harmony and economic development has recently become an object of intense concern. In their aim to foster evolved rather than uprooted cultural values, the authors of this research note suggest an educational approach to promote the concept and the implementation of what they refer to as authentic development. They propose interdisciplinary courses that include notions of history, sociology and economy. Their methodology is based on two main resources: (1) a textbook providing a broad historical survey tracing the development of 28 nations in the Americas; and (2) analytical parameters related to the extent of social interaction and income generation. Students carry out digital and group research and elaborate the conditions that generate social harmony, economic well-being and a better balance between them. The authors have already piloted their educational approach in four secondary schools in Antigua, Guatemala with 50 students aged 17–19. Most of them are now enrolled at local universities, but the impact of this course on their performance will only emerge over time.

Island Ecology for Educators

Island Ecology for Educators is an interdisciplinary course that is cross-listed between environmental studies and education students engaging both undergraduate and graduate students. This chapter aims to contribute to our understanding of environmental education practices by introducing the TTIP Teaching Model addressing (1) the importance of teaching about and in nature, (2) issues of teaching in the digital age, (3) benefits derived from interdisciplinary courses, and (4) building partnerships in your community. The TTIP model is the framework that the authors developed and adapted for creating an engaging platform for learning and teaching of environmental education and blends the aspects of teaching outdoors (T), technology inclusion (T), interdisciplinary courses (I), and partnering with experts (P). The discussion includes the outcomes of the course and recommendations for how to design similar environmental education courses using the TTIP Teaching model focusing on content application, pedagogical application, technology infusion, and partnership creation.

Trends of modern education: a look at the preparation of mid-level specialists under conditions of modernization of the education system

Discusses the trends and directions of modernization of the education system in the process of reforming technical education, while implementing training programs for mid-level specialists. Insufficient training of future students in the exact sciences creates difficulties in mastering interdisciplinary courses, and does not allow demonstrating a high level of development of professional modules. This fact especially affects the areas of training, where the exact sciences form the basis of technical disciplines. Modernization of educational processes should contribute to solving the problem of students’ different preparedness for the study of new knowledge and the acquisition of practical skills. A variety of forms and teaching methods used in the implementation of educational programs at various levels, changes in the requirements of regulatory documents related to changes in the structure of secondary vocational education management pose difficult tasks for teachers to find effective ways for future specialists to develop independent thinking based on fundamental professional training and practical skills solve a variety of tasks. Indicated on contradiction between innovative changes implemented in the field of education and the results of pedagogical activity. The most significant trends that affect the education system in terms of training mid-level specialists have been identified and systematized.