Introductory description

Are you currently teaching in an interdisciplinary context within higher education?
Would you like to develop your thinking and planning for cross-faculty teaching?
Are you passionate about the opportunities for inter/trans-disciplinary learning?

The PGA will be offered to University of Warwick academics and practitioners interested in interdisciplinary pedagogy and who would be interested in taking the award as part of their continuing professional development (CPD).

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Introductory session (October): this first session will address the principal module aims and consider the diversity of student backgrounds, as related to learning styles:

• Introduce interdisciplinarity (ID) at postgraduate level with a particular focus on good practice for facilitators (educators, practitioners, academics, researchers and administrators) of teaching and learning;
• Approach higher education conceptually with a particular focus on practices of teaching and learning (seminars, workshops, events, online activity, policy-making);
• Critically evaluate ID and its variants with a particular focus on multi, inter, trans and non-disciplinary approaches as they relate to pedagogic practice.

Workshop 1 (December): this first formal workshop will be co-delivered by ID practitioners and produce a series of case-studies that can be used across the module and within the learners’ own academic/professional contexts; the workshop-specific aims and objectives will be as follows:

• Consider the varieties of ID education and how they relate to research-led teaching and learning methods (e.g. open-space learning, undergraduate research);
• Understand some underlying concepts that fuel ID practices within higher education;
• Engage critically with critical and radical pedagogies (e.g. Dewey, Freire, Kolb).

Workshop 2 (February): this second formal workshop will be co-delivered by ID educators and PGA alumni. Where possible, the guest speakers will be matched to the student cohort’s interests; the workshop will:

• Develop the concepts of ID education through a series of interventions from practicing scholars, using ‘real world’ examples of pedagogic innovation;
• Apply these concepts to the development of the student’s practice and blog-writing;
• Engage learners with ‘trans-disciplinary’ problems of mutual interest to the whole group.

Workshop 3 (March): this third formal workshop will be co-delivered by ID practitioners and the student themselves; this session will be focused on 'sharing practice' - giving learners a formative opportunity to reflect upon their work so far, showcase blog-entries and present their proposed ID practice to the group; the workshop will:

• Invite students to share and discuss their ID practice with the cohort and receive feedback;
• Demonstrate the different varieties of ID education in practice;
• Consider relevant ethical questions and clearances required for assessment (specifically the portfolio of practice)
• Reflect upon the year's work while looking forward to the independent study ahead.

Submission of student blogs alongside individual tutorials (April): over the next month of independent study, the learners will reflect upon their presentations through the collation of their blogs into a digital ‘reflective journal’ of the module so far; they will also have an individual tutorial addressing their specific needs.

Student Presentations (May/June): Students will present their proposed ID practice formally to the group as an assessed task.

Student practice alongside portfolio-building activities (May/June): over the final month of independent study, the learners will carry out their own (non-assessed) ID practice which will be documented for their portfolio of evidence; during this period they will be supervised by the module convenors, prior to the submission of their portfolio.

Submission of student portfolios and evaluation event (July): following the submission of the portfolios, an evaluation session will be held with the full cohort and staff concerned, reflecting back on the module aims. Ultimately, the module will enable the learners to develop an awareness of pedagogy in relation to professional practices that support teaching & learning.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Critically analyse opportunities and constraints in using ID to support learning, showing an awareness of ideas and theories around effective pedagogical application of interdisciplinarity
• Design, plan, implement and evaluate a learning resource or learning activity integrating appropriate interdisciplinary methods and/or cross-faculty facilitation;
• Review, plan and undertake appropriate actions related to their own continuing professional development and/or status as a reflective practitioner in interdisciplinarity

Indicative reading list

Bateson, G. (2000 [1972]) Steps to an Ecology of Mind. New York: Chandler.

Bateson, P. & Martin, P. (2013) Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brown, V.A., Harris, J.A., & Russell, J.Y. (2010), Tackling Wicked Problems: Through the Transdisciplinary Imagination. Earthscan.

Csikzsentmihalyi, M. (1975) Beyond Boredom and Anxiety. London: Jossey-Bass.

Dewey, J. (1997) Experience and Education. New York: Touchstone.

Freire P (2000 [1968]) (trans. Bergman Ramos M) Pedagogy of the Oppressed, London: Continuum.

Frodeman, R. (ed) (2012) The Oxford Handbook of Interdisciplinarity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Frodeman, R. (2013) Sustainable knowledge: a theory of interdisciplinarity. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kolb, D. (1984) Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Knorr Cetina, K. (1999) Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Larsson, M., Anderberg, E. & Olsson, T. (2015) 'Researching the Transformation in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning through Teaching Portfolios and Conference Papers: A Reflection at the Institutional Level' in S. Booth & L. Woollacott (eds) The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: On its constitution and transformative potential. Stellenbosch: Sun Press. 113-136.

Schulman, L.S. (2005) 'Signature Pedagogies in the Professions'. Daedalus. 134(3), 52-59.

Interdisciplinary

This module aims to introduce interdisciplinarity (ID) at postgraduate level with a particular focus on good practice for facilitators (educators, practitioners, academics, researchers and administrators) of teaching and learning. Students will critically evaluate interdisciplinarity and its variants with a particular focus on multi-, inter-, trans- and non-disciplinary approaches as they relate to pedagogic practice.

Subject specific skills

• Appreciate interdisciplinary approaches to conceptual/practical problems
• Look at their subject specialism from the perspective of other disciplines and standpoints
• Use technical language from a range of disciplines
• Develop argumentation and analytic skills
• Improve communication skills in an academic context
• Develop an awareness of pedagogy in relation to professional practices that support teaching & learning

Transferable skills

• Synthesize materials into teaching and learning activities
• Work collaboratively to combine multiple perspectives
• Articulate arguments orally and in written form
• Manage time to meet deadlines, both in relation to events, online activity and written assignments
• Learn skills relevant to pedagogic and/or professional practice (e.g. use of technology, crafting presentations, facilitation)