Designing Interdisciplinary Education

Linda de Greef works at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. She is the programme manager at The Teaching Lab where experiments, publications, workshops, guides and methods for interdisciplinary education are developed and shared. Ger Post spent five years working at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies, including as a lecturer in academic skills for the Bachelor’s programme in Natural and Social Sciences. He now works as an educational specialist at the School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Melbourne. Christianne Vink is a teacher trainer and consultant in higher education. She advises and coaches programmes in curriculum development and teacher professionalisation. Lucy Wenting is the director of the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies. She is specialised in leadership, strategy and curriculum development.

• Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 1.1 Moving towards more complexity 1.2 Why interdisciplinary education? 1.3 Why this handbook 1.4 An overview of the content 2 An overview of the development stages 2.1 Starting with an interdisciplinary development team 2.2 Stages in programme development 2.3 Putting the theory into practice 3 Unravelling interdisciplinary understanding 28 3.1 The definition of interdisciplinarity 3.2 Embedding integration in education 3.3 Unravelling interdisciplinary understanding 4 Developing the raw sketch 4.1 Drafting the vision 4.2 Expressing thevision 4.3 Engaging stakeholders in the visioning process 4.4 Communicating the vision 5 Formulating interdisciplinary learning outcomes 5.1 Intended learning outcomes at the programme level 5.2 Intended learning outcomes at the course level 5.3 Creating learning pathways within a programme 5.4 Translating intended learning outcomes into learning activities 6 Embedding integration in the programme design 6.1 Four curriculum models 6.2 Deciding on a curriculum format 6.3 Working towards an interdisciplinary programme 7 Hiring and engaging faculty 7.1 Features of an interdisciplinary teacher 7.2 Recruiting, engaging and connecting faculty 7.3 Overcome hurdles in the interdisciplinary teaching team 8 Exploring the teaching philosophy and didactic methods 8.1 Assumptions of teaching and understanding 8.2 Formulating a shared teaching philosophy 8.3 Didactic methods that nurture interdisciplinary understanding 9 Assessment of interdisciplinary learning outcomes 9.1 Valid assessment of interdisciplinary learning outcomes 9.2 Make interdisciplinary assessment work 9.3 Developing a programme-wide assessment strategy 10 Interdisciplinary teaching in practice 10.1 Important prerequisites for interdisciplinary classes 10.2 The teacher as coach 10.3 Teaching reflective functioning 10.4 Enhancing collaboration skills 10.5 Teaching critical thinking 10.6 Teaching an integrative interdisciplinary capstone course 11 Programme assessment and adjustment 11.1 Formal and informal assessment 11.2 An evaluation approach 11.3 Accreditation of interdisciplinary programmes 11.4 Sustaining interdisciplinary programmes Appendices Index case studies Index activities Index key advices References Colophon