Revisiting the Discipline in an Interdisciplinary World

Revisiting the Discipline in an Interdisciplinary World

Dr. Elizabeth Cleaver

Director of Learning Enhancement and Academic PracticeUniversity of Hull, UK

Dr Elizabeth Cleaver: Malmo University, September 2014: 2

[A sociological perspective affords us] ‘…the capacity to shift from one perspective to another… the capacity to range from the most impersonal and remote transformations to the most intimate features of the human self – and to see the relations between the two of them.’

C. W. Mills (1959) The Sociological Imagination pp.13-14

‘It can be said that the first wisdom of sociology is this - things are not what they seem… the sociologist does not look at phenomena that nobody else is aware of. But he looks at the same phenomena in a different way.’

Peter Berger (1963) Invitation to Sociology pp.34, 40


Curriculum 2016

PgCert Academic Practice


3 Key Reasons for Disciplinary Focus

1. Interdisciplinarity rests on strong disciplinarity;

2. Disciplines lie at the heart of teaching and research (and connect the two);

3. Disciplines are fundamental to many academics’ professional identities

Disciplinarity does not have to equate to silo-working!


Transdisciplinarit

y

Interdisciplinarity

Multidisciplinarity

Flow of ideas: cross disciplinary citations

Hierarchy of Interdisciplinarities (Jacob, 2013)


Discovery Themes


Disciplines are ‘nodes in a remarkably vibrant web of scholarship’ (Jacobs, 2013 p 224)


Combining excellence in education, research and impact: inspiration from Stanford and Berkeley and implications for Swedish universities

Swedish universities have shifted their emphasis strongly towards research … in addition … we see an increasing disconnect between teaching and research with adverse consequences for both activities

Bienenstock et al. 2014 p.73


Excerpt from Russell Group Website

‘…connections between research and teaching occur in universities as students interact with leading thinkers and academics at the forefront of their disciplines. They have access to first class libraries and facilities and a curriculum informed by world class research. Undergraduates have opportunities to engage in research themselves and undertake independent projects.’


STUDENT FOCUSED: STUDENTS AS PARTICIPANTS

Research-tutoredCurriculum emphasiseslearning focused onstudents writing anddiscussing essays and papers

Research-basedCurriculum emphasisesstudents undertakinginquiry-based learning

Research-ledCurriculum is structuredaround teaching current subject content

Research-orientedCurriculum emphasisesteaching processes of knowledge construction in the subject

TEACHER-FOCUSED: STUDENTS AS AUDIENCE

EMPHASIS ON

RESEARCH CONTENT

EMPHASIS ON

RESEARCH PROCESS

Curriculum design and the research-teaching nexus (adapted from Healey, 2005).


The Hull Vision for Learning

At Hull we believe that research, teaching and learning activities are fundamentally interconnected through academic disciplines. Our understanding of this interconnectivity goes beyond simple research-teaching linkages … [to acknowledge] the shared epistemic origins of research, teaching and learning practices in University settings. Just as our research practices are based on fundamental understandings of the nature of knowledge in a discipline, how such knowledge is created and how it is best communicated to facilitate understanding and application, so too our teaching and learning activities reflect these understandings. This approach helps us to recognise why teaching and learning takes different forms and has distinctive characteristics across the institution and allows us actively to foster this difference.


Developing Disciplinary Pedagogies

What we research

What we teach and

students learn

Research methodology

Pedagogy

Epistemic beliefs/cultures

and norms of the

discipline or field of

study


Programme teams are currently being asked to reflect on the following questions:

• What are the key ‘ways of thinking and practising’ that students should have opportunities to develop during their programme of study?

• What modes of teaching are best suited to developing the ‘ways of thinking and practising’ that characterise our subject area?

• What modes of learning should we be supporting our students to become skilled in and how do these, in turn, affect our teaching?

• How will we engage students in understanding our disciplinary pedagogies?


Why Disciplinary Approaches to Educational Enquiry?

The vocabulary and grammar of the PCAP course is largely interpretivist and constructivist… and was, initially, as incomprehensible to me as any unknown foreign language. However, these are theories and methods that with time and exposure I am slowly coming to understand, appreciate and learn, even though I still find many of the concepts difficult to accept because of my positivist nature.

Dr. Stephen Maher, Current PCAP Student and Senior Lecturer in Biomedical Science, University of Hull.



Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP) Module 3: Researching Learning and Teaching in the Disciplines

• Encouraged to use familiar research methods to undertake enquiry and generate evidence for the improvement and development of curriculum and pedagogy.

• The assessment – an article in the style of a journal of their choice

• Supported and encouraged to submit for publication (although this doesn’t count towards their marks).


Does it work?‘Undertaking the [research] study definitely opened my eyes … in fact, I am now using the qualitative skills I developed in the postgraduate certificate in a study of tacit knowledge in cardiac theatres.’

‘Methods such as thematic analysis are quite easy to learn and the more you do the better you become at it. At the beginning, you realise that you are asking a lot of leading questions; and then you listen to the transcripts and when you hear it back you try to improve.’

Dr. Tom Barker, Trainee Cardiac Surgeon (ex-Clinical Lecturer, University of Birmingham)


Disciplines are ‘nodes in a remarkably vibrant web of scholarship’ (Jacobs, 2013 p 224)


Thank you.

Any questions?


References:

• Becher, T. and Trowler, P. (2001) Academic Tribes and Territories. Buckingham: SRHE/OUP.

• Bienenstock, A., Schwaag Serger, S., Benner, M. and Lidgard, A (2014) Combining Excellence in Education, Research and Impact: Inspiration from Stanford and Berkeley and implications for Swedish Universities. SNS Forlag. [online] http://www.sns.se/sites/default/files/utbildning_forskning_samverkan_english.pdf

• Enhancing Teaching-Learning Environments in Undergraduate Courses website and resources: http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/index.html

• Griffiths, R. (2004) Knowledge production and the research-teaching nexus: the case of the built environment disciplines Studies in Higher Education 29(6), 709-26.

• Healey, M. (2005) Linking research and teaching: disciplinary spaces, in: R.Barnett (Ed.) Reshaping the university: new relationships between research,scholarship and teaching. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/OUP: 30-42

http://www.sns.se/sites/default/files/utbildning_forskning_samverkan_english.pdf

http://www.sns.se/sites/default/files/utbildning_forskning_samverkan_english.pdf

http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/index.html

http://www.etl.tla.ed.ac.uk/index.html


References:

• Jacobs, J (2013) In Defence of Disciplines: Interdisciplinarity and Specialism in the Research University Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Klein, J. (1990) Interdisciplinarity: History , Theory and Practice. Detroit: Wayne University Press.

• Savin-Baden, M (2008) ‘Liquid learning and troublesome spaces: journeys from the threshold? In R. Land, J. Meyer and J. Smith (Eds) Threshold Concepts within Disciplines. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

• Shulman, L. (2005) ‘Signature pedagogies in the professions’. Daudalus 134 (3), 52-59.

• Shulman, L (1993) Teaching as community property: putting an end to pedagogical solitude. Change 25 (Nov/Dec), 6.