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Interdisciplinary Learning: Process and Outcomes

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Abstract

Interdisciplinary learning is characterized by the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge across a central program theme or focus. With repeated exposure to interdisciplinary thought, learners develop more advanced epistemological beliefs, enhanced critical thinking ability and metacognitive skills, and an understanding of the relations among perspectives derived from different disciplines. Our adaptation of Biggs and Collis' (1982) Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome illustrates the stages of interdisciplinary knowledge integration and explains corresponding patterns of learners' intellectual functioning, from acquisition of single-subject information to transfer of interdisciplinary knowledge to other topics, issues, or problems.

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Ivanitskaya, L., Clark, D., Montgomery, G. et al. Interdisciplinary Learning: Process and Outcomes. Innovative Higher Education 27, 95–111 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021105309984

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