Welcome
to my course portfolio for IDST 2310: The Fine
and Applied Arts in Civilization at Georgia
College & State University. My research into student learning
in this course began in the fall of 1999 and continues today. In the pages
that are linked here, I attempt to assess student learning in this interdisciplinary
core course over the course of several semesters, and the impact of various
pedagogical techniques and integrative course structures on interdisciplinary
thinking and learning. During the fall 1999, I surveyed students, examined
course work, and administered three standardized instruments, including
the Jackson Personality Inventory, the Measure of Epistemological Reflection,
and the Reflective Judgment Interview. I also collected and analyzed student
work, including exams, applied projects, papers, WEBCT discussion board
postings, and gallery critiques. To access all of my project data, click
at any time on the data
link at the bottom of each page. To read more about my methods and
instruments, consult the project
overview.
In the pages that are linked here, I discuss some theoretical issues about interdisciplinarity and the design of the IDST 2310 Fine and Applied Arts in Civilization course, and then apply these materials to the enactment of the course. One of the unique features of this portfolio is the extensive documentation of my approach to the course, including copies of my course handouts, a discussion of the theoretical structure of the course, course syllabi, exams, gallery assignments, and links to the multimedia text I wrote along with other faculty members for the course. Further, I present a chronicle of the evolution of this course over five semesters, and the progressive application of interdisciplinary theory to various aspects of the course design based on student learning outcomes. Viewers can conveniently access all of these materials in the enactment section of this portfolio:
In the Fall 1999 enactment section, viewers will find the most extensive chronicle of enactment, data from standardized instruments, examples of student work, and my reflection on course outcomes, in which I attempt to triangulate my instruments and data and analyze the results of my 1999 research.
This portfolio sheds some light on the complexities and difficulties of developing an interdisciplinary course. My chronicle of the growth of this course over four semesters suggests that for many faculty and faculty teams, designing and implementing an interdisciplinary course may need to occur in stages; this is particularly true for faculty moving from a team-teaching situation to a solo situation. My account also suggests that it is rather natural and perhaps even necessary for faculty and students alike to progress through the various levels of integration chronicled in the literature before a course or one's thinking becomes fully interdisciplinary. Further, the materials in this portfolio illustrate the strong links between various models of enactment and student learning; as William Newell once wrote, we cannot "expect students to integrate anything that the faculty members can't or won't." However, these materials also suggest that no matter how effective a faculty member's enactment may be, in the end, one must design a course that forces the student to learn to integrate materials independently of the classroom. Users will find the most extensive discussion of these issues in the reflection fall 1999 and spring/fall 2000 reflection sections.
The research presented here, including my analysis of the data from the Jackson Personality Inventory, the Measure of Epistemological Reflection, and student work and surveys, suggests some effective techniques for fostering integrative thinking in students. Further, this research sheds some light on the mechanism by which interdisciplinary courses tend to produce the cognitive and other benefits charted in the literature. The conclusion section for this course portfolio summarizes the results of my five semesters of research in this course; the grand synthesis section for the Explorations in Interdisciplinary Learning project places these conclusions for the IDST 2310 course in the context of the larger scope of my research in other interdisciplinary core courses at Georgia College & State University.
To navigate the IDST 2310 portfolio, click on the links at the bottom of each page.
IDST 2310 Conclusions | Data at a Glance | Project Overview | Grand Synthesis |
About the Author | Explorations in Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning Home Page