1. In your own words, what do you think an interdisciplinary class
is or should be?
2. How do you like the team-teaching format? Does it contribute
to your understanding of diverse disciplinary perspectives?
3. Do the instructors represent different viewpoints of disciplines
to you? Does this class seem to use interdisciplinary resources
and present interdisciplinary perspectives? If so, why?
4. In your own words, describe the rainforest assignment and how
it fits or does not fit your idea of an interdisciplinary course.
5. Can you give examples in your rainforest paper of different
disciplinary resources that you used?
6. In what ways do those resources agree with one another on your
particular topic/position?
7. In what ways do they conflict with each other on your particular
topic/position?
8. In what ways did your position conflict with those of other
roles played in the simulation or other interests in the rainforest?
9. Do you see these conflicts as arising from different disciplinary
perspectives or are there other reasons for the conflict?
10. Are there points in your research project where the different
perspectives could not be synthesized or harmoniously reconciled?
11. Have there been times in the course where the instructors
and readings have presented an issue from a variety of perspectives
where there is no right answer?
12. What particular conceptual and /or research problems did you
have with your rainforest paper? With points in the course where
no right answer on an issue where a variety of conflicting perspectives
was presented? Do you feel that these examples of conflicting viewpoints
have increased your ability to see various sides of other issues
you might encounter, or your willingness to accept ambiguity or
lack of a clear right answer to problems?
13. Is there anything you would like to add about this IDST course,your
experience in it, and how you think it might change your performance
in other classes?
Please respond to the following questions about the use of nuclear
energy. We are not concerned with how much information you have
about any issue, but how you think about the issue. Read the statement
of the problem, and then respond to the questions.
Problem
The safety of nuclear energy is currently being debated by scientists
in many fields. Some scientists believe that nuclear energy is safe
and that nuclear energy can substantially alleviate our dependence
on non-renewable resources. Others argue that nuclear energy is
inherently unsafe and that nuclear energy plants will lead to widespread
and long-term environmental pollution.
Respond to the following questions:
N1. What do you think about these statements?
N2. How did you come to hold that point of view?
N3. On what do you base that point of view?
N4. Can you ever know for sure that your position on this issue
is correct? How or why not?
N5. When two people differ about matters such as this, is it the
case the one opinion is right and one is wrong? If yes, what do
you mean by "right"? If no, can you say that one opinion is in some
way better than the other? What do you mean by "better"?
N6. How is it possible that people have different points of view
about this subject?
How is it possible that experts in the field disagree about this
subject?
Global Issues Online Interview
