IDST 2310 Online interview Fall 1999

*This form was designed for me by Dr. Derek Alderman, who was at the time an Assistant Professor of Geography at GC&SU. My thanks to him for his help on this project. See my reflection section for an analysis of the student responses to these surveys. After the fall 1999, I redesigned the survey forms, mainly because I felt some of the questions were ill-formed. Question 1 asks students to define what an interdisciplinary class is or "should be," which might have muddied some of the responses. Question 3 was a leading question which mentioned the instructor's disciplines; many students simply repeated this information in their responses. Question 11 needed to be more subtle, and should have focused instead on how students dealt with the cognitive dissonance created by multiple perspectives. I had intended to get at something the Reflective Judgment Interview at the end of the survey is intended to measure -- whether students have moved beyond the need for clear-cut authoritative black and white answers.

Directions: Thank you for taking time to complete this form. Please answer each question as completely as possible. If your computer goes down while completing the interview or attempting to send it, then try again.

Please tell us your name: (Do not hit return)

Please tell us your major: (Do not hit return)

Please select your classification

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1. In your own words, what does the word "interdisciplinary" mean? What do you think an interdisciplinary class is or should be?

2. How does an interdisciplinary class differ from the traditional classes you take in the disciplines?

3. Do the two instructors you had this semester represent the different viewpoints of their disciplines to you? (Dr. Farrar is in art and Dr. Vess is in history)

4. Does this class seem to use resources from multiple disciplines and to present perspectives from multiple disciplines? Can you give an example?

5. In your own words, please describe your self-portrait, and the style of art it represents. Please try to explain your use of line, shape, color,and texture and what it conveys about you.

6. Please explain how you used ideas from the resources on the self that we studied. Did you consciously use ideas from or react to any of the following resources in your self-portrait: the psychological theories of the self? The Rilke discussion of "faces," "hands," or "costumes"? The Asian views of the self? The examples from art of non-representational self-portraits? Please clearly explain what ideas from these sources you integrated into your self-portrait and why.

7. In what ways do those different disciplinary resources agree with one another on question of what is the self?

8. In what ways do they conflict with each other on the question of what is the self?

9. Does your self-portrait try to reconcile these ideas or did you choose a particular position to convey? Why?

10. Were there any units or topics in the course where the instructor(s)presented conflicting ideas/perspectives on the topic? Given an example.

11. In our unit on the self, is there a right answer to the question of what the self is? If not, what is your reaction to our inability to provide a clear answer one way or the other on this issue?

12.Is there anything you would like to add about your experience in this IDST course?

13. Do you think this course might change your performance in other classes? Why or why not?

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

Most historians claim that the pyramids were built as tombs for kings by the ancient Egyptians, using human labor, and aided by ropes, pulleys, and rollers. Others have suggested that the Egyptians cold not have built such huge structures by themselves, for they had neither the mathematical knowledge, the necessary tools, not an adequate source of power.

Respond to the following questions:

P1. What do you think about these statements?

P2. How did you come to hold that point of view?

P3. On what do you base that point of view?

P4. Can you ever know for sure that your position on this issue is correct? How or why not?

P5. 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"?

P6. How is it possible that people have different points of view about this subject?

P7. How is it possible that experts in the field disagree about this subject?

FAP Online Interview

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