Learning Interdisciplinarity - Students’ Reflections on Interdisciplinarity in the Context of PBL Project Work

This chapter presents an explorative study of students’ experiences of interdisciplinarity while being part of a master’s degree program with a complex disciplinary structure. With the aim of contributing to the body of empirical knowledge about university students’ understandings and experiences of interdisciplinarity, the chapter provides insights based on interviews with students in their final semester. The study revolves around the master’s degree program Culture, Communication and Globalization (CCG) at Aalborg University in Denmark that has a particular focus on problem-based project work as part of its learning model. The study addresses how students make sense of disciplinary relationships and academic profiles, reflect on practices of interdisciplinarity in relation to problem-based project work, and ascribe value to interdisciplinarity as an approach and as a skill. On one hand, the findings of the study show a low level of awareness of disciplinary belonging and, on the other hand, a high level of awareness and appreciation of interdisciplinarity among the students. The study points toward potential for advancing students’ general understanding of mono- and interdisciplinarity as well as awareness of their own academic profiles. Based on these insights, the study argues that an advancement of such knowledge could be beneficial for potential future engagement in collaborations involving partners from various backgrounds and disciplines as it may increase students’ understanding of their own and others’ skills and approaches as well as their ability to find common ground and deal with challenges relating to working across disciplines.