An instructional intervention was introduced to enhance critical thinking skills, in the aspects of interdisciplinary and systems thinking, in an undergraduate Operations Management course at Nanyang ...Technological University, Singapore. The intervention included a newly developed visual-based mapping tool to induce deliberate divergent-convergent thinking (imagination and judgement). It was supported by a design-based problem as a formative assessment, with learning outcomes underlined by a set of assessment rubric. To evaluate its effect on the students' critical thinking abilities, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with data collected from survey instruments, semi-structured interviews, and academic scores. The survey results indicate improvements in students' abilities in consciously monitoring their cognitive activities, reflecting on their reasoning, and making self-assessment (self-regulation) as well as in assessing credibility, relevance, and logical strength of information (evaluative reasoning). Results from the interviews and academic scores complemented the survey findings. The largely positive results suggest the effectiveness of the intervention.
Although creativity and expertise are related, they are nonetheless very different things. Expertise does not usually require creativity, but creativity generally does require a certain level of ...expertise. There are similarities in the relationships of both expertise and creativity to domains, however. Research has shown that just as expertise in one domain does not predict expertise in other, unrelated domains, creativity in one domain does not predict creativity in other, unrelated domains. People may be expert, and people may be creative, in many domains, or they may be expert, or creative, in few domains or none at all, and one cannot simply transfer expertise, or creativity, from one domain to another, unrelated domain. The domain specificity of creativity matters crucially for creativity training, creativity assessment, creativity research, and creativity theory. The domain specificity of creativity also means that interdisciplinary thinking, interdisciplinary collaboration, and interdisciplinary creativity are even more important than one would assume if creativity were domain general.
Interdisciplinary higher education aims to develop boundary-crossing skills, such as interdisciplinary thinking. In the present review study, interdisciplinary thinking was defined as the capacity to ...integrate knowledge of two or more disciplines to produce a cognitive advancement in ways that would have been impossible or unlikely through single disciplinary means. It was considered as a complex cognitive skill that constituted of a number of subskills. The review was accomplished by means of a systematic search within four scientific literature databases followed by a critical analysis. The review showed that, to date, scientific research into teaching and learning in interdisciplinary higher education has remained limited and explorative. The research advanced the understanding of the necessary subskills of interdisciplinary thinking and typical conditions for enabling the development of interdisciplinary thinking. This understanding provides a platform from which the theory and practice of interdisciplinary higher education can move forward.
Problems within agriculture, food, and natural resource (AFNR) systems are increasingly complex, expanding the need for students to develop problem-solving abilities alongside an understanding of ...their own thinking. In this effort, we explored the problem-solving abilities, metacognition, and systems thinking of current AFNR secondary school students. A descriptive correlational study design was employed. Data were collected via an online, Qualtrics survey. Student responses on the metacognition, systems thinking, and problem-solving ability survey items suggested opportunities for increased focus on these areas throughout their educational experience. In addition, statistically significant relationships between metacognition and systems thinking and systems thinking and problem-solving ability reinforced the importance of these topics within AFNR Education. Recommendations emerging from this work include additional emphasis on metacognition, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills within secondary school AFNR classrooms; utilization of specific strategies to increase systems thinking; operationalizing specific strategies to increase metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation; along with a cross-cutting recommendation for teachers to make their thinking more explicit during instruction to increase metacognition, systems thinking, and problem-solving skills among learners.
Preparing science and engineering students to work in interdisciplinary teams necessitates research on teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking. A multidimensional approach was taken to ...examine student interdisciplinary learning in a master course on food quality management. The collected 615 student experiences were analysed for the cognitive, emotional, and social learning dimensions using the learning theory of Illeris. Of these 615 experiences, the analysis showed that students reported 214, 194, and 207 times on, respectively, the emotional, the cognitive, and the social dimension. Per learning dimension, key learning experiences featuring interdisciplinary learning were identified such as 'frustrations in selecting and matching disciplinary knowledge to complex problems' (emotional), 'understanding how to apply theoretical models or concepts to real-world situations' (cognitive), and 'socially engaging with peers to recognise similarities in perceptions and experiences' (social). Furthermore, the results showed that students appreciated the cognitive dimension relatively more than the emotional and social dimensions.
The 21st century era of rapidly changing technology entails cognizance of the changing nature of knowledge, learning and environments. New models of knowledge building and knowledge co-creation are ...emerging. Personalized learning takes on new dimensions with mobile devices and new tools for sharing and meta-thinking. Evidences from research in learning sciences and neurosciences point to the importance of understanding human cognition and behaviors in optimizing the use of technology for learning. Future learning entails a powerful use of the cognitive propensity to learn by imitation and modeling as well as the novelty of inquiry and creation. Didactics are replaced by conversational learning with social media as powerful platforms. Apart from the analytics and logic, future learning incorporates big picture thinking, multiple perspective thinking and connective thinking to flourish problem-solving and creativity. The address will conclude with some implications for design and practice.
Financial literacy is ideally suited to be integrated into mathematics courses and taught in an interdisciplinary manner. Students learn best and are motivated when tackling real-world meaningful ...questions. This article shares how elementary mathematics was applied to better understand the debate about raising the minimum wage and the United States National Debt. To serve as a guide for other teachers who wish to incorporate financial literacy into their mathematics courses and take an interdisciplinary approach, this article suggests readings, data sets, and pedagogical practices. Students were engaged and enthusiastic to work on problems that challenged their thinking about financial issues.
This article examined the role of environmental interaction in interdisciplinary thinking and the use of different knowledge resource types. The case study was conducted with two classes (N = 40) of ...8th-grade students, ages 13 to 14. The outdoor trail aimed to help students synthesize history, geography, and science knowledge. Two groups' discourse from each class was audio-recorded and transcribed for content analysis. We coded the discourse to examine: (i) the use of different knowledge resource types (i.e., contextual resource, new conceptual resource, prior knowledge resource); (ii) the relationship among these knowledge resource types; and (iii) evidences of interdisciplinary thinking. Findings showed that contextual resources enhanced students' capacity to develop new conceptual resources and to activate prior knowledge resources. Further, about 80% of students' discourse demonstrated interdisciplinary connections of two subjects.
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