Interdisciplinary Education at UCPH

Purpose and goals

The aim of the project "Interdisciplinary education" was to strengthen the interdisciplinary teaching and education at UCPH. This project wanted to generate conditions for students to experience coherent interdisciplinary teaching and education and at the same time develop interdisciplinary competences.

The goals were:

• To contribute to a clarification of key concepts on interdisciplinarity across UCPH
• To develop cross curricular pedagogies, which can be used to plan and conduct interdisciplinary teaching and education
• To identify main components in theory of knowledge in interdisciplinarity that can be used to plan and conduct interdisciplinary teaching and education
• To develop didactic tools, courses and consultancy services to support educators, course managers and heads of studies as they are to plan and conduct interdisciplinary teaching and education

Key Findings

1. Any interdisciplinary education / teaching must be closely linked to an interdisciplinary research environment. If the education is offered from research communities that are separate from each other, it is crucial that they also build cross-cutting research activities that can support the education.
2. Teachers from a mono-disciplinary culture must be offered support functions when they are to participate in interdisciplinary education / teaching. There is a need for pedagogical didactic continuing education focusing on teaching methods that support coherence. Teachers with different academic backgrounds must become aware of communicating across disciplines.
3. It is not always clear for students from mono-disciplinary how interdisciplinary education contributes to their professional development, i.e. they do not see the relevance or need for interdisciplinary learning. They often lack interdisciplinary communication skills
4. Interdisciplinary teaching and education can be many different things, and different forms of interdisciplinarity may be relevant depending on the purpose. It is important to declare what kind of interdisciplinarity it is and what the purpose is, so expectations can be reconciled.
5. In order to ensure continuous development of interdisciplinary education, it is crucial to involve the students. The students are often innovators and play a particular role in developing the interdisciplinary aspect of the programs.
6. It is important for organizational embedding of acquired experience and understanding of interdisciplinary skills. The department will build up knowledge and resources that can ensure good conditions for interdisciplinary education and the development of interdisciplinary education. This implies that the experience gained with interdisciplinary education is collected and widely systematically. This can happen, for example, by the educational centers having special resource subjects for interdisciplinary skills.
7. The administrative framework must be able to support interdisciplinary education. Interdisciplinary teaching is for example administratively associated with the use of significant resources, including meeting activity, examination rules, curricula, and to harmonize with different faculty budget models.

There is no unambiguous definition of different types of interdisciplinarity, but there are some common features in language use. This is due, among other things, to many descriptions back to a terminology presented by astrophysicist Eric Jantsch at an OECD conference in 1972. His definitions are used either directly or as a basis for further development in the most cited international texts on interdisciplinarity (eg. Klein, 1990, 1996; Lattuca, 2002; Moran, 2010; Newell, 1994; Weingart & Stehr, 2000).

Read more in Tilstræbt og realiseret tværfaglighed i universitetsundervisning (Lindvig, Katrine & Ulriksen, Lars, 2016)

Recommendated considerations:
•How is the CD reflected in the ILOs?
•Which are the defining elements of the CD? Or: Which are the CD competencies the students should acquire?

Below is a collection of articles and links to other resources where you can find inspiration or guidelines that can help your considerations about intended learning outcomes in cross- or interdisciplinary courses.

Further information: Jens Dolin and Christine Holm,
Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

Does Interdisciplinarity Promote Learning?

This is an article with examples and discussion of the learning outcomes of interdisciplinary education.

Lattuca, L.R., Voigt, L.J. & Fath, K.Q., 2004. Does Interdisciplinarity Promote Learning?: Theoretical Support and Researchable Questions. Review of Higher Education, 28(1), pp.23–48

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS)

International hub for interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

AIS is a US based association, founded in. Their scope and views on interdisciplinarity is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which influences the way interdisciplinary studies and education is perceived. However, the association is becoming increasingly international and in 2016, the annual conference was for the first time held outside the US. In 2019 the conference will be hosted by the University of Amsterdam.

The AIS newsletter (Integrative Pathways) and journal (Issues in interdisciplinary studies), in addition to their resource and materials database are good venues for an updated overview of debates on interdisciplinary studies.

Recommendated considerations:
•What kind of CD is aimed at?
•How are the different elements of the curriculum sequenced and linked?
•Is there a progression in the elements?

Below is a list of results from the project, articles and links to other resources where you can find inspiration or guidelines that can help your considerations about curriculum design in cross- or interdisciplinary courses.

Further information: Jens Dolin and Christine Holm,
Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

How and Why to Teach Interdisciplinary Research Practice

This article discusses possible content in an interdisciplinary research course. Relevant to all students.

Szostak, Rick. “How and Why to Teach Interdisciplinary Research Practice.” Journal of Research Practice 3, no. 2 (October 11, 2007): Article M17.

The Twain Shall Meet: Rethinking the Introduction to Graduate Studies Course as Interdisciplinary Pedagogy

This article can be used as input for method development of interdisciplinary education.

Strain, M.M. & Potter, R., 2012. The Twain Shall Meet: Rethinking the Introduction to Graduate Studies Course as Interdisciplinary Pedagogy. Pedagogy, 12(1), pp.139–160. Available here.  [Accessed February 10, 2014].

Interdisciplinary Curriculum and Student Outcomes: The Case of a General Education Course at a Research University

This article discusses interdisciplinary curriculum and the responsibility for professional integration.

Orillion, M.-F., 2009. Interdisciplinary Curriculum and Student Outcomes: The Case of a General Education Course at a Research University. The Journal of General Education, 58(1), pp.1–18. Available here. [Accessed February 10, 2014].

Toward a Theory of Interdisciplinary Connections: A Classroom Study of Talk and Text

This article can be used as input for method development of interdisciplinary education.

Nowacek, R.S., 2007. Toward a Theory of Interdisciplinary Connections: A Classroom Study of Talk and Text. Research in the Teaching of English, 41(4), pp.368–401.

Three strategies for interdisciplinary teaching: Contextualizing, conceptualizing, and problem-centring

This article can be used as input for method development of interdisciplinary education.

Nikitina, S., 2006. Three strategies for interdisciplinary teaching: Contextualizing, conceptualizing, and problem-centring. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(3), pp.251–271.

Three Conceptions of Thermodynamics

This is an article about what teachers need to take into account when designing courses.

Christiansen, F.V. & Rump, C., 2008. Three Conceptions of Thermodynamics: Technical Matrices in Science and Engineering. Research in Science Education, 38(5), pp.545–564. Available at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11165-007-9061-x. 

The Theory of Interdisciplinarity: An Introduction for Educators

By Mads Goddiksen, 2017

Peer reviewed paper

The aim of interdisciplinary practice is generally to solve interdisciplinary problems. An important aim for interdisciplinary teaching is therefore to prepare students for the practice of solving interdisciplinary problems. When considering course contents and methods for teaching and evaluation in interdisciplinary courses, it is therefore valuable to have some understanding of what characterizes an interdisciplinary problem, and what it means to solve one, as this is one of the main teaching objectives. In this paper I aim to provide this basic understanding. I start out by introducing the concept of an interdisciplinary problem as a problem where the solution is constrained by standards of quality and relevance from multiple disciplines. I further discuss the concept of a discipline as a community of researchers sharing a technical jargon and standards of relevance and quality. I then introduce the concept of an integrated solution to an interdisciplinary problem as a solution that is acceptable according to all relevant standards of relevance and quality. I argue that a partial aim of interdisciplinary teaching is to aid the students overcome the linguistic differences across disciplines and to prepare them for the methodological and philosophical issues that arise in interdisciplinary problem solving due to differing standards of quality and relevance. In this respect interdisciplinary courses share an aim with the philosophy of science courses that are mandatory at Danish universities, and I encourage teachers to cultivate this underexploited potential for cross-fertilization.

Download pdf:
The Theory of Interdisciplinarity An Introduction for Educators

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS)

AIS is a US based association, founded in. Their scope and views on interdisciplinarity is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which influences the way interdisciplinary studies and education is perceived. However, the association is becoming increasingly international and in 2016, the annual conference was for the first time held outside the US. In 2019 the conference will be hosted by the University of Amsterdam.

The AIS newsletter (Integrative Pathways) and journal (Issues in interdisciplinary studies), in addition to their resource and materials database are good venues for an updated overview of debates on interdisciplinary studies.

CoNavigator – a gamified tool for creating coherence in interdisciplinary courses

How it all began

The tool CoNavigator – is a very direct result of the “Interdisciplinary education” project. As a PhD enrolled in this project, Lindvig has been studying the ways in which interdisciplinary research projects translates their research into educational activities (e.g. PhD programmes, undergraduate courses, summer schools). In one of the cases she studies, Hillersdal, a social anthropologist, was exploring how politically mobilized interdisciplinarity was translated into practice. At the end of a two year field study on these educational activities, Lindvig was approached by one of the course administrators and asked to step in and contribute to a summer school arranged by the research project. In order to make this happen, Lindvig teamed up with Hillersdal and Earle, who as a partner at the think tank Braintrust, was used to creating and developing interdisciplinary tools and processes.

The tool is inspired by a more lengthy workshop format (Braintrust Labs). The idea has been to boil the format down, from two days to just three hours, adding our knowledge and experience on interdisciplinary teaching and collaboration and thereby changing it into something that could be implemented in an interdisciplinary course. This required it to be easy to explain to students coming from all types of disciplines and backgrounds. Furthermore, it had to create links between modules which had already been put in place, and a range of faculties at different levels of teaching.

The tool has since then been tested in various settings and has proven to be a good way of breaking the ice and create meaningful conversations around an overall topic. Though the tool originally was developed for interdisciplinary courses, it is versatile and flexible enough to also be used as a kick-off activity for shorter seminars or even longer educational programmes.

In the process of developing this tool we have been greatly inspired by the idea of a Visual Lingua Franca, defined as visual languages systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing the same mother tongue. In the process we have also drawn on works by Szostak, the Toolbox-project, the Interdisciplinary studies project, Ground Zero as well as the td-net’s toolbox to name only a few. Furthermore a number of students and groups of colleagues have helped us test the tool in various rounds (a special thanks to the Edinburgh team including Catherine Lyall and Laura Meagher).

The project has produced 10 tool sets ready for use. If you would like to get an introduction to the tool or maybe include it in your interdisciplinary activity, please contact Katrine.lindvig@ind.ku.dk.

Article

Lindvig, K; Hillersdal, L ; Earle, D (2017). Interdisciplinary Tool Helps Fast-Track Interdisciplinary Learning and Collaboration. Integrative Pathways, vol. 39 (2).

Links for YouTube videos:

• Toolkitting.
• Mapping field.
• Mapping landscape. 
• Flagging.
• Selecting routes.

Tværfaglig og tværfakultær uddannelse - et KU2016-projekt

Presentation at the University Education Day on September 22, 2015. Preliminary results from the project.

Challenges and opportunities in cross-disciplinary education

Presentation with preliminary results from the frameworkproject by Katrine Lindvig, Robin Engelhardt and Rie Hjørnegaard Malm. From the framework project's internal seminar on April 16, 2015.

Challenges and opportunities in cross-disciplinary education - Preliminary findings from the frameworkproject

Recommendated considerations:
•How do you assess the expected competencies?
•Is there build-in formative assessment elements training the ILOs?
•Are the examinations reflecting the CD ILOs?

Below is a collection of products from the project, articles and links to other resources where you can find inspiration or guidelines that can help your considerations about assessment/examination in cross- or interdisciplinary courses.

Further information: Jens Dolin and Christine Holm,
Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

Targeted Assessment Rubric: An Empirically Grounded Rubric for Interdisciplinary Writing

This article can be used as input for method development of interdisciplinary education.

Mansilla, V.B. et al., 2009. Targeted Assessment Rubric: An Empirically Grounded Rubric for Interdisciplinary Writing. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(3), pp.334–353. [Accessed February 10, 2014].

Targeted Assessment of Students’ Interdisciplinary Work

This is an article about assessment.

Boix Mansilla, V. & Duraisingh, E.D., 2007. Targeted Assessment of Students’ Interdisciplinary Work: An Empirically Grounded Framework Proposed. The Journal of Higher Education, 78(2), pp.215–237.

Interdisciplinary Studies Project - Harvard Project Zero

The Interdisciplinary Studies Project is a multi-year research project at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education. The project group examines the nature of interdisciplinary work conducted by researchers, funding agencies, higher education faculty and K-12 teachers working in experienced programs and institutions.

The main investigators are Howard Gardner and Veronica Boix Mansilla, who have both published extensively on issues of education and interdisciplinarity.

Read more about Interdisciplinary Studies Project - Harvard Project Zero.

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS)

AIS is a US based association, founded in. Their scope and views on interdisciplinarity is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which influences the way interdisciplinary studies and education is perceived. However, the association is becoming increasingly international and in 2016, the annual conference was for the first time held outside the US. In 2019 the conference will be hosted by the University of Amsterdam.

The AIS newsletter (Integrative Pathways) and journal (Issues in interdisciplinary studies), in addition to their resource and materials database are good venues for an updated overview of debates on interdisciplinary studies.

CoNavigator – a gamified tool for creating coherence in interdisciplinary courses

How it all began

The tool CoNavigator – is a very direct result of the “Interdisciplinary education” project. As a PhD enrolled in this project, Lindvig has been studying the ways in which interdisciplinary research projects translates their research into educational activities (e.g. PhD programmes, undergraduate courses, summer schools). In one of the cases she studies, Hillersdal, a social anthropologist, was exploring how politically mobilized interdisciplinarity was translated into practice. At the end of a two year field study on these educational activities, Lindvig was approached by one of the course administrators and asked to step in and contribute to a summer school arranged by the research project. In order to make this happen, Lindvig teamed up with Hillersdal and Earle, who as a partner at the think tank Braintrust, was used to creating and developing interdisciplinary tools and processes.

The tool is inspired by a more lengthy workshop format (Braintrust Labs). The idea has been to boil the format down, from two days to just three hours, adding our knowledge and experience on interdisciplinary teaching and collaboration and thereby changing it into something that could be implemented in an interdisciplinary course. This required it to be easy to explain to students coming from all types of disciplines and backgrounds. Furthermore, it had to create links between modules which had already been put in place, and a range of faculties at different levels of teaching.

The tool has since then been tested in various settings and has proven to be a good way of breaking the ice and create meaningful conversations around an overall topic. Though the tool originally was developed for interdisciplinary courses, it is versatile and flexible enough to also be used as a kick-off activity for shorter seminars or even longer educational programmes.

In the process of developing this tool we have been greatly inspired by the idea of a Visual Lingua Franca, defined as visual languages systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing the same mother tongue. In the process we have also drawn on works by Szostak, the Toolbox-project, the Interdisciplinary studies project, Ground Zero as well as the td-net’s toolbox to name only a few. Furthermore a number of students and groups of colleagues have helped us test the tool in various rounds (a special thanks to the Edinburgh team including Catherine Lyall and Laura Meagher).

The project has produced 10 tool sets ready for use. If you would like to get an introduction to the tool or maybe include it in your interdisciplinary activity, please contact Katrine.lindvig@ind.ku.dk.

Article

Lindvig, K; Hillersdal, L ; Earle, D (2017). Interdisciplinary Tool Helps Fast-Track Interdisciplinary Learning and Collaboration. Integrative Pathways, vol. 39 (2).

Links for YouTube videos:

• Toolkitting.
• Mapping field.
• Mapping landscape. 
• Flagging.
• Selecting routes.

Recommendated considerations:
•Administrative issues
•Study leader awareness of the CD demands
•Teacher organisation (encouraging sense of community)
•Student organisation (encouraging sense of community)
•Arranging CD relevant training sessions for staff

Below is a collection of results from the project and links to other resources where you can find inspiration or guidelines that can help your considerations about course management in cross- or interdisciplinary courses.

Further information: Jens Dolin and Christine Holm,
Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

Teaching geography to non-geographers at Glasgow Caledonian University

This is an article that describes examples of interdisciplinary courses and logistics around them.

McKendrick, J.H. & Mooney, E., 2001. Teaching geography to non-geographers at Glasgow Caledonian University. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 25(2), pp.249–260.

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS)

AIS is a US based association, founded in. Their scope and views on interdisciplinarity is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which influences the way interdisciplinary studies and education is perceived. However, the association is becoming increasingly international and in 2016, the annual conference was for the first time held outside the US. In 2019 the conference will be hosted by the University of Amsterdam.

The AIS newsletter (Integrative Pathways) and journal (Issues in interdisciplinary studies), in addition to their resource and materials database are good venues for an updated overview of debates on interdisciplinary studies.

Administrative og økonomiske muligheder og udfordringer

Anita Kildebæk Nielsen og Dina Nielsen, 2017

Tværfakultære uddannelser på KU. Administrative og økonomiske muligheder og udfordringer - Rapport fra delprojekt B (pdf) 

I denne analyse er barriererne helt overordnet inddelt i de to temaer administration og økonomi. Det er ikke ensbetydende med, at de to temaer skal forstås som uafhængige af hinanden. De økonomiske og administrative strukturer spiller ind i forhold til hinanden, i nogle tilfælde er de afledt af hinanden. Kortlægningen har illustreret, hvordan barriererne på forskellige måder afgrænser muligheder for det tværdisciplinære undervisningsrum og uddannelsessamarbejder.

Få af de uddannelser, som har deltaget i interviewrunden udtrykker, at det egentlig kører uden de større problemer. Nogle af uddannelserne er relativt nye og har derfor fokus på opstart uden at endnu have det store volumen, som på sigt kan medføre nogle af de samme barrierer som andre mere etablerede uddannelser oplever. Flertallet af uddannelsessamarbejderne, som har deltaget i interviews, oplever dog udfordringer af administrativ eller økonomisk karakter, som sætter barrierer for undervisningen eller den form for tværdisciplinaritet, som er intentionen med uddannelserne.  

På baggrund af kortlægningen er det muligt at tentativt kategorisere tre typer af tværfakultære uddannelsessamarbejder set fra en administrativ kontekst:

1. Tilkøb af undervisning/underviser på andet fakultet til specifikt fag.
2. Hvert fakultet leverer fagelementer til et fast studieforløb (jf. samarbejdskontrakt). Administrationen er forankret på ét fakultet, studienævnet for uddannelsen går på tværs af fakulteter og specialet er forankret på de ansvarlige institutter.
3. Der er ikke en prædefineret fastlagt fagpakke eller et fastlagt studieforløb med prædefinerede fagelementer. I denne model indgår valgfrie elementer, som principielt kan tages på hele KU. For specialet gælder tilsvarende valgfrihed, hvor den studerende ikke er bundet til de samarbejdende institutter eller fakulteter. Det beror på en faglig godkendelse fra studielederens side.

Tværfaglig og tværfakultær uddannelse - et KU2016-projekt

Presentation at the University Education Day on September 22, 2015. Preliminary results from the project.

Teaching climate change: An interdisciplinary challenge

Robin Engelhardt's poster for the conference Our Common Future during Climate Change, 7th-10th July, 2015 in Paris.

Abstract: Climate change education is inherently interdisciplinary. It requires teachers to possess a broad range of competencies and to apply a variety of teaching methods, bringing into play the skills and knowledge of the whole classroom. If one defines interdisciplinary learning as the ability to know and coordinate a growing number of perspectives, it becomes the teacher’s primary task to support students in their explorative and coordinative efforts. Preliminary findings from a research project at the University of Copenhagen highlights several barriers as well as opportunities. In general, there is weak institutional support for interdisciplinary teaching, and a lack of teacher coordination among topics covered in the curricula. At its worst, teaching becomes a kind of ‘serial disciplinarity’ where modularly formatted perspectives produce mutually incomprehensible monologues. At its best, lead instructors use a variety of inductive teaching methods and provide an impartial overview of the conceptual schemes involved.

Download the poster here.

Challenges and opportunities in cross-disciplinary education

Presentation with preliminary results from the frameworkproject by Katrine Lindvig, Robin Engelhardt and Rie Hjørnegaard Malm. From the framework project's internal seminar on April 16, 2015.

Challenges and opportunities in cross-disciplinary education - Preliminary findings from the frameworkproject

Recommendated considerations:
•Timetabeling
•Physical factors

Below is a collection of articles and links to other resources where you can find inspiration or guidelines that can help your considerations about space in cross- or interdisciplinary courses.

Further information: Jens Dolin and Christine Holm,
Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

Facilitating Interdisciplinary Learning

This is an article that discusses interdisciplinarity and the importance of physical structures.

Kezar, A. & Elrod, S., 2012. Facilitating Interdisciplinary Learning: Lessons from Project Kaleidoscope. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, 44(1), pp.16–25. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00091383.2012.635999

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS)

AIS is a US based association, founded in. Their scope and views on interdisciplinarity is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which influences the way interdisciplinary studies and education is perceived. However, the association is becoming increasingly international and in 2016, the annual conference was for the first time held outside the US. In 2019 the conference will be hosted by the University of Amsterdam.

The AIS newsletter (Integrative Pathways) and journal (Issues in interdisciplinary studies), in addition to their resource and materials database are good venues for an updated overview of debates on interdisciplinary studies.

Recommendated considerations:
•Common resources
•Shared technologies

Below you can find products from the project and links to other resources where you can find examples of generic tools in cross- or interdisciplinary courses.

Further information: Jens Dolin and Christine Holm,
Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

Td-net Toolbox

The td-net’s toolbox is a collection of selected methods for jointly producing knowledge across different academic and non-academic fields of expertise. The Td-net toolbox is hosted by the Swiss academy of Science and is meant for academic researchers and teachers that work in inter- and transdisciplinary ways as well as everyone who is interested to, or takes part in, co-producing knowledge together with researchers.

Interdisciplinary Wiki

The interdisciplinary wiki is created by Professor Catherine Lyall and hosted by the Institute for Science Technology and Innovation Studies at the University of Edinburgh.

This wiki was originally developed as an online resource for the ISSTI Interdisciplinary Masterclasses, a project funded by the ESRC's Researcher Development Initiative, but now gathers a variety of different resources, including references, methods and publications on interdisciplinary provision. Read more about Interdisciplinary Wiki.

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS)

AIS is a US based association, founded in. Their scope and views on interdisciplinarity is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which influences the way interdisciplinary studies and education is perceived. However, the association is becoming increasingly international and in 2016, the annual conference was for the first time held outside the US. In 2019 the conference will be hosted by the University of Amsterdam.

The AIS newsletter (Integrative Pathways) and journal (Issues in interdisciplinary studies), in addition to their resource and materials database are good venues for an updated overview of debates on interdisciplinary studies.

The Toolbox-project

The Toolbox-project is developed by Professor Michael O’Rourke and his team at Michigan State University. The project is a philosophical yet practical enhancement to cross-disciplinary, collaborative science. It is created in the form of a dialogue-based “Toolbox workshop”, and it is intended for interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams of collaborators. Rooted in philosophical analysis, the Toolbox workshops enable cross-disciplinary collaborators to engage in a structured dialogue about their research assumptions.

The Toolbox-project website offers video introductions, guidelines as well as case descriptions on how to benefit from the Toolbox initiative. Read more about The Toolbox-project. 

CoNavigator – a gamified tool for creating coherence in interdisciplinary courses

How it all began

The tool CoNavigator – is a very direct result of the “Interdisciplinary education” project. As a PhD enrolled in this project, Lindvig has been studying the ways in which interdisciplinary research projects translates their research into educational activities (e.g. PhD programmes, undergraduate courses, summer schools). In one of the cases she studies, Hillersdal, a social anthropologist, was exploring how politically mobilized interdisciplinarity was translated into practice. At the end of a two year field study on these educational activities, Lindvig was approached by one of the course administrators and asked to step in and contribute to a summer school arranged by the research project. In order to make this happen, Lindvig teamed up with Hillersdal and Earle, who as a partner at the think tank Braintrust, was used to creating and developing interdisciplinary tools and processes.

The tool is inspired by a more lengthy workshop format (Braintrust Labs). The idea has been to boil the format down, from two days to just three hours, adding our knowledge and experience on interdisciplinary teaching and collaboration and thereby changing it into something that could be implemented in an interdisciplinary course. This required it to be easy to explain to students coming from all types of disciplines and backgrounds. Furthermore, it had to create links between modules which had already been put in place, and a range of faculties at different levels of teaching.

The tool has since then been tested in various settings and has proven to be a good way of breaking the ice and create meaningful conversations around an overall topic. Though the tool originally was developed for interdisciplinary courses, it is versatile and flexible enough to also be used as a kick-off activity for shorter seminars or even longer educational programmes.

In the process of developing this tool we have been greatly inspired by the idea of a Visual Lingua Franca, defined as visual languages systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing the same mother tongue. In the process we have also drawn on works by Szostak, the Toolbox-project, the Interdisciplinary studies project, Ground Zero as well as the td-net’s toolbox to name only a few. Furthermore a number of students and groups of colleagues have helped us test the tool in various rounds (a special thanks to the Edinburgh team including Catherine Lyall and Laura Meagher).

The project has produced 10 tool sets ready for use. If you would like to get an introduction to the tool or maybe include it in your interdisciplinary activity, please contact Katrine.lindvig@ind.ku.dk.

Article

Lindvig, K; Hillersdal, L ; Earle, D (2017). Interdisciplinary Tool Helps Fast-Track Interdisciplinary Learning and Collaboration. Integrative Pathways, vol. 39 (2).

Links for YouTube videos:

• Toolkitting.
• Mapping field.
• Mapping landscape. 
• Flagging.
• Selecting routes.

Recommendated considerations:
•Choose pedagogy suited the ILOs
•Multimodality, relocation
•Motivating students
•Integrate meta-perspectives
•Plan for deliberate links between own teaching and other programme elements – and for combinations

Below is a list of results from the project, articles and links to other resources where you can find inspiration or guidelines that can help your considerations about teaching/lessons in cross- or interdisciplinary courses.

Further information: Jens Dolin and Christine Holm,
Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

Targeted Assessment Rubric: An Empirically Grounded Rubric for Interdisciplinary Writing

This article can be used as input for method development of interdisciplinary education.

Mansilla, V.B. et al., 2009. Targeted Assessment Rubric: An Empirically Grounded Rubric for Interdisciplinary Writing. The Journal of Higher Education, 80(3), pp.334–353. Available here. [Accessed February 10, 2014].

From Surprise Parties to Mapmaking

This is an article that focuses on student learning outcomes in interdisciplinary education.

Haynes, C. & Leonard, J.B., 2010. From Surprise Parties to Mapmaking: Undergraduate Journeys toward Interdisciplinary Understanding. The Journal of Higher Education, 81(5), pp.645–666. Available here. 

Teaching Interdisciplinarity

This is an article about teaching interdisciplinarity.

Burgett, B. et al., 2011. Teaching Interdisciplinarity. Pedagogy, 11(3), pp.465–491. Available here. 

The Theory of Interdisciplinarity: An Introduction for Educators

By Mads Goddiksen, 2017

Peer reviewed paper

The aim of interdisciplinary practice is generally to solve interdisciplinary problems. An important aim for interdisciplinary teaching is therefore to prepare students for the practice of solving interdisciplinary problems. When considering course contents and methods for teaching and evaluation in interdisciplinary courses, it is therefore valuable to have some understanding of what characterizes an interdisciplinary problem, and what it means to solve one, as this is one of the main teaching objectives. In this paper I aim to provide this basic understanding. I start out by introducing the concept of an interdisciplinary problem as a problem where the solution is constrained by standards of quality and relevance from multiple disciplines. I further discuss the concept of a discipline as a community of researchers sharing a technical jargon and standards of relevance and quality. I then introduce the concept of an integrated solution to an interdisciplinary problem as a solution that is acceptable according to all relevant standards of relevance and quality. I argue that a partial aim of interdisciplinary teaching is to aid the students overcome the linguistic differences across disciplines and to prepare them for the methodological and philosophical issues that arise in interdisciplinary problem solving due to differing standards of quality and relevance. In this respect interdisciplinary courses share an aim with the philosophy of science courses that are mandatory at Danish universities, and I encourage teachers to cultivate this underexploited potential for cross-fertilization.

Download pdf:
The Theory of Interdisciplinarity An Introduction for Educators

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS)

AIS is a US based association, founded in. Their scope and views on interdisciplinarity is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which influences the way interdisciplinary studies and education is perceived. However, the association is becoming increasingly international and in 2016, the annual conference was for the first time held outside the US. In 2019 the conference will be hosted by the University of Amsterdam.

The AIS newsletter (Integrative Pathways) and journal (Issues in interdisciplinary studies), in addition to their resource and materials database are good venues for an updated overview of debates on interdisciplinary studies.

CoNavigator – a gamified tool for creating coherence in interdisciplinary courses

How it all began

The tool CoNavigator – is a very direct result of the “Interdisciplinary education” project. As a PhD enrolled in this project, Lindvig has been studying the ways in which interdisciplinary research projects translates their research into educational activities (e.g. PhD programmes, undergraduate courses, summer schools). In one of the cases she studies, Hillersdal, a social anthropologist, was exploring how politically mobilized interdisciplinarity was translated into practice. At the end of a two year field study on these educational activities, Lindvig was approached by one of the course administrators and asked to step in and contribute to a summer school arranged by the research project. In order to make this happen, Lindvig teamed up with Hillersdal and Earle, who as a partner at the think tank Braintrust, was used to creating and developing interdisciplinary tools and processes.

The tool is inspired by a more lengthy workshop format (Braintrust Labs). The idea has been to boil the format down, from two days to just three hours, adding our knowledge and experience on interdisciplinary teaching and collaboration and thereby changing it into something that could be implemented in an interdisciplinary course. This required it to be easy to explain to students coming from all types of disciplines and backgrounds. Furthermore, it had to create links between modules which had already been put in place, and a range of faculties at different levels of teaching.

The tool has since then been tested in various settings and has proven to be a good way of breaking the ice and create meaningful conversations around an overall topic. Though the tool originally was developed for interdisciplinary courses, it is versatile and flexible enough to also be used as a kick-off activity for shorter seminars or even longer educational programmes.

In the process of developing this tool we have been greatly inspired by the idea of a Visual Lingua Franca, defined as visual languages systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing the same mother tongue. In the process we have also drawn on works by Szostak, the Toolbox-project, the Interdisciplinary studies project, Ground Zero as well as the td-net’s toolbox to name only a few. Furthermore a number of students and groups of colleagues have helped us test the tool in various rounds (a special thanks to the Edinburgh team including Catherine Lyall and Laura Meagher).

The project has produced 10 tool sets ready for use. If you would like to get an introduction to the tool or maybe include it in your interdisciplinary activity, please contact Katrine.lindvig@ind.ku.dk.

Article

Lindvig, K; Hillersdal, L ; Earle, D (2017). Interdisciplinary Tool Helps Fast-Track Interdisciplinary Learning and Collaboration. Integrative Pathways, vol. 39 (2).

Links for YouTube videos:

• Toolkitting.
• Mapping field.
• Mapping landscape. 
• Flagging.
• Selecting routes.

Addressing interdisciplinarity in the mandatory philosophy of science courses   (Fagets videnskabsteori)

By Werner Schäfke and Katrine Meldgaard Kjær, 2016.
A didactic tool paper for module managers of ‘Fagets Videnskabsteori’ at the University of Copenhagen.

In this didactic tool paper you can find advice on how to address interdisciplinarity in the courses on a discipline’s theory of science (Fagets videnskabsteori) in order to enable students to look beyond boundaries of their own discipline and understand it in relation to other ones.

Interdisciplinarity and similar terms such as transdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity are used in a wide variety of meanings. In this didactic tool paper you will find definitions of types of interdisciplinarity and their benefits. You will also find a checklist in form of questions for reflections for addressing interdisciplinarity in a course on a discipline’s theory of science in order to enhance student’s interdisciplinary outlooks. These questions are centered about the themes: Ontology, methodology and epistemology. Furthermore, you will find recommendations on how to work with and research on objects in an interdisciplinary way.

Download publication (pdf): 
Addressing interdisciplinarity in the mandatory philosophy of science courses (Fagets videnskabsteori)

Det første år på Naturressourcer

By Rie Hjørnegaard Malm, Lene Møller Madsen, Lars Ulriksen & Andreas de Neergaard, 2016

Report in Danish. Published in: IND's skriftserie nr. 47. 2016.

Undersøgelsen af studerendes første år på Naturressourcer satte fokus på de forskellige måder studerende oplever det første studieår på, og hvilken betydning uddannelsens tværfaglige identitet og struktur har.

Resultaterne viser at for nogle studerende er den store diversitet i fagligheder en gave, og for nogle studerende er det en udfordring at finde sin plads på uddannelsen. Nogle søger en snæver faglig identitet i udbuddet, mens andre søger den tværfaglige integration. Fremadrettet har rapporten følgende opmærksomhedspunkter til uddannelsen i Naturressourcer som andre uddannelser ligeledes kan have gavn af at gennemtænke:

Hvordan uddannelsen præsenterer sig for potentielle studerende

Den måde uddannelsen præsenterer sig for nye studerende på har stor betydning, for både deres motivation for at vælge, for den måde de opfatter uddannelsen og i for deres overvejelser om at forlade uddannelsen. Derfor kan det være gavnligt at genbesøge de budskaber uddannelsen giver i de forskellige informationsformater og skabe sammenhæng til det de studerende møder på uddannelsen.

Hvordan uddannelsen skaber en faglig kultur og identitet

De studerende oplever at de har fælles interesser og et sammenfaldende værdisæt på uddannelsen. At iværksætte initiativer, der kan skabe en stærkere fælles faglig identitet som naturressourcestuderende, er en måde at styrke både de faglige og sociale tilhørsforhold til uddannelsen.

Hvordan uddannelsen opfatter sig som tværfaglig

De forskellige opfattelser af hvordan tværfagligheden udmønter sig på uddannelsen har konsekvenser i forhold til hvordan de studerende skaber mening gennem uddannelsen. Derfor vil en større opmærksomhed på begrundelserne for de forskellige kurser og sammenhængen mellem dem være en væsentlig diskussion at tage op på uddannelsen.

Hvordan uddannelsen skaber større fastholdelse

Fælles for de tre foregående opmærksomhedspunkter er at de handler om at gøre ubevidste ideer eller holdninger tydelige for både undervisere og studerende. Et mål for uddannelsen kan være at forsøge i højere grad at skabe overensstemmelse mellem hvordan uddannelsen præsenterer sig, den faglige og sociale kultur og uddannelsens faglige elementer. Det vil kunne imødekomme nogle af problemstillingerne og højst sandsynligt gøre det enklere for de studerende at se sig selv i uddannelsen og dermed mindske frafaldet.

Download pdf:
Det første år på Naturressourcer [30Mb]

Buy printed version from Lulu.com:
Find link at IND's skriftserie nr. 47. 2016.

Fagets videnskabsteori? 

Tracking Interdisciplinarity in the Mandatory Philosophy of Science Course at the University of Copenhagen

By Katrine Meldgaard Kjær, 2014.
Report analysing 13 different courses philosophy of science courses ("Fagets videnskabsteori") at UCPH in regard to how they address interdisciplinarity. It is aimed at course planners and heads of studies.

A mapping of the mandatory philosophy of science course is key in the examination of the state of interdisciplinarity at UCPH for two central reasons: first and foremost, as will be outlined below, one of the explicitly stated aims with the introduction of a mandatory course for all Danish university students on the philosophy of science - or Fagets Videnskabsteori, as it is called in Danish ‐ was to foster cross-disciplinary understanding and outlook, and to provide BA students with a broader perspective on their respective disciplines. However, at the same time, the course was also required to be based from this discipline, hence the course name Fagets Videnskabsteori (the discipline’s philosophy of science). With the former aim in mind, this course can thus potentially work as a kind of ground zero for interdisciplinary education at UCPH, a space where students can be introduced to and guided in interdisciplinary work and research, and, not least, how this works together with disciplinary work and research. But how are these courses actually navigating between disciplinarity and interdisciplinairty? What kinds of perspectives are they passing on to students? And what kinds (if any) of tools are these courses providing the students with regarding interdisciplinary work and research? Second, as this is the only course that is obligatory for all Bachelor’s programs at Danish universities, it represents a unique chance to compare and contrast how the different departments are approaching the question of how disciplinary and interdisciplinary work interact.

This mapping of 13 courses of “Fagets videnskabsteori” shows that the approaches to the courses in the philosophy of science at UCPH are both many and multi-faceted. Hopefully future planners of courses of “Fagets videnskabsteori” can use the mapping in relation to what to consider when seeking to integrate an element of reflection on interdisciplinary issues and/or interdisciplinarity into a given course.

Mødet med nanoscience

Henriette Tolstrup Holmegaard, Rie Hjørnegaard Malm og Lene Møller Madsen, 2014

Report from the project, in Danish

Rapporten formidler de studerendes perspektiv på første studieår på den tværfaglige uddannelse ”nanoscience”, og bidrager med input, der kan bruges fremadrettet for uddannelsen. Undersøgelsen har fokus på de studerendes oplevelser, som er centrale i relation til at forstå frafald og i arbejdet med at fastholde studerende. 

Tilstræbt og realiseret tværfaglighed i universitetsundervisning

By Katrine Lindvig og Lars Ulriksen, 2016
Peer reviewed paper in Danish.

Published in Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Tidsskrift, Årg. 11, Nr. 20 (2016)

Formålet med denne artikel er at give undervisere, som er involveret i tværfaglige uddannelser og undervisning, et grundlag for at kunne reflektere over og diskutere følgende: Hvad sker der med tværfagligheden i undervisningen, og hvordan hænger det sammen med de didaktiske valg i planlægning og udførelse? I artiklen sammenholder og præsenterer forfatterne først de mest udbredte betegnelser for tværfaglighed. Ved hjælp af en case bestående af et tværfagligt kursus, udbudt over flere gange og med forskelligt design, peger forfatterne herefter på nogle af de udfordringer, der er forbundet med at praktisere tværfaglig undervisning. Artiklen konkluderer, at centrale didaktiske overvejelser om stofudvælgelse, arbejdsformer, eksamensformer samt deltagerforudsætninger og forventninger har afgørende betydning for realiseringen af den tilstræbte tværfaglighed.

Abstract in English:
This paper looks at questions relevant to the increasing number of teachers involved in interdisciplinary courses at university level. In particular it considers the link between the intended and the realized interdisciplinarity in teaching and how this is related to the didactical planning. Drawing on one case - an interdisciplinary master course offered three times and each time with a new design - the authors highlight some of the challenges associated with interdisciplinary teaching practice. Based on this case, the authors conclude that balancing teacher expectations with possible course outcomes, selecting and organizing course content as well as examination type, all have a massive impact on whether the intended interdisciplinarity is realized over the duration of the course.

Recommendated considerations:
•Reflective approach
•Knowing the limits and theory of own discipline

Below is a list of results from the project, articles and links to other resources where you can find inspiration or guidelines that can help your considerations about teacher competences in cross- or interdisciplinary courses.

Further information: Jens Dolin and Christine Holm,
Department of Science Education, University of Copenhagen.

Insights into effective partnership in interdisciplinary team teaching

This article can be used as input for method development of interdisciplinary education and it is also relevant in relation to discussion about collegial sparring.

Perry, B. & Stewart, T., 2005. Insights into effective partnership in interdisciplinary team teaching. System, 33(4), pp.563–573. Available here. [Accessed February 10, 2014].

Reflection questions

Work with selected questions to enhance the teacher’s reflection on his or her own discipline.

Use reflection questions in individual exercises to let the teachers reflect on their own discipline, professional practice, values and rationales. The exercise works well in the beginning of a collaboration process to facilitate an individual reflection as well as a dialogue amongst the teachers, where they can compare and put into perspective their answers to the reflection questions.

Topographic map

Visualize different understandings and interpretations of a course or an education by developing a cartographic representation.

Use cartographic representation as a mean to visualize and communicate the knowledge and disciplines related to a crossdisciplinary course or education. Drawing on inspirational elements from topographical maps you can create a common platform for dialogue and communication across disciplines in connection to the development or re-design of cross-disciplinary courses and programs.

Topographic mapping is suitable for supporting collaboration between teachers of different disciplines, where the map is used to illustrate how each of the teachers understand and relate to a joint teaching project. When developing the map it may turn out that the teachers relate to the teaching project quite differently in terms of e.g. which subjects they are interested in or perhaps are unaware of - which this exercise should help to visualize. Topographic map

Association exercise

Enhance cross-disciplinary dialogue through association exercises based on the interpretations of either a topic or various photos.

Association exercises can be used to uncover and discuss differences and similarities between the teachers’ preconceptions. The underlying idea is that the topic or photos elicit different thought associations by the teachers, which can give an insight into the different disciplinary and cultural backgrounds of the teachers. These insights can help to make it clear that people rarely understand and interpret subjects in the same manner. The exercise works well in the beginning of a collaboration process to facilitate a dialogue and develop a shared language about values and disciplinary rationales in the teacher team. In addition, it can enable a better awareness of the limitations and blind angles of the different disciplines represented amongst the teachers.

An exploratory study of the potential learning benefits for medical students in collaborative drawing

This is an article with an example of interdisciplinarity about a common method.

Lyon, P. et al., 2013. An exploratory study of the potential learning benefits for medical students in collaborative drawing:
Creativity, reflection and “critical looking.” BMC Medical Education, 13(1).

Fællesskab eller individualitet

This is an article that discusses the difference between single and team-taught interdisciplinarity (in Danish).

Jensen, A., Troelsen, R. & Zeuner, L., 2012. Fællesskab eller individualitet - om forskning, undervisning og samarbejde i et interdisciplinært universitetsmiljø. Dansk Universitetspædagogisk Tidsskrift, 7(13), pp.96–105. Available at: http://ojs.statsbiblioteket.dk/index.php/dut/article/view/5708

Teaching Interdisciplinarity

This is an article about teaching interdisciplinarity.

Burgett, B. et al., 2011. Teaching Interdisciplinarity. Pedagogy, 11(3), pp.465–491. Available here. 

Association for Interdisciplinary Studies (AIS)

AIS is a US based association, founded in. Their scope and views on interdisciplinarity is based on the American liberal arts tradition, which influences the way interdisciplinary studies and education is perceived. However, the association is becoming increasingly international and in 2016, the annual conference was for the first time held outside the US. In 2019 the conference will be hosted by the University of Amsterdam.

The AIS newsletter (Integrative Pathways) and journal (Issues in interdisciplinary studies), in addition to their resource and materials database are good venues for an updated overview of debates on interdisciplinary studies.

CoNavigator – a gamified tool for creating coherence in interdisciplinary courses

How it all began

The tool CoNavigator – is a very direct result of the “Interdisciplinary education” project. As a PhD enrolled in this project, Lindvig has been studying the ways in which interdisciplinary research projects translates their research into educational activities (e.g. PhD programmes, undergraduate courses, summer schools). In one of the cases she studies, Hillersdal, a social anthropologist, was exploring how politically mobilized interdisciplinarity was translated into practice. At the end of a two year field study on these educational activities, Lindvig was approached by one of the course administrators and asked to step in and contribute to a summer school arranged by the research project. In order to make this happen, Lindvig teamed up with Hillersdal and Earle, who as a partner at the think tank Braintrust, was used to creating and developing interdisciplinary tools and processes.

The tool is inspired by a more lengthy workshop format (Braintrust Labs). The idea has been to boil the format down, from two days to just three hours, adding our knowledge and experience on interdisciplinary teaching and collaboration and thereby changing it into something that could be implemented in an interdisciplinary course. This required it to be easy to explain to students coming from all types of disciplines and backgrounds. Furthermore, it had to create links between modules which had already been put in place, and a range of faculties at different levels of teaching.

The tool has since then been tested in various settings and has proven to be a good way of breaking the ice and create meaningful conversations around an overall topic. Though the tool originally was developed for interdisciplinary courses, it is versatile and flexible enough to also be used as a kick-off activity for shorter seminars or even longer educational programmes.

In the process of developing this tool we have been greatly inspired by the idea of a Visual Lingua Franca, defined as visual languages systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing the same mother tongue. In the process we have also drawn on works by Szostak, the Toolbox-project, the Interdisciplinary studies project, Ground Zero as well as the td-net’s toolbox to name only a few. Furthermore a number of students and groups of colleagues have helped us test the tool in various rounds (a special thanks to the Edinburgh team including Catherine Lyall and Laura Meagher).

The project has produced 10 tool sets ready for use. If you would like to get an introduction to the tool or maybe include it in your interdisciplinary activity, please contact Katrine.lindvig@ind.ku.dk.

Article

Lindvig, K; Hillersdal, L ; Earle, D (2017). Interdisciplinary Tool Helps Fast-Track Interdisciplinary Learning and Collaboration. Integrative Pathways, vol. 39 (2).

Links for YouTube videos:

• Toolkitting.
• Mapping field.
• Mapping landscape. 
• Flagging.
• Selecting routes.

Addressing interdisciplinarity in the mandatory philosophy of science courses   (Fagets videnskabsteori)

By Werner Schäfke and Katrine Meldgaard Kjær, 2016.
A didactic tool paper for module managers of ‘Fagets Videnskabsteori’ at the University of Copenhagen.

In this didactic tool paper you can find advice on how to address interdisciplinarity in the courses on a discipline’s theory of science (Fagets videnskabsteori) in order to enable students to look beyond boundaries of their own discipline and understand it in relation to other ones.

Interdisciplinarity and similar terms such as transdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity are used in a wide variety of meanings. In this didactic tool paper you will find definitions of types of interdisciplinarity and their benefits. You will also find a checklist in form of questions for reflections for addressing interdisciplinarity in a course on a discipline’s theory of science in order to enhance student’s interdisciplinary outlooks. These questions are centered about the themes: Ontology, methodology and epistemology. Furthermore, you will find recommendations on how to work with and research on objects in an interdisciplinary way.

Download publication (pdf): 
Addressing interdisciplinarity in the mandatory philosophy of science courses (Fagets videnskabsteori)

Tværfaglig og tværfakultær uddannelse - et KU2016-projekt

Presentation at the University Education Day on September 22, 2015. Preliminary results from the project.

Teaching climate change: An interdisciplinary challenge

Robin Engelhardt's poster for the conference Our Common Future during Climate Change, 7th-10th July, 2015 in Paris.

Abstract: Climate change education is inherently interdisciplinary. It requires teachers to possess a broad range of competencies and to apply a variety of teaching methods, bringing into play the skills and knowledge of the whole classroom. If one defines interdisciplinary learning as the ability to know and coordinate a growing number of perspectives, it becomes the teacher’s primary task to support students in their explorative and coordinative efforts. Preliminary findings from a research project at the University of Copenhagen highlights several barriers as well as opportunities. In general, there is weak institutional support for interdisciplinary teaching, and a lack of teacher coordination among topics covered in the curricula. At its worst, teaching becomes a kind of ‘serial disciplinarity’ where modularly formatted perspectives produce mutually incomprehensible monologues. At its best, lead instructors use a variety of inductive teaching methods and provide an impartial overview of the conceptual schemes involved. Download the poster here.

Tværfaglighed skal læres

Robin Engelhardt's presentation from the DUN conference May 6, 2015. Robin presents experiences from two master's programs from the University of Copenhagen. The presentation focuses on the teacher's perspective. Teacher-archetypes are referred to in interdisciplinary programs as well as challenges, problems and potentials in these.

Challenges and opportunities in cross-disciplinary education

Presentation with preliminary results from the frameworkproject by Katrine Lindvig, Robin Engelhardt and Rie Hjørnegaard Malm. From the framework project's internal seminar on April 16, 2015.

Challenges and opportunities in cross-disciplinary education - Preliminary findings from the frameworkproject

Fagets videnskabsteori? 

Tracking Interdisciplinarity in the Mandatory Philosophy of Science Course at the University of Copenhagen

By Katrine Meldgaard Kjær, 2014.
Report analysing 13 different courses philosophy of science courses ("Fagets videnskabsteori") at UCPH in regard to how they address interdisciplinarity. It is aimed at course planners and heads of studies.

A mapping of the mandatory philosophy of science course is key in the examination of the state of interdisciplinarity at UCPH for two central reasons: first and foremost, as will be outlined below, one of the explicitly stated aims with the introduction of a mandatory course for all Danish university students on the philosophy of science - or Fagets Videnskabsteori, as it is called in Danish ‐ was to foster cross-disciplinary understanding and outlook, and to provide BA students with a broader perspective on their respective disciplines. However, at the same time, the course was also required to be based from this discipline, hence the course name Fagets Videnskabsteori (the discipline’s philosophy of science). With the former aim in mind, this course can thus potentially work as a kind of ground zero for interdisciplinary education at UCPH, a space where students can be introduced to and guided in interdisciplinary work and research, and, not least, how this works together with disciplinary work and research. But how are these courses actually navigating between disciplinarity and interdisciplinairty? What kinds of perspectives are they passing on to students? And what kinds (if any) of tools are these courses providing the students with regarding interdisciplinary work and research? Second, as this is the only course that is obligatory for all Bachelor’s programs at Danish universities, it represents a unique chance to compare and contrast how the different departments are approaching the question of how disciplinary and interdisciplinary work interact.

This mapping of 13 courses of “Fagets videnskabsteori” shows that the approaches to the courses in the philosophy of science at UCPH are both many and multi-faceted. Hopefully future planners of courses of “Fagets videnskabsteori” can use the mapping in relation to what to consider when seeking to integrate an element of reflection on interdisciplinary issues and/or interdisciplinarity into a given course.