Measuring interdisciplinary understanding in higher education

ABSTRACT

The growing number of interdisciplinary degree programmes offered at comprehensive research universities aim to ensure that students gain interdisciplinary understanding, defined as knowledge and skills that provide them with the means to produce cognitive enhancements that would not be possible through monodisciplinary programmes. Previous studies suggest that interdisciplinary understanding comprises six main elements: knowledge of different disciplinary paradigms, knowledge of interdisciplinarity, reflection skills, critical reflection skills, communication skills, and collaboration skills. However, empirical evidence to support this conceptualised model is lacking. The current study therefore proposes an Interdisciplinary Understanding Questionnaire (24 items) to assess this model. Its construct validity and measurement invariance were tested among 505 first-year Bachelor’s students from different academic disciplines (e.g. humanities, science, social sciences). A (multigroup) confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the conceptualised model of interdisciplinary understanding, as well as measurement invariance across academic disciplines. Implications for educational practice, for instance regarding student assessment and quality assurance, are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Interdisciplinarity
• higher education
• learning outcomes
• measurement instrument

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer E. Schijf

Jennifer (J.E.) Schijf MSc is a PhD candidate at the Department of Teacher Education of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. She graduated from the University of Amsterdam with degrees in Educational Sciences (BSc, Research MSc) and Sociology (BSc). Her research interests lie in higher education, interdisciplinary education and student success. Besides her research activities, she has worked as a policy officer at several Dutch research universities.

Greetje P.C. van der Werf

Greetje (M.P.C.) van der Werf PhD is Professor Emeritus of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Before her retirement in June 2019, she was Full Professor of Learning and Instruction at the department GION education/research. During her working life, she coordinated several national large-scale, multilevel longitudinal studies in primary and secondary education, as well as the Dutch part of one of the IEA studies on Civics and Citizenship Education. She published a large number of articles on the effects of schooling on students’ achievement and long-term attainment. Her main research expertise is on the influence of students’ psychological attributes, among which students’ personality traits, achievement motivation, social comparison and peer relations on students’ achievement and success in their school career. Currently, she is still Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Educational Research and Evaluation.

Ellen P.W.A. Jansen

Ellen (E.P.W.A.) Jansen PhD holds the position of Associate Professor in Higher Education within the Department of Teacher Education at the University of Groningen in Groningen, the Netherlands. Her expertise relates to the fields of teaching and learning, curriculum development, factors related to excellence and study success, social (policy) research, and quality assurance in higher education. She supervised national and international PhD-students in the field of higher education.