Short Abstract:
In this presentation, we describe the evolution of our approach to integrating liberal education perspectives within an innovative transdisciplinary learning program. Our experiences are used to illustrate challenges in systematically incorporating liberal education perspectives, including instructional and student barriers to viewing the world from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Full Abstract:
The increasing complexity of design outcomes requires students to develop deep competence in communication and interpersonal skills, including an understanding of how technology is intertwined with societal and human needs. Locating and synthesizing information is crucial to solving interesting and worthwhile problems, but may not be obvious from a solely technical or solely humanities perspective. However, there is relatively little guidance as to how liberal education perspectives might be systematically integrated. In this presentation, we describe the evolution of our approach to integrating liberal education perspectives within an innovative transdisciplinary learning program located at the Purdue Polytechnic Institute. This evolution has included a merger of existing courses, a dual-strand seminar and studio learning experience, and most recently, an integrated studio experience that encapsulates a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives from liberal education and technology. Our program design experiences are used to illustrate the challenges in systematically incorporating liberal education perspectives in a transdisciplinary learning environment, and the instructional and student barriers to viewing the world through multiple lenses from a variety of disciplinary perspectives
