Where & When

Location: Alan Walters Building, Edgbaston Campus, University of Birmingham

Date: 7/04/2022

Time: 9:00-17:00

Delivered by: Liberal Arts and Natural Sciences

Register for this event: https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/liberal-arts-and-sciences/events/2022/ilt2022.aspx

Abstract:

This year’s conference theme concentrates on that moment, in an interdisciplinary process, when students bring together different perspectives to generate something new and interdisciplinary. What research processes are used to prepare students for practising integration? How do we facilitate cross-disciplinary communication? What theories influence our teaching? How do we assess integration? We are also interested in the wider context in which interdisciplinarity is taught, for example, whether on introductory modules or as part of an interdisciplinary programme. Wider still, we are interested in examples where the teaching of interdisciplinarity has been supported at an institutional level.

This year’s conference is organised around three key themes:

Mapping interdisciplinarity

We are interested in how the teaching and learning of interdisciplinarity is supported at programme, institutional, and sector levels. At programme level, how are learning experiences engineered to create integration (i.e., how does a multidisciplinary programme become an interdisciplinary one)? At institutional level, we are interested in best practice examples that demonstrate how interdisciplinary teaching are supported by a university, college, or school. At the sector-wide level, how larger interdisciplinary projects aim to integrate knowledge from various sources, disciplines or subjects to break down the silos of knowledge. For example, how is interdisciplinary teaching recognised and supported by academic journals, publishing houses, and through benchmarking of interdisciplinary programmes?

Methods of integration

How is the singularity of integration engineered and taught? What interdisciplinary research processes are used to support and advance integration at the level of a module or a specific lesson? We encourage submissions that focus on theory or practice.

Assessing interdisciplinarity

This topic continues to be an important and challenging area for anyone engaged in interdisciplinary learning and teaching. How is it possible assess the integration of disciplines, practices, or knowledge? Submissions which feature theory or practice are welcome and should focus on how integration is attained when assessments are designed, employed, and realised. Student perceptions of interdisciplinary assessments and their experiences are of particular interest.

This is the sixth conference of this kind. See our previous conferences.