Interdisciplinary team teaching: Leveraging pedagogical differences to enhance business student cognitive capabilities

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for interdisciplinary learning and teaching methods to cater to the commercial realities of industrial practice in an increasingly creative economy. Two different team teaching experiences with collaborators from different academic disciplines are analysed to investigate the way educators and students think about the development of learning and teaching methods in interdisciplinary fields. A description of each collaboration is provided, followed by an analysis of how the four key interdisciplinary cognitive capabilities outlined by Repko’s (2008) were enhanced through these interdisciplinary learnings. The resulting qualitative analysis revealed a baseline level of understanding of existing and evolving practices and helped develop insight and awareness of thinking about curriculum development, teaching philosophy and classroom-based teaching styles and learning outcomes. We argue that a consilience-type of learning and teaching model along with integrated operational tools manifest in an advanced form of team teaching is necessary for interdisciplinary programs