Let's get Interdisciplinary!

Hey there! My name's Kevin Pilsbury, and this week's blog post deals with research skills and interdisciplinary problem solving. The first half of the topic is a major one, because research skills are a necessity for the interdisciplinary thinker. The second half is an approach to problem solving that you may not be used to yet, but as you progress through Cornerstone, you will further hone the skill of interdisciplinary problem solving. These two skills will prove invaluable to you for the remainder of your life. Last week, Byron challenged you to think critically, and showed you that critical thinking is a valuable skill to the interdisciplinarian. This week, we're going to build off of what Byron opened up for us.

For me, the issue of interdisciplinary problem solving is a major portion of my undergrad career. My areas of study are in Writing and Humanities, while my minor is in Education. In my Education classes especially, I find myself taking an interdisciplinary approach to creating lesson plans. I think this is unique because often times, teachers approach teaching a lesson from their subject area. Example being: a geometry teacher teaches like a geometry teacher thinks. However, if your students don't think in that same manner, your lesson is potentially lost on them. If you approach your lesson using a blend of multiple subjects, you will instead attract the attention of multiple students. This is just one example of how I use interdisciplinary problem solving in my, personal, undergraduate career.

Research skills come in all "shapes and sizes," as they say. Critical thinking, as mentioned before, is an important research skill, because it allows the researcher to challenge every 'fact' that they come across. Critical thinking allows researchers to evaluate and weigh the different sides of every argument they come across. Problem solving exists as another critical researching skill, because it allows the researcher to first identify a problem, then form a hypothesis as to how they might alleviate that problem. Then you have a basis for what you want to research. Problem solving requires new approaches to traditional problems, which is where taking an interdisciplinary approach comes in.

Like I mentioned above, taking an interdisciplinary approach is similar to using a "two-pronged" attack to solve a problem. Because you're not addressing it from one discipline's standpoint, you are using multiple discipline’s strengths and biases in order to come up with an unorthodox solution.

The next major research skill is the ability to analyze and synthesize the data that you acquire through the course of your research. Through synthesis and analysis, researchers are able to determine patterns in their data, reduce the amount of raw data they have, and determining the value of the data you have collected. The final major skill in research comes in the form of dissemination. After you determine your issue using problem solving and critical thinking, you begin your research. Once you have gathered your information, you use analysis and synthesis to process your information and pick out the useful parts. Finally, using dissemination, you summarize and explain all of your research. This is essentially where you present the fruits of your labor.

Taking all of this into consideration, answer the following questions (Remember, you don't have to answer ALL of them!):

• How do we use research in our everyday lives? In school? At work?

• Which specific skills are used when completing a research project?

• How might these skills be translated towards future employment?

• How might your ability to solve problems from an interdisciplinary perspective be valuable to a future employer? Current employer?

• What's the best researching tool you've found?

Leave your thoughts below! Have a great week!

Don't worry, you're doing it already

Right off the bat back in week one, we asked you to “put on your thinking caps” and “answer questions” about your choosing your major, and how you explain that. Also, you were asked to “comprehend” an article about GAP brands and “form a conclusion” after “gathering pertinent information” regarding advantages of an interdisciplinary education. Last week if you look at the first picture, it asked you to “identify,” “evaluate,” and “blend” information in talking about the integrative process.

My name is Byron Faudie and I chose to post this week because one of my areas of concentration is education. Many people in the education business, as well as other disciplines will recognize the bold words as those related to the broad area of thinking known as critical thinking. This is the part people clam up . .oh no .. critical thinking!! (Runs screaming from the room pulling out hair) . .. but you've already been doing it, now we are just going to take a little closer look.

One way that I use critical thinking all the time in my job through what I call, “consider the source.” I work in the financial service industry and there is a lot of information that flies over my desk all of the time. People want me to know about the status of the economy, other people want me to know about what sectors of the market are ready to do better, some people want me to know more fact based information such as rule and law changes in the industry. The critical thinking that I have to put into much of this material to decide if it goes in the regular file cabinet, or the blue file (recycle bin, we're green) is who is behind the publishing of the material, and why do they think it's important for me to know that. Is this an ad? Who paid for research? What is the data really saying?

Critical thinking can be thought of partly as the sorting process of the brain. What am I going to keep, what am I going to pitch, what can I take a piece of and mix it with something else and put pieces of information together to make new information – draw different conclusions based on different versions of material presented.

My example focused on critical thinking in one field. The question for discussion though it, how does your critical thinking relate to being interdisciplinary?

So far we talked about critical thinking being fact based. My example talked about research, finding sources and reasoning. We looked at critical thinking as it applied to university studies. Another realm in the critical thinking world falls under ethics, values, and beliefs. These are longer term ideas that you hold deeply – but how did you get there? Why do you hold the values you do? – those questions aren't necessarily part of the discussion, but I pose them with the likely answer that you've determined your ethics, values, and beliefs using the critical thinking process over a long period of time.

As a way to practice, here is a critical thinking activity called the Virtual Philosopher developed by Dr. Wade Maki from the Philosophy department at University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

(note: It's Flash) http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/courses/vicecrime/vp/vp.html

Click on the link above to get to the Virtual Philosopher.(or copy and paste, I can't tell if it's hotlinked when I am making a post) The activity only takes a couple of minutes. I am going to be specifically vague because I don't want to give away my answers or thoughts on the activity until you've had a chance to try it and comment on it. In your response, comment on how the Virtual Philosopher scored your responses. What insight have you gained about your own critical thinking and reasoning?

Lastly, two reminders. First – in your response, you don't necessarily have to respond to all of the prompts – they are designed as springboards for further conversation throughout the week. The requirement per Ms. Spraker does not include having to respond to every single question posed. Also, reminder number two -- please sign your responses with your real name (this goes for every week). Ms. Spraker can't give credit to “UCFGRAD2010” or “STUDENT4EVR” - she needs your name for the grade book.

Have a great week everyone!

Interdisciplinary Integration...It May Get Messy!

Hello, everyone! Samantha Epstein, here. This week we are focusing on Interdisciplinarity and Integration. Integration is the uniting or blending of disciplines or academic areas to form a new, functioning whole. Integration is the main focus and goal of Interdisciplinary Studies, and without it no advancements or new understandings would be possible. When we integrate our areas of study, we are critically evaluating and combining perspectives, methods and knowledge of these areas to form a new degree, all-together. A great way of explaining IDS and integration is the smoothie metaphor. The areas of study/disciplines are the fruits that are blended together. The actual smoothie itself, is the interdisciplinary outcome because each fruit was blended, or integrated to make it into this new delicious product. No longer can the distinct taste of each fruit be detected, instead the focus is now on the new taste of the smoothie, as a whole.

The integrative process can get messy. In fact, you should expect it to. This simply means that sometimes the attempt at integration will succeed only partially, or not even at all. The best interdisciplinary projects result from a research process that works through tensions and contradictions between disciplinary systems of knowledge with the goal of interdisciplinary understanding. With this being said, don't be discouraged if the pieces of the integrative process do not fit at first. Especially, because integration is not like putting a regular puzzle together. Instead, it is like working with pieces from many different puzzles, mixed together, with no picture for guidance.

So, integration can kind of seem a little confusing at first, right? Don't worry, you are not alone. When I was starting the cornerstone class I was bewildered by all of this IDS terminology. Now that I have reached the capstone course and have had some time to reflect on these concepts, I can honestly say that I feel comfortable with interdisciplinarity and the idea of integration. In fact, I think that explaining integration in a job interview may have the possible employer fascinated and interested with how I could apply this knowledge at their company. Now just imagine all of the amazing career opportunities available for the IDS student. There are no other majors out there that can offer such a wide range of career opportunities. Employers will be eager to see what IDS graduates can offer their companies, especially because these graduates have experience creating exciting projects and ideas that incorporate the very different skills and talents available across disciplines.

My areas of studies are Public Affairs and Social/Behavioral Science, with a minor in Technical Education and Industry Training. I hope to find a career that will enable me to integrate many of the concepts and ideas from my areas of study. I believe that a career with a public agency, such as the Department of Children and Families would be a great opportunity to integrate my areas. DCF is a public agency, so I would be able to apply what I learned in public affairs, especially with public policy and leadership. Social/Behavioral Science would also be a major part of a career with DCF because I would be working with and around people from diverse backgrounds. There would also be many psychological concepts and theories applied everyday. Incorporating your areas of study into one career would the ultimate integrative experience for the IDS grad.

Currently, I am a teacher in early childhood education. My favorite part of this job is creating art with my preschoolers. I start an art project by taking out supplies like, paint, construction paper, and scissors. Then, my students and I use and integrate each art supply into the “new whole”, which is the finished art project.

By using integration in my daily activities, I feel that the possibilities are endless in my future. As I said above, I plan to present my knowledge of integration to prospective employers, to show them that I can blend an abundant amount of concepts, ideas, and methods, from multiple areas to develop the most original work project, or solution to a problem. I believe that integration gives IDS graduates a competitive edge in their college education, over other graduates who just focused on a single discipline. This plain to see because:

*Majoring in a single discipline can blind the graduate to the broader context

*Specialization tends to produce tunnel vision

*Single disciplinarians sometimes to fail to appreciate other disciplinary prospectives

*Unique topics worth studying can sometimes fall in the gaps that are between disciplines

*A single discipline is unlikely to address a complex problem comprehensively

Now that you are more familiar with integration, reply to the following questions:

How have or haven't you integrated your areas and minor?

Why is integration important in terms of professional, academic, and personal development?

Can you have interdisciplinarity without integration?

Works cited:

Repko, Allen. (2008). Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage publications.

Welcome Mentees!! Oh, and What Are You Doing After College?

Our group is excited to spend the semester getting to know you, helping you all with IDS questions or concerns, and learning along with you as we all go further in our study of IDS!

There are five members of our group. First, Samantha Epstein who takes all online classes and studies from her home in Jacksonville, FL. Second, Kevin Pilsbury who works as an RA in the Libra Community here at UCF. Third, Byron who studies education, life science, and psychology. He is also plans on getting a masters degree in adult or higher education. Next, John Seybert who works at Disney and has a wife and two boys to take care of while finishing up school. Lastly, my name is Dana Boss and I transferred from a private school in West Palm Beach after my freshman year and love studying at UCF.

In my opinion, the IDS degree is an option for those who aren’t solely concerned with getting a high paying career or what job their major will land them. (although an IDS major can most certainly do both of those things) I chose my areas of interest, which are, Political Science, English Writing, and Humanities based off my interests and abilities. I love writing and would like to write professionally, I believe one should be a good and active citizen therefore being fluent in the area of political science, and well I just really enjoy humanities. That’s why I chose the areas I did...

I have personally found it challenging to explain my major to others and this year especially find myself trying to explain and defend my choice in studying IDS as a major. If you haven’t already been asked this question, brace yourself because come senior year you just might get asked every other day, “So what are you going to do after college?” It’s a fine question, great that others are interested in your life, but with an IDS major explaining your after college plans and how your major fits into those may be a challenge. It has been for me. One of the reasons I personally chose IDS as my major is because I am interested in many different things. Choosing just one major felt limiting and slightly boring. And just like my choice in majors, I also am interested in a few different careers.

We all have different reasons for choosing an IDS major and it is important to be informed about the IDS program in order to be confident in why you chose it. An interdisciplinary education has both advantages and disadvantages that are very important to be aware of. Please read the article posted at the end of the blog post. It is about one of the many scandals of sweatshop labor used by major corporations such as Gap. I think this article points out a disadvantage to a regular major, focusing simply on one subject area, and the advantage to an IDS degree.

Think about the CEO or vice president of Gap, he is most likely a business man. Business is an excellent major to have and one that equips you with many tangible talents. However, the scandal reveals the disadvantage to business majors being taught only business. Consider the future of major businesses who’s presidents have studied subject areas such as Human Rights in addition to their usual business classes. 

We would love to hear a little about each of you. Please take the time to introduce yourself. Also,share or reflect on how you might respond to someone asking what you are going to do after graduation.

I think you all would really benefit from taking some time to really consider why you chose IDS as your major. Why do you believe in the IDS program? Why did you forgo the traditional study of one subject area?

Lastly, do you think this article points out the advantages or disadvantages to an IDS degree? How?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/08/gap-next-marks-spencer-sweatshops

Please share your thoughts and comment below! :)