Students' experiences in an interdisciplinary module: “It’s like travelling to a foreign country”

Abstract

This exploratory qualitative study examines the experiences of 15 Bachelor’s students in an extracurricular interdisciplinary module (140 hours, 8 weeks) alongside their monodisciplinary Bachelor’s programme. We conducted semi-structured interviews to analyse 1) how students perceive their participation in an interdisciplinary module, focusing on the factors that challenge and motivate them, and 2) their perceived learning outcomes from participating in the module. Thematic content analysis revealed that students feel challenged by acquiring knowledge and skills from other disciplines, but struggle with mastering new terminology. Connecting with prior knowledge is stimulating, while repetition and lack of connection hinder motivation. Students’ perceived learning outcomes include having gained insights into other disciplines and obtained understanding of different disciplinary perspectives. They also recognised improvements in communication skills and the value of interdisciplinary collaboration. Further research could explore students’ learning process in a full Bachelor’s programme (instead of one module) and examine the relationship between actually attained and perceived outcomes of interdisciplinary education. As a practical implication, we suggest three guiding principles for interdisciplinary teaching at Bachelor’s level: ground, contrast, connect.