NDLI: Reflections on 25 Years Teaching on an Interdisciplinary Programme in Biotechnology

Please wait, while we are loading the content...

Reflections on 25 Years Teaching on an Interdisciplinary Programme in Biotechnology

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Foley, G. S.
Copyright Year	2016
Abstract	Interdisciplinarity is the combination of selected parts of two or more existing disciplines to create what is essentially a new discipline that straddles the parent disciplines. In this paper, some reflections on interdisciplinarity are presented based on the author’s experience of more than twenty five years teaching bioprocess engineering as a minor subject of an interdisciplinary programme in biotechnology. While previous work by the author focused on challenges such as programme design and sustaining the interdisciplinary ethos, this paper is concern with two keys issues: (i) the recruitment of students into the programme and (ii) the independent learning challenges faced by students on the programme. These two factors, which are connected, have a significant bearing on whether any programme that is intended to be interdisciplinary, will actually succeed in its aims. We find that our student intake is generally highachieving in biology, but not mathematics, and this fact, coupled with the very different approaches to learning that are required in biology and engineering, creates very significant challenges both for us as teachers and our students as learners. True integration of the disciplines is not helped by the fact that biologists and engineers teaching on our programme employ very different methods of assessment. It would appear that an honest appraisal of our programme reveals it to be multidisciplinary rather than interdisciplinary but it still produces graduates who go on to have very successful careers, albeit mainly in biology roles.
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://conference.pixel-online.net/NPSE/files/npse/ed0005/FP/2199-SSE1420-FP-NPSE5.pdf
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

Central Library (ISO-9001:2015 Certified)
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Kharagpur, West Bengal, India | PIN - 721302

See location in the Map
03222 282435
Mail: support@ndl.gov.in

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in