Published In
BioScience
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-1-2006
Subjects
Doctoral students -- United States, Interdisciplinary approach in education
Abstract
A widely held belief is that only through interdisciplinarity can academics effectively address today's complex ecological problems, because these problems demand cross-disciplinary efforts and specialized knowledge from natural and social scientists. Innovative interdisciplinary research and curricula have been created to train a new generation of scientists to engage with complex issues. It seems critical that those most affected by interdisciplinary education—doctoral students—provide feedback about such innovations. Without understanding students' experiences in interdisciplinary programs, faculty will not know whether they are "getting it right" for future generations of interdisciplinarians. From our experiences as doctoral students, we provide reflections and perspectives on the National Science Foundation–funded Urban Ecology IGERT (Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship) Program at the University of Washington. We discuss the aspects of the program that provided the most beneficial interdisciplinary experiences, as well as those aspects that could be improved. We identify three stages of intellectual development, present questions encountered during each stage, and develop six core recommendations for interdisciplinary research and training programs.
DOI
10.1641/0006-3568(2006)56[757:ARGTIG]2.0.CO
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/9016
Citation Details
Graybill, JK, Sarah Dooling, Vivek Shandas, John Withey, Adrienne Greve, and Gregory L. Simon. 2006. A Rough Guide to Interdisciplinarity: Graduate Student Perspectives. BioScience 56, no. 9: 757.
Description
This is the publisher's final PDF. Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.