This paper finds its origins in a multidisciplinary research group's efforts to assemble a review of research in order to better appreciate how "spatial reasoning" is understood and investigated across academic disciplines. We first collaborated to create a historical map of the development of spatial reasoning across key disciplines…

This chapter describes how seven disciplinary bottlenecks from four diverse disciplines were analyzed using a phenomenological perspective and includes a discussion of embodied knowing and implications for educators.

In this commentary on this issue's focus article by Baird et al., Pellegrino focuses first on the fundamental nature of educational assessment and its connection to theories, models, and data on learning. He then discusses the contemporary views of learning in the form of learning progressions as they relate to assessment development. In the third…

Many contemporary researchers claim to use a phenomenological approach but seldom connect their methods to tenets from phenomenological philosophy. We describe a distinctive approach, grounded in the writings of French philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty, for conducting educational research. Procedures are outlined for bracketing pre-understandings…

This short article explains the key principles of "rich tasks," a version of authentic assessment developed in Queensland, Australia, as part of a major curriculum development called the "New Basics." In various documents, the project leaders recognised the danger that inappropriate assessment would undermine the proposed…

Interdisciplinary research is frequently viewed as an important component of the research landscape through its innovative ability to integrate knowledge from different areas. However, support for interdisciplinary research is often strategic rhetoric, with policy-makers and universities frequently adopting practices that favour disciplinary…

This paper discusses the explanatory possibilities and limitations of the concept of alienation within the framework of educational psychology studies. Research into various phenomena associated with alienation (frustration and burnout, extrinsic motivation, cynicism, etc.) is often limited by the ontological realm of the individual, whereas the…

This article argues for the importance of disciplinarity in the education of novice sociologists and considers the impact of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) on opportunities for undergraduate students to achieve a command of the discipline. The promotion of modularization and generic skills integral to establishing the EHEA can be…

Social-affective neuroscience is revealing that human brain development is inherently social--our very nature is organized by nurture. To explore the implications for human development and education, we present a series of interdisciplinary studies documenting individual and cultural variability in the neurobiological correlates of emotional…

Historically, a liberal arts education was thought to "liberate" students from the narrow perspective of experiential learning. Paradoxically, experiential learning is increasingly being used to broaden a liberal arts education. This chapter provides a discussion on three signature experiential learning practices, and suggests these…

Disciplines are by their very "origin and nature" unstable--always already differed and deferred from themselves--due to their genetic relation to what Jacques Derrida calls "différance". In a sense, "différance" is what makes disciplines possible in the first place, and it can be thought of as the economy or mode of…

This study investigated the writing parameters of a research paper by multiple authors who formed a research team in a public university in Malaysia. Drafts of the research paper were produced through the research activities and writings of the participant researchers. By observations, interviews, and textual analysis of drafts, we studied the…

Marketers and designers are likely to work together on innovation teams as they both have customer satisfaction as their end goals. Collaboration between these disciplines in innovation teams is often impaired due to the different thought-worlds that drive decision making: intuitive versus rational. To facilitate collaboration between design and…

User Experience Design (UXD) is an often-neglected area of the information systems (IS) curriculum. UXD classes specifically designed for IS students are still uncommon in IS programs and this study aims to add to the body of knowledge to prepare a more well-rounded future generation of IS professionals. With this goal in mind, this study…

This study explored the racial bias perceptions of study abroad alumni following international learning experiences in East Africa. Ninety-seven participants, who completed a semester-long study abroad between Fall 2016-Spring 2019, were recruited into the study. Open-ended survey questions evaluated perceptions of racial bias, racial prejudice,…