Authenticity ahead of interdisciplinarity – a scoping review of student experiences in interdisciplinary science projects

<p>Interdisciplinary projects are reported to facilitate the development of both disciplinary and</p> <p>generic skills. They vary in their design and implementation, but the effectiveness of different</p> <p>project models has not been studied. The aim of this study was to determine student</p> <p>satisfaction, engagement with learning and development of employability skills across</p> <p>interdisciplinary projects with different delivery models.</p> <p>This scoping review appraises interdisciplinary projects implemented in science-based</p> <p>undergraduate degree programs. Projects with varying models of delivery, interdisciplinarity,</p> <p>authenticity and external partner involvement were examined, and the reported student</p> <p>learning and satisfaction ratings compared. Descriptive statistics and cross tabulation using</p> <p>Fisher’s Exact test were used to analyse the data.</p> <p>The interdisciplinary project model had little effect on engagement with learning, but student</p> <p>satisfaction improved if the project task was rated as authentic (p<0.05). Improved learning</p> <p>was reported in about half of the projects reviewed. Improved employability was reported in</p> <p>projects where students used discipline-based skills to provide a consultancy (p<0.05), and</p> <p>those where an external partner was involved (p<0.05).</p> <p>The interdisciplinary project model did not affect disciplinary or employability skill</p> <p>development, apart from interdisciplinary competence, which was significantly improved in a</p> <p>truly interdisciplinary project (p<0.01). Interpersonal skill development was significantly</p> <p>improved where projects had integrated rather than sequential tasks (p<0.05).</p> <p>Overall, interdisciplinary projects that were authentic and/or involved an external partner</p> <p>generated better student satisfaction and real-world experience. These results inform the</p> <p>future design of interdisciplinary project-based learning tasks and encourage involvement of</p> <p>external partners in project design and delivery.</p>