ABSTRACT

As the pressing problems of the real world are not organized into disciplinary categories, there is an urgent need to make doctoral education more interdisciplinary. As an extension of the border-crossing metaphor that is commonly used for interdisciplinarity, academic educators wishing to engage students in this activity might consider themselves as guides on an arduous journey. In this critical reflection, the author will justify why interdisciplinarity is needed, propose strategies for enabling it at the doctoral level, and comment on how such efforts will bring the doctorate up to date with the practical needs of the current century. His context is the curriculum of an interdisciplinary graduate programme situated in Singapore, where a typical class consists of students from various STEM disciplines. He reflects on his own efforts to devise strategies for promoting interdisciplinarity amongst his students, based on the pedagogical literature on interdisciplinary learning and his own interdisciplinary research.

摘要

由于现实世界中紧迫的问题并未按学科分类，因此迫切需要使博士教育更具跨学科性。作为跨学科隐喻的延伸，跨学科的隐喻是希望让学生参与这项活动的学术教育者可能会认为自己是艰辛旅程的指南。在这种批判性的反思中，作者将论证为什么需要跨学科性，提出在博士学位一级实现跨学科性的策略，并评论这种努力如何使博士学位与当前世纪的实际需要保持同步。他的背景是位于新加坡的跨学科研究生课程的课程，其中一个典型的班级由来自不同STEM学科的学生组成。