Three diagnoses of why transfer across disciplines can fail and their implications for interdisciplinary education

Eric Kuo, Danielle Champney

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

One goal of interdisciplinary educational efforts is to increase students' ability to transfer knowledge from one disciplinary context to another. The approach taken to foster this transfer depends on the diagnosis of why this transfer can fail in the first place. Although a common diagnosis focuses on content knowledge and problem features as explanatory, there exist other, less prevalent diagnoses for why transfer across disciplines fails. In this paper, we show how one student responds differently to two similar problems set in physics and calculus problem contexts. We argue that beyond a content knowledge diagnosis, an epistemology diagnosis and an accountability diagnosis can also plausibly contribute to an explanation of why this student approaches these two similar problems differently, presenting additional considerations in fostering interdisciplinary transfer.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)62-69
Number of pages8
JournalProceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences, ICLS
Volume1
Issue numberJanuary
StatePublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes
Event11th International Conference of the Learning Sciences: Learning and Becoming in Practice, ICLS 2014 - Boulder, United States
Duration: Jun 23 2014Jun 27 2014

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science (miscellaneous)
  • Education

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