Learning Across Disciplines

This week, we are excited to welcome Dr. Sheena Ghanbari as our new Associate Director. So, we thought it would be appropriate to share one of Sheena’s recent articles (attached), entitled "Learning across disciplines: A collective case study of two university programs that integrate the arts with STEM.” The article examines two university programs, the ArtScience program and the ArtTechnology program, each program deliberately integrates a STEM discipline and an Arts discipline. Students and alumni in each program were interviewed to understand their respective learning experiences and sociocultural theory and experiential learning theory framed the findings.

Learning themes in the ArtScience program are a) collaborative learning b) retention through doing and c) enjoying learning and similarly themes in the ArtTechnology program are a) collaborative learning b) influencing careers and c) broadening student perspectives. The programs have contrasting structures, but conveyed powerful student learning experiences with similar themes.

These programs acknowledge the merit of the arts and present a case for teaching STEM and Arts disciplines in tandem. Furthermore, students developed interpersonal skills, which are essential to learning, communicating effectively, and building relationships.