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“It is necessary to establish a closer relationship between the university and society; involve students in solving current problems that prepare them to better respond to future challenges.”
Often, higher education is criticized for not being sufficiently aligned with the needs of society and even of not generating a return on investment expected by its graduates. It is essential to build a closer relationship between universities and communities so that students participate and engage in resolving current problems and prepare to respond well to the challenges of the future. With this idea in mind, we professors at the University of Girona (UdG) suggest doing end-of-degree, interdisciplinary projects that offer solution proposals in real contexts as an effective mechanism for giving back to society, with recommendations coming from within the university itself.
“This proposal shows that it is feasible to develop innovative projects with a real and contextualized base prepared by interdisciplinary teams, collaborating from different perspectives and knowledge.”
Our project’s objective was to propose new uses for unused or underused buildings in the municipality of Sarrià de Ter (in the province of Girona, northwest of Catalonia) that would respond to the needs of the population. The work was carried out by teams of students from different specialties, supervised by the faculty of the Teaching Network for Learning through Interdisciplinary Projects (APP-i), and the help of technicians and political representatives of the municipality.
We formed interdisciplinary work teams by students pursuing degrees in Agro-Food Engineering, Engineering in Industrial Technologies, Law, Tourism, Geography, Environmental Sciences, Architecture, and Medicine. Although teamwork is a competency present in all university degree programs, it usually occurs among students in the same discipline, making it difficult to share the different perceptions they have from their fields or areas of knowledge.
According to Woods (2007), interdisciplinary learning brings advantages, among which we can highlight:
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The development of a critical capacity to see the limitations of our discipline, having other perspectives.
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Better preparation for the work environment, based on the experience of working in multi-professional teams.
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A better approach to existing problems, which requires a global view.
The project was implemented and completed in two months. The students visited the unused spaces, became familiar with the municipality’s reality, and learned the concept of social cooperation. The students reported the progress of their proposals during tutoring with their professors.
A key observation brought up by the city council officials was the decline of the municipality’s industries and the need for its citizens to work in larger nearby cities, which carries the risk that the city would become a bedroom community with low social dynamism. To counteract this situation, the municipality hosted a social-collaboration project.
In this case, the objective was to stimulate cooperatives’ creation by young people who would respond to the social problems of the municipality and the surrounding region by offering solution proposals. Thus, the City Council made available buildings and adjoining spaces not being used to find out possible uses.
The following are the students’ proposals as solutions to the problem initially posed to them:
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Guided Bike Tours through the buildings’ vicinities to learn about the environmental, cultural, and historical aspects of the municipality.
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Walking tour paths for excursions classified at different levels of difficulty in the area. There are natural settings and unique buildings that explain various episodes of the population (like the Industrial Revolution and the stages of Spanish industrial development).
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Development of family leisure areas through the provision of outdoor furniture (for example, picnic tables and barbecue grills) to support group recreational activities. With a self-management tool to avoid demand saturation and overbookings and control the facilities’ proper use.
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Enabling and adapting a space as a civic center. This space would host programmed activities for older adults in the afternoons and events with accompaniment and support for students at risk of social exclusion. One novel proposal was the design of a matching tool to establish “win-win” relationships between senior adults and students. They could learn from each other based on the exchange of their knowledge.
The evaluation of the proposals was through a rubric previously designed and familiar to the students. It assessed aspects such as the degree of adequacy compared to the project’s initial premises, the creativity of the proposal, the quality of the written document, and the oral defense. In the defense session, each group presented its plan to their peers, the faculty, and two people from the Sarrià City Council, who represented both the technical and political points of view.
We applied two surveys to the students, pre-and-post-activity. They were first asked about their prior knowledge of Sarrià de Ter, the social economy cooperatives, and the project-based-earning methodology. We asked the students about their motivation to participate in the project and their beliefs about self-efficacy and teamwork skills. In the second survey, we assessed their experience, as well as suggestions for improvement.
The surveys’ analysis showed that student motivation was based on the project being interesting and real rather than on the recognition of academic credits. The students expressed high expectations that their participation would help them learn to work in interdisciplinary teams. However, they also showed some concern about not having sufficient skills to accomplish a good project and that the challenge posed would be challenging for the team to achieve. At the same time, a significant percentage expressed feeling comfortable working as a team, and they believed that they would be able to produce a viable project.
In the post-activity survey, a significant percentage of students considered that the interdisciplinary teamwork contributed to giving a better response to the challenge posed. The final result exceeded their initial expectations and that these types of projects contribute to a more significant commitment of the team members and motivate the students.
Most of the students felt that the proposed problem had been adequate to develop the project. The most critical difficulties were the ignorance of how interdisciplinary projects function and the lack of meeting spaces for the team members that accommodated their different schedules.
The completed activity demonstrates that it is feasible to develop innovative projects based on real contexts and developed from different perspectives and knowledge of the students.
From this research, we invite pro
fessors to collaborate with colleagues from different departments within the university to undertake real projects suggested by public entities and administrations in the surrounding areas. It is necessary to create interdisciplinary learning spaces where students play leading roles and are empowered to face society’s challenges in a better way.
The experience described shows that interdisciplinary learning can be a mechanism that makes it possible to achieve excellent results in the development of student competencies. It is a highly motivating element for students, and it facilitates the transfer of knowledge from the university to society.
About the authors
Ph.D. Rudi de Castro (rudi.castro@udg.edu) is a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and a professor in the Department of Business Organization and Management and Product Development at the Universitat de Girona (UdG). His teaching area is in the Directorate of Operations and Logistics, and his research field centers around Lean Management. He is a member of the Teaching Network for Learning through Interdisciplinary Projects, ICE-UdG.
Ph.D. Mònica González-Carrasco (monica.gonzalez@udg.edu) holds a Ph.D. in Psychology. She is a professor in the area of social psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Girona (UdG). Her teaching area is related to the psychology of organizations and subjective well-being, and her research field lies with the individual child and adolescent well-being. She is a member of the Teaching Network for Learning through Interdisciplinary Projects in the Institute of Education Sciences in the UdG.
Ph.D. Mita Castañer (mita.castaner@udg.edu) holds a Ph.D. in Human Geography. She is a professor in the Department of Geography at the University of Girona (UdG). Her teaching and research area covers topics related to land ordination and local development. She is a member of the Teaching Network for Learning through Interdisciplinary Projects in the Institute of Education Sciences in the UdG.
Ph.D. Jesús Francés (jesus.frances@udg.edu) is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, Agricultural Engineering, and Agro-Food Technology (EQATA) and a researcher at the Institute of Agro-Food Technology at the University of Girona (INTEA-UdG). He teaches in studies in the agri-food field of the UdG Higher Polytechnic School, and his research area includes the field of technologies and engineering. He is a member of the Teaching Network for Learning through Interdisciplinary Projects in the Institute of Education Sciences in the UdG.
Ph.D. Josep Maria Bech (josepm.bech@udg.edu) is a professor in the Department of Private Law. He teaches in various degree programs as a member of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Tourism of the University of Girona. He is a member of the Teaching Network for Learning through Interdisciplinary Projects in the Institute of Education Sciences in the UdG.
Ph.D. Joan San is a full professor and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Girona. He is a Co-Investigator principal in the Seahealth group, which applies its research to improving health in the sea. He is a member of the Teaching Network for Learning through Interdisciplinary Projects in the Institute of Education Sciences in the UdG.
Reference
Woods, C. (2007). Researching and developing interdisciplinary teaching: Towards a conceptual framework for classroom communication. Higher Education, 54(6), 853–866.
Editing by Rubí Román (rubi.roman@tec.mx) – Observatory of Educational Innovation.
Translation by Daniel Wetta.
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