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Since the Second World War, the number of students in higher education worldwide has dramatically increased. At the same time, the Bologna Process has encouraged more comparable, compatible, and coherent systems of higher education across Europe. Accordingly, in Denmark, more students in master’s programmes come from different fields of study, thus bringing different disciplines into master-level study programmes. This chapter examines the interdisciplinarity that emerges from the interactions of students coming from different disciplines in a PBL programme. What are their achievements and their academic and social experiences? The main theoretical inspiration and concepts for this work are taken from Pierre Bourdieu’s praxeology. The empirical material includes both quantitative data from a year cohort of 138 master’s students and eight qualitative interviews with the same cohort of students. The qualitative analysis indicates that in students’ opinions, their different bachelor degree backgrounds made a difference in a PBL study programme. At the same time, the quantitative analysis shows that there is no significant difference between the grades of university bachelor graduates (UBs) and those of students with a professional bachelor degree (PBs). In their narratives, the UBs expressed rather sceptical attitudes towards the academic performance of PBs during PBL-orientated project work. PBs, on the other hand, were enthusiastic about the contributions UBs could bring to the project work. The latter group took on more leadership roles in the context of project organising and how to follow the perceived academic standards. In conclusion, although both groups of students had distinct and different strategies of practicing interdisciplinarity and PBL, the outcome regarding academic success—in terms of grades—was the same.

The aim of this chapter is to discuss the scientific preconditions for establishing higher education interdisciplinary project work in a problem-based learning (PBL) setting. The question pursued in this chapter concerns what types of theory of science dialogue and reflection are needed between a supervisor and a group of students in order for students to master an interdisciplinary approach in their project work. The chapter opens by outlining what the key concepts of ‘PBL-setting’, ‘theory of science’ and ‘interdisciplinary project work’ mean. This is followed by three interrelated sections; in the first, a central dichotomy in the conception of the interrelations among the sciences will be developed. This dichotomy revolves around the notion of science as describing the world vs. science as constructing a language to talk about the world. Building on the developed dichotomy, a vocabulary will be constructed around Wittgenstein’s notion of a language game in order to conceptualise what would be required of students to work interdisciplinarily in an open-ended space of scientific possibilities. Finally, the chapter establishes an argument for a set of important practices in the supervision of PBL groups to facilitate interdisciplinary project work.

1. Introduction -- Section I – Conceptualising Interdisciplinarity in Problem-Based Learning -- 2. Problem-based projects, learning and interdisciplinarity in higher education; Annie Aarup Jensen, Ole Ravn and Diana Stentoft -- 3. Trust me, I am the Doctor: Bridging disciplinary education and interdisciplinary professionalism; Patrick Kjaersdam Telleus -- 4. Beyond the two cultures: PBL and transgressive interdisciplinarity in the Techno-Anthropology programme; Maja Hojer Bruun -- 5. Three challenges facing new students in problem-based and interdisciplinary learning; Diana Stentoft -- 6. Supervising the interdisciplinary PBL project: Scaffolding the open-ended space of scientific possibilities; Ole Ravn -- Concluding section one – an outsiders’ perspective on conceptualising PBL and interdisciplinarity -- 7. Toward an interdisciplinary learning community of PBL supervisors and students; Lisa Lattuca -- Section II – Practising Interdisciplinarity in Problem-Based Learning -- 8. Opening the PBL Game: Problem construction in interdisciplinary project work in multicultural groups; Kirsten Jaeger and Annie Aarup Jensen -- 9. Developing successful group process in interdisciplinary projects; Chunfang Zhou and Lone Krogh -- 10. Students’ positioning in transdisciplinary project-based learning; Alice Juel Jacobsen and Tom Borsen.-11. Student interdisciplinary practices in a PBL study environment; Anette Lykke Hindhede, Marie Martinussen and Karin Hojbjerg -- Concluding section two – an outsiders’ perspective on practicing PBL and interdisciplinarity -- 12. The problem, the group meeting/tutorial, the PBL process and learning; Terry Barrett -- Notes on Contributors. .

This chapter will explore the issue of PBL and interdisciplinarity by way of medical education. It has been claimed that a PBL approach in medical education programs fosters the development of specific competencies and acquaintances that enable students to meet the increasing requirements for interdisciplinary professionalism within the health care sector. However, for a PBL program to actually enact this interdisciplinary character and purpose is a difficult task, since it clashes with the fundamental character and purpose of university education, which is based on scientific disciplinarity. The practical result of the PBL approach tends to be a multidisciplinary construction and execution rather than a truly interdisciplinary one. In order to fulfil the need to bridge education and professional practice, universities and PBL pedagogy should focus more intensively on the composition and abilities of staff in medical education programs rather than focusing on the students’ self-directed learning processes or creating pre-constructed cases and curricula. The staff, serving as both role models and assessors, and being trained researchers, represent disciplinarity. However, they should allow students to pursue an interdisciplinary agenda, and show appreciation and recognition when they do so.

This chapter explores three distinct challenges new students face when entering a PBL and interdisciplinary university education. The first challenge concerns how students handle the uncertainties and epistemological conflicts that are embedded in their work towards defining interdisciplinary problems as part of their problem-based projects. The second challenge pertains to the fact that supervisors are often themselves educated in a mono-disciplinary context and are equally uncertain about interdisciplinary problems, as they cannot predict or point towards relevant knowledge until the problem is encapsulated and defined. Thus, students need to come to terms with the role of the supervisor as radically different to that of a classroom teacher who is expected to have the correct answer. The final challenge arises from the students’ needs to develop competencies for communication and collaboration at the intersection of disciplines. Being successful in these competencies require dialogue, creativity and feedback among group members in order for the group to maintain and profit from the reflective processes that are necessary to handle participatory and interdisciplinary learning processes. The final part of the chapter discusses these challenges and identifies students’ comprehension of the theory of science and scientific methods, as well as their understanding of reflective practices as the key to successful interdisciplinary PBL for new students in higher education.

This chapter outlines the complexities of interdisciplinary higher education and proposes a framework which encompasses some of the unresolved issues that continue to challenge interdisciplinary teaching and learning, as well as the underpinning pedagogies. Through the case of Aalborg University which has been a dedicated PBL university for over four decades some of the ways in which interdisciplinary learning may be perceived and conceptualised in higher education will be highlighted. The chapter is particularly concerned with the premises of problem-based learning as a pedagogical approach that may offer the potential for opening interdisciplinary learning spaces. Thus the aim of the chapter is to highlight key issues that need to be researched and better understood if the principles of problem-based learning and the intentions of interdisciplinary learning are to be a compatible match.