Modularity and interdisciplinarity: Confucian insight for STEM-related disciplines
No Thumbnail Available
Files
Published Version
Date
2019
Authors
Power, Kevin J.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University College Cork
National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
Published Version
Abstract
The modularity of the education system is generally geared toward a career-specific path for individual students. While varied subject choices and extracurricular activities can provide students with a rich range of experience, increased specialisation can create a sense of separateness between disciplines which may result in the neglect of engagement between fields which are otherwise mutually informative and insightful. A greater openness to interdisciplinarity would have the benefit of exposing specialists to fresh ways of viewing familiar subjects with a further potential to inform and inspire new and mutually beneficial pathways of education and learning. I illustrate the potential of an interdisciplinary approach in the context of the climate crisis. STEM-related disciplines can draw practical insight from compatible and well-founded philosophical principles e.g. Confucian leadership principles which warn against overconsumption, encouraging the kind of environmental awareness which could avert or mitigate the environmental and societal impact of climate change.
Description
Keywords
Education system , Modularity , Interdisciplinarity , STEM , Climate change
Citation
Power, K. J. (2019) ‘Modularity and interdisciplinarity: Confucian insight for STEM-related disciplines’, Learning Connections 2019: Spaces, People, Practice, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, 5-6 December, pp. 196-201. doi: 10.33178/LC.2019.41