A multidisciplinary project course to promote the learning of generic skills
The experiences of students and representatives of working life
Keywords:
generic skills, project-based learning, multidisciplinary studies, learning, working life, students, higher educationAbstract
This study focused on whether a multidisciplinary project course could effectively teach generic skills to students. In the study teams of students from different fields developed a project for an authentic client. Recently, multi-disciplinary project courses have been imple-mented to strengthen students’ multidisciplinary working skills. However, previous research on multidisciplinary courses has not considered the perspectives of representatives of working life. In this study, four different teams of students and several professionals who represented four different working life projects assessed students’ abilities to learn generic skills as well as the nature of the students’ learning processes during the course. Data were collected from both target groups via interviews and were analysed using qualitative content analysis. According to the reported experiences of both the students and the representatives of working life, the students learned project work skills as well as the skills that were necessary to successfully work with people from different fields. The students felt that their expertise increased during the course and became more concrete by nature; however, the representatives of working life found that the students’ expertise remained at a very early stage of development. The results suggest that the multidisciplinary project course was a positive and encouraging learning experience for the students and the representatives of working life. However, more research is needed—particularly from the perspective of educational providers—to improve pedagogical development.
