Student Group Work in Widely Interdisciplinary Teams

Group work is often used in university courses. This article examines group work in a widely interdisciplinary holography course that combines both art and science, for students from the arts, humanities, social sciences, and sciences. In these interdisciplinary teams, how much specialization of labor (dividing work according to students’ pre-existing abilities or personal interests) is acceptable? We present student survey responses regarding their attitudes toward interdisciplinary group work, and their practices in dividing the work, to determine how much specialization of labor is taking place within the interdisciplinary teams. The surveys indicate a mix of approaches among groups concerning the division of labor based on prior skills. In the presence of specialization of labor, students learned from their partners and displayed a positive attitude toward working with someone from a different discipline. We believe that the intriguing nature of the holography projects helped many students avoid dividing the work according to their prior skills, and helped them see the value of working in a widely interdisciplinary team.