What is in it for me - student perspectives on interdisciplinary learning activities

This paper reports on a study of interdisciplinary student collaboration conducted at a PBL university. It reports on a range of university-wide study activities, initiated for the purpose of strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration across study programs. The majority of projects investigated were organized as problem-based project work. Some projects involved collaboration between groups from different programs while other groups consisted of students from different programs and institutions. The study has a specific focus on students’ experiences of these activities, particularly how they experience cognitive, social, and epistemic gains from participating in interdisciplinary collaboration. Concluding that the interviewed students experienced interdisciplinary collaboration as both highly rewarding and more challenging than project work within the framework of their own program or discipline, the paper suggests that the concept of ‘hard fun’ (Barrett 2012) may be a relevant point of departure for future research.