Cross Disciplinary

Collaboration to enrich
learning and teaching
Examples in

art, design, electric vehicles, music, history,

philosophy, photography, student success

Hawaii Strategy Institute 2016

 Goals

Motivation
Terminology
Examples
Recipe
 Motivation

1+1 > 2

Intersections

Innovation occurs beyond borders of a

single discipline
Learning opportunity

Accreditation
 Terminology
Intra-disciplinary: working within a single
discipline
Cross-disciplinary: viewing one discipline from the
perspective of another
Multi-disciplinary: people from different
disciplines working together, each drawing on their
disciplinary knowledge
Inter-disciplinary: integrating knowledge and
methods from different disciplines, using a real
synthesis of approaches
Source: Stember, M.
(1991)
Trans-disciplinary: creating a unity of intellectual
Framework
 Pre-requisites

Contact

Connect

Agree to collaborate

Commit

Collaborate

Champion
 Characteristics

Formality: accountability
Paid or volunteer
Funding
Reporting requirements
Number of disciplines
Size & number of participants
Complexity: organization, communication
Time scale: one-off or multiple instances
Duration
 Lecture Exchange

Lecture exchange 1
Music instructor gives guest lecture on EV ethics
in philosophy class
Philosophy instructor gives guest lecture on
Celtic Music in music class

Lecture exchange 2
Music instructor gives guest lecture on Enron
Case Study in philosophy class
Philosophy instructor gives guest lecture on
world religions in music class
 Combine Classes
Spanish students join music class and read
Spanish lyrics of art songs of Latin America
before performance
Ukulele students join piano class and play
music for Earth Day Jam (video)
Piano students perform in art studio while
artists paint; artwork displayed in piano
classroom (video)
Piano students play in autoshop (video);
Veterans Resource Center (video)
 Combine Classes for
Project
National Anthems Project:
American History students each choose a
country, research history and lyrics of the
national anthem, analyze and compare with
Star Spangled Banner
Music Theory students analyze the music of
anthems for melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo
Classes meet to report results and hear the
anthems being played on the piano
Best student work awarded and recognized by
International Student Awareness Day
 Combine Classes for
Project

1. Photography students take portraits of

piano students

2. Design class use the photos to create

posters

3. Posters get exhibited in music classroom

and library

4. Best posters get used for upcoming

concerts

5. Project is reported in blog post

 WiTTS Project

What it Takes To Succeed

Student success professional

development
Multi-disciplinary

Project director interviews students,

teachers, counselors, administrators, and
external experts
10 x 30-minute episodes aired each
weekend
 WiTTS collaboration

New art lecturer designed logo for WiTTS

Writer wrote five articles ready for

publication, but requiring photos
Photography class to shoot photos for
articles
 Recipe for Success

Where theres a will, theres a way.

Champion

Opportunity knocks

Contact, connect, develop rapport, commit

Take a risk

Give yourself permission