"What surprised me the most was the amount that educators of different faculties could learn from each other. Since 'interdisciplinarity' can be of interest to anyone, we got a diverse group of participants. In the end, the course on 'interdisciplinarity' became interdisciplinary itself!" Says one of the lecturers Jasper ter Schegget. Together with him we look back on the course.

"We have often wished to offer such a training course to teachers, but had doubts about the need for it. In the end, there were twice as many applications as spots available in the course. That was a nice surprise". The pool of participants was diverse, and with it the cases they brought. "Some wanted to develop an interdisciplinary subject within their monodisciplinary course, others wanted to make the curriculum more interdisciplinary. In addition, there were also teachers who work at an interdisciplinary program, but were looking for depth in the theory and didactics behind the subject. So a little bit of everything!''

Each meeting focused on a different subject. Participants learned about the basics of interdisciplinary learning, the profile of an interdisciplinary student, created suitable learning objectives and explored the world of "meaningful testing. "[With interdisciplinary education] students primarily learn skills, making the approach of assessment less obvious. That's why every year we conduct a workshop on meaningful testing from IIS."

The final lesson was all about the interdisciplinary teacher. Jasper asked the participants to investigate what knowledge, skills and attitudes are needed to teach interdisciplinary education. The participants proceeded with this by completing a placemat. "We did a lot to get the participants working. They often create a placemat together to write down the outcomes of the discussions. That way they have something tangible to work with."

The plan is to organise another training series either next year, or the year after that. "It was so nice to see how intrinsically motivated the participants were, and how actively they participated. Active participation is a requirement for interdisciplinary education, and a great outcome of this training."

Wondering what workshops are being offered at the IIS? Check out our calendar.