Work in progress — Measuring cross-disciplinary team learning in undergraduate project teams

This work-in-progress study reports current research on a project funded by the National Science Foundation. The goal of the project is to develop and validate measures of cross-disciplinary learning in undergraduate project teams. The current study was carried out in a multidisciplinary, project-based, service learning program in a Midwest land-grant university. The research team developed four major learning objectives for cross-disciplinary team learning (CDTL) based on a theory-driven framework for CDTL. The purpose of the study is to better understand students´ self-efficacy for four CDTL objectives developed for project-based design team environments. Initial survey measures of pre-post project confidence levels across these dimensions have been developed and piloted in Fall ´09 semester and all partner programs have been invited to pilot these measures in the Spring ´10 semester. Preliminary data shows that students´ understanding of cross-disciplinary team learning was influenced by their prior experience working on multi-disciplinary teams, as well as their disciplinary and design knowledge. Finally, student reflections suggest that engagement in deep design discussions has an important integrating role relative to CDTL in project-based environments.