Cross-disciplinary Teaching

Abstract

Research has confirmed that students with negative attitudes or anxiety of the subject
perform worse. Thus, we believe that changing the perception is a necessary first step to
address in cross-disciplinary teaching. The following challenge is that of motivation.
This project addresses the practical difficulty of these two aspects of perception and
motivation: why and how students should learn or take an interest in disciplines outside
their own. How to get the students engaged in the course? How to encourage them to
take an active position in the course, even if their starting position was “I am not a
person who can succeed in this area”?
A metaphor for this situation could be a salesperson who arrives at a house – before
he/she can even talk to the owner, he/she should knock on the door, and get the door
open (the perception change part). After that, he/she can succeed or not in persuading
the potential buyer (the motivation part).
The perception change part and the motivation part are closely connected. We should
try to change the students' negative perception, and then motivate them to learning.
Once they are motivated, their perception can be changed even more and they become
more motivated.