Interdisciplinary Thinking as Object and Means for Reflexivity in the Academic Education of Prospective Teachers

Das Kooperationsprojekt „Forschendes Lernen im Praxissemester ─ interdisziplinär" (FLIP-I)

Abstract

It is a key component of the internship-model of the University of  Cologne that at the beginning of any teaching degree master program, all students get prepared in three of their subjects of study in parallel seminars planned separately by each discipline. During the internship, the students work on a research assignment in only one discipline, the so-called “Zwei-Disziplinen-Profilgruppe” [“two disciplines profile group”]. Taking into account the topic of inclusion and corresponding research demands, we are currently developing a new format of the assignment in a cooperation between the disciplines “German Studies” and “Education and Rehabilitation of Students with (Profound) Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities.” In the new format, implemented since fall semester 2016/17, the students plan and undertake an interdisciplinary research assignment in a "Zwei-Disziplinen-Profilgruppe” (group consisting of members from two disciplines). A key principle of the supervision is team teaching: all components are conducted by two instructors, one of each discipline. The cooperation is in itself an interdisciplinary research project, with the focus on two research questions: (a) how theories and empirical findings of the two disciplines can be brought together and related to one another; and (b) how interdisciplinary thinking can be developed in the context of the "Zwei-Disziplinen-Profilgruppe”. The aim is to ex emplarily introduce the students to the research cooperation in order to enable them to work on teaching-related questions in an interdisciplinary and theoretically reflected approach. In this respect, our claim is that interdisciplinary thinking is at the same time object of and means for reflexivity in the academic education of prospective teachers.