Interdisciplinary learning: the integration of professional and academic communication skills into subject specific undergraduate courses

Abstract

Despite industry demands for a high level of communication skills from university graduates, students are often resistant to studying, what they term as, ‘English’. Thus an important approach to learning and teaching of academic and professional communication skills is their integration with discipline-specific courses. In one Australian university, communication has been integrated with technical subjects in undergraduate degree programs. This interdisciplinary approach—whilst similar in some respects to other universities, both in Australia and overseas—is unique to this particular School in that the integration occurs across all four-year levels of undergraduate studies. The embedding of written, oral and team communication skills is based on constructivist theory—in particular, notions of both ‘spiral curriculum’ and scaffolded learning (Rose, Wood & Bruner 1974). It has been devised to reflect authentic professional practice and thus better prepare students for future employment.