Interdisciplinarity & Collaboration
Brian Eisenhauer
Summer 2019
The CPLC experience has reinforced the importance of being student centered in one’s approach to teaching by offering a more holistic perspective on pedagogy. By incorporating the benefits of open education, a classroom community can be created that fosters interdisciplinary learning in which all participants, including the instructor, develop and engage in a participatory project-based learning experience. This approach embodies many of the ideals of cluster pedagogy, and offers a concrete way for faculty to develop interactions with students that support the educational goals of PSU. Including open access readings from professional and academic fields, encouraging students to collaborate to develop the syllabus and select topics and readings, and working with partners internal and external to PSU in my upcoming FYS and other courses in 2019-20 will be tangible applications of some of what the CPLC has discussed that I will engage in with students this year. Continuing to incorporate these goals into my courses through the use of open pedagogy, project based learning, and the benefits of the enhanced CPLC and FYS will improve the experience of students with whom I work at PSU. I look forward to the challenge.