Interdisciplinary coordination and Problem-Based Learning: evidence from Higher Education

Resumen

A key aspect of the European Higher Education Area is the need to educate students using a multidisciplinary approach. The undergraduates should also acquire the competences that will be essential in their future profession. The interdisciplinary approach provides many benefits that develop into much needed lifelong learning skills that are essential to a student’s future learning.

The aim of this work is to apply interdisciplinary coordination in two subjects of a Degree, for the achievement of the competences and skills of the students. In this context, this work describes an educational constructivist innovation consisting of the interdisciplinary coordination between two subjects from the Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Management: Production Management and Business Statistics, using Problem-based learning (PBL).

We ran the educational innovation project over three consecutive academic years. The results demonstrate that acquiring knowledge via interdisciplinary coordination is highly valued by the students and also allows them to acquire competences that will be essential in their future careers. It highlights the need of the policy maker to evaluate interdisciplinary curricula.