4.1: Inquiry-Based and Interdisciplinary Learning

Establish inquiry-based and interdisciplinary learning as the distinctive signature of undergraduate education at Duke University

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To advance Duke's distinctiveness in undergraduate education, we must more closely align our scholarly and undergraduate educational activities in dynamic areas of faculty and institutional strength. Inquiry, discovery, and the application of knowledge are increasingly interdisciplinary and collaborative processes, and we seek to more closely link interdisciplinary faculty scholarship to undergraduate education. In this process, we will take greater advantage of our professional school faculty and real-life, problem-based, learning opportunities as well as technology. We will promote interdisciplinary teaching and learning by expanding the Focus program, creating course clusters, and developing a wider array of certificate programs around strategic interdisciplinary themes. We must also recognize this important interdisciplinary dimension in how we organize student learning. Traditionally, undergraduate education has been characterized in two dimensions: general education and the major. Increasingly, we know the importance of three categories of knowledge, all of which are important in the ideal educational process: general education, in-depth knowledge in a field or major, and interdisciplinary knowledge, which is synthesis of separate intellectual domains. Accordingly, departments must examine their majors and course offerings to ensure that they are appropriately designed and sequenced and that they contribute to the university's emphasis on interdisciplinarity. Institutes and centers should make their own particular contributions to the undergraduate curricula and, where appropriate, so should professional schools. As a part of this process, departments and programs may need to redistribute resources to appropriately balance general education, disciplinary, and interdisciplinary learning. We believe strongly that research experiences are no longer just preparation for graduate school but rather preparation for leadership in the knowledge-based economy. Research experiences require faculty mentorship. We seek to recruit, support, and retain faculty who integrate their research with their teaching and mentoring, who wish to have an impact on the intellectual and personal development of undergraduates, and who will be catalysts for change in the faculty and student cultures. We seek to double over the next five years the number of students participating in substantive undergraduate research. Increased engagement in research should also lead to an increased number of students excelling in the senior honors thesis work, measured by those that graduate with distinction. To do so, we will support faculty teaching with facilities and other resources, re-evaluate our reward systems, and recruit faculty mentors more widely across the full array of Duke's schools.

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