Intellectual Community and Deeper Learning in an Interdisciplinary Honors Capstone
Presented by:
Melinda Adnot, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Keywords:
Project-Based Learning, Deeper Learning, Community
Hear it from the author:
Transcript:
Hello, my name is Mindy Adnot, and I’m an assistant teaching professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I’m glad to have the opportunity to share this project on the conceptualization of interdisciplinary honors capstone work, co-authored with Grayce Jeter, a rising senior.
In our interdisciplinary University Honors Program at UNC Charlotte, we introduced a completely new type of capstone project in 2023. Students engage in individual academic inquiry on an interdisciplinary question under the mentorship of faculty experts, but rather than producing a traditional thesis by completing a research project, they put their learning in conversation with their honors community by creating and leading a series of six seminars for a small group of incoming honors students during their first-year seminar.
The goal is to create a more cohesive curricular experience: students begin the program in a discussion-based community of inquiry led by a senior student, see interdisciplinary inquiry modeled by faculty, and then lead a first-year seminar themselves as their capstone experience.
As the program has developed, we’ve turned to existing scholarship to build its conceptual foundation. We find that bringing together scholarship from interdisciplinary studies, deeper learning, and honors education clarifies the core mechanics of the interdisciplinary honors capstone. It is characterized by engagement with complexity in search of mastery, self-reflection that fosters scholarly identity, and creative and productive problem solving, all within an intellectual community that provides opportunities for leadership, mentorship, and dialogue.
If you’d like to talk with me about our program, conceptual model, or future research, please come find me at the poster session!
Key Statement:
Capstone students "play the whole game" as teacher-scholars by developing scholarly expertise and designing and leading a series of six seminars for incoming students.
Abstract:
In this poster, we examine how interdisciplinary capstone projects can foster deeper learning through the development of mastery, identity, and creativity. We find support in the literature that the elements of interdisciplinary research-based capstone experiences can engage students in deeper learning when they include the elements of: sustained interdisciplinary inquiry, the guidance of faculty mentors, creation of both traditional and non-traditional capstone or thesis formats, and a requirement that the work be meaningfully shared. This session will also examine an application of deeper learning in an interdisciplinary capstone program in our institutional setting.
Outcomes:
1. Describe how deeper learning outcomes of mastery, creativity, and identity can be realized through interdisciplinary capstone projects.
2. Evaluate the application of a conceptual framework to the capstone program described in the session.
3. Generate possible applications of sustained projects that foster deeper learning in their own institutional settings.