1 Pedagogical Considerations

Academic Problem

During the Spring 2022 COLFA Semester in Urbino, Italy, UTSA students had the extraordinary opportunity to take classes in music history, linguistics, Italian literature, and art history while engaging in experiential learning opportunities on program-related excursions to Rome, Florence, Venice, Bologna, Verona, Gubbio, Perugia, and other important cities. While past semester have produced highly successful models of teaching and learning excellence, the opportunities for cross-disciplinary activities have been largely overlooked. Until the Spring 2022 semester, the content of the individual classes has been largely self-contained and, although the students travel together on excursions, they participate, upon arrival, in activities related to individual classes. Students are seldom placed in situations where they draw connections across their classes and share the perspectives of their disciplinary specializations. In the Spring 2022 semester we drew upon the enormous potential for cross-disciplinary work with participating students representing the Departments of English, Music, Communication, Art and Art History, Philosophy and Classics, Political Science and Geography plus Sociology (CHCP) and Management (COB). With funding from Teaching and Learning Reimagined, we developed projects to create cross-disciplinary activities so that students connect the content of their individual classes to broader themes and practices while sharing the perspectives of their own specializations.

Project Description and Goals

To accomplish our goal of cross-disciplinary collaboration, we created teams consisting students of different disciplinary backgrounds and assigned to each team a different topic that was relevant to the multiple courses offered during the Urbino semester. Members of each team collaborated to define a research problem and address it through research and discussion. Once the team achieved a full understanding of the topic, members developed instructional materials to share their findings with the other groups. Each team introduced the topic before a major excursion and then elaborated on the topic in break-out groups during the excursions at locations that are historically or culturally significant to the topics. The creation of student-generated content under the guidance and mentorship of faculty instructors facilitated peer-to-peer instruction in small group settings. Students took responsibility for their own learning, developed strategies to communicate information to their peers, and demonstrates their understanding of the material by responding to questions. The learning-by-teaching process is one of the most effective ways to construct deep meanings and long-term understanding. It also allowed for a rich sharing of information across classes while drawing upon the strengths and backgrounds of each individual.

Groups and individuals were evaluated using different evaluation modes for the separate components of the projects. Each group submitted the instructional materials as a product of their collaboration and was evaluated by the instructors based on the validity of the research questions, the quality of the research, and the effectiveness of communication strategies used to teach the material to the other groups. Individuals were graded by their peers outside of their groups on their ability to communicate information and respond to questions in the small group presentations. And finally, individuals completed a reflection assignment that summarized the outcomes of the experience.

Learning Objectives and Outcomes.

Our goal with the project is to create learning environments in which students achieve the following objectives:

• Students gain a deep and long-lasting understanding of the material through active cross-disciplinary collaborations. The project offers a rare opportunity for students to work across departments in cross-disciplinary creative production. While completing classes in music history, linguistics, literature, and art history, students assess the material from multiple disciplinary perspectives to understand its broader significance
• Students participate in a peer learning and teaching process in which they take responsibility for their learning to achieve a deep and long-term understanding of the material.
• Students establish lasting connections to the material through experiential learning activities. Students learn important details of music history, historical linguistics, literature, and art history, and then take that information to the actual sites and objects to actively engage the material through presentations to gain a fuller understanding of the context.
• Students develop valuable teamwork and communication skills by considering different points of view as they work with others to support a shared purpose or goal.
• Students gain digital literacy skills as they work with Adobe Creative Cloud tools to create a final project that reflects and summarizes the group’s shared experience.

 An additional outcome of the project is that it furthers and supports the goals outlined in COLFA’s Tactical Visioning Process (https://colfa.utsa.edu/colfa/tactical-visioning/phase2). Specifically, the project promotes an integration of the liberal and fine arts and equips students to become content creators focusing on the human experience from multiple perspectives. The project ultimately situates the COLFA Semester in Urbino as a model of interdisciplinary activity for the college and the university.

Impact

The student activities in spring 2022 established This Is Our Classroom as a model that can be applied in upcoming semesters as we continue to develop cross-disciplinary strategies within COLFA. Urbino offers extraordinary opportunities for cross-disciplinary work with enormous potential for further growth.