Evelina Burokė

Critical Thinking Beyond Disciplines: How to Measure the Immeasurable?

Critical Thinking Beyond Disciplines: How to Measure the Immeasurable?

Evelina Burokė

Insitute of Educational Sciences, Vilnius University, Lithuania

Abstract

Background: As the world faces complex global challenges, such as climate change and health crises, innovative and collaborative solutions are becoming increasingly urgent (Klein, 1990). This urgency highlights the role of interdisciplinarity in higher education institutions, positioning it not merely as an academic ideal but as an essential framework for addressing multifaceted problems. Despite its theoretical importance, a significant gap exists between the valorisation and practical application of interdisciplinarity in higher education.

Purpose: This presentation aims to bridge the existing gap by demonstrating how universities can effectively implement interdisciplinarity, transforming it from a conceptual ideal into a measurable, practice-oriented approach that enhances reflection, critical thinking, and communication skills as a means of interdisciplinary understanding across disciplines (Spelt 2009).

Methodology: The approach involved results from a pilot quantitative study employed in 2023 using the Interdisciplinary Understanding Questionnaire (IUQ) designed by Schijf et al. (2022). This instrument assessed Lithuanian students' understanding of interdisciplinary, focusing on their knowledge of various disciplinary paradigms, interdisciplinarity, and skills in communication, collaboration, reflection, and critical reflection.

Results: Preliminary findings indicate significant variations in students' understanding of interdisciplinary and critical reflection skills, highlighting disparities based on disciplinary backgrounds. The results suggest a correlational relationship between the level of understanding of interdisciplinary and the students' academic disciplines.

Conclusion: The study underscores the necessity for universities to adopt approaches to interdisciplinary beyond theoretical acknowledgement. By fostering an educational environment that genuinely integrates interdisciplinarity into the teaching and learning processes, universities can better equip students to tackle real-world problems effectively. This shift requires curricular adjustments and a cultural change within institutions to nurture critical and reflective thinking across disciplinary boundaries.

Keywords: Interdisciplinarity, higher education, critical thinking, educational strategies, quantitative research.

Biography

Evelina Burokė: PhD candidate at the Institute of Educational Sciences, Vilnius University, Lithuania. Evelina Burokė graduated from Vilnius University with a Bachelor's degree in South Asian Studies (2014) and a Master's degree in Contemporary Asian Studies (2016). Since 2013, she has been working in the field of education management. Her research interests include interdisciplinarity in higher education and changes in higher education policy and practice. Evelina is a member of the European Educational Research Association (EERA), the European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning (EAPRIL), the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), the Global Alliance for Inter- and Transdisciplinarity (ITD Alliance), Lithuanian Educational Research

Association (LERA), and an expert on national and international projects. Email: .