Barriers to interdisciplinarity: disciplinary discourses and student learning

Interdisciplinary study is hard to achieve and to sustain. Students are fac ed with major challenges in working in and across several disciplines. Thes e difficulties reflect both contrasting disciplinary cognitive structures a nd the distinctive cultures that have emerged ill different disciplines. Th is paper draws on the work of Kolb and others to clarify some of these prob lems and to suggest ways of helping students to become more self-aware as l earners and more capable of effecting these moves between disciplines.