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Bridging Research & Teaching: examining the (inter)disciplinary spaces of undergraduate research​ - a case study of Warwick URSS ​

Bio

Bing Lu joined the PGA course provided by IATL from October 2023 to July 2024. Bing has a profound interest in interdisciplinary research, particularly in the context of the undergraduate student research. During the PGA study, Bing conducted a case study focusing on the interdisciplinary space of the Warwick Undergraduate Research Support Scheme (URSS). The case study aims to examine the relationship between bounded faculties, messy disciplines and bodies of knowledge. As a URSS supervisor and DSEP in the Faculty of Arts, Bing examines how these considerations shape staff members’ approach of promoting (inter)disciplinary thinking among students to enable them to become future problem-solved learners. Bing started the WordPress blog ‘Bridgeminds’ for reflective thinking around (Inter)disciplinary practices.Bing is currently co-leading a two-year project ‘Long-term Collective Student Research Programme’ (LoCoR) funded by Warwick Education Fund, aiming at co-developing and piloting a new model of project-based teaching that empowers students from different years and disciplines to engage in long-term, collective, and interdisciplinary research.

See Bing’s full bio hereLink opens in a new window 

Project Summary

As director of Student Experience and Progression in the Faculty of Arts and as a researcher in co-creation and doctoral supervision, Bing brought her rich past experiences to look at interdisciplinarity in the Undergraduate Research Support SchemeLink opens in a new window. The URSS offers undergraduates the opportunity to apply for grant money to carry out a self-led research project. This project can be either within the students’ home department or a different one, and can take place in the UK or abroad, giving students’ considerable flexibility in pursuing their own interests. A crucial programme in supporting undergraduate student development, Bing aimed to identify existing evidence of interdisciplinary work on the URSS as well as how to facilitate students’ engagement with transdisciplinary thinking as they move forward. The URSS lends itself to interdisciplinarity as students can reach out to supervisors beyond their own departments, and they go on to present their work at the British Conference of Undergraduate Research (BCUR). In addition to examining URSS structures that highlight interdisciplinarity, Bing reflected on her own practice of further fostering students’ interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary skills as a URSS supervisor. In supporting and supervising students from outside the Arts faculty and introducing them to creative methods of research, Bing guided students to inquiry-based learning rooted in recognizing students’ skills and interests, peer collaboration and supervision from beyond their departments. In her final project portfolio and presentation, Bing showcased a student from Global Sustainable Development who focused on the impact of woodland, noting their interdisciplinary development in thinking about how to approach sustainability related issues. Throughout her PGA, Bing foregrounded the tension between bounded faculties and the often messy disciplines and bodies of knowledge. Bing’s work shows how centring student research challenges disciplinary boundaries and can lead to the next step in bringing transdisciplinary approaches to students through problem-solving practices.