The WPS Curriculum
The curriculum begins with an introductory course Introduction to Interdisciplinary Theory and Concepts (IDS 300W). The faculty use the experience of work to introduce students to the idea of interdisciplinary learning; John Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and William Damon's (2001) writing on excellence and ethics, Robert Reich’s (2000) theories about success in the workplace and private and public choices, Ellen Galinsky’s (1999) interviews with parents and children about work and family issues, and Studs Terkel’s (1997) interviews of workers in Chicago in the 70s provide the students with a rich overview of the complex world of work, one to which they can closely relate their own lives. A research paper requires them to tackle a workplace issue using an interdisciplinary approach.
In the second core course, Interdisciplinary Seminar (IDS 487), students collect and select academic and workplace documents to begin work on their electronic presentation portfolios, which is the focus of IDS 497, their capstone course. Students must analyze and integrate their learning in their course work and in the workplace to demonstrate the skills and knowledge they have gained in an interdisciplinary approach to the study of work. Activities build on those initiated in IDS 300W, including the refinement of, and reflection on, their professional resumes; external interviews of mentors/models/colleagues in their field of interest or practicing field; and the beginning description of their three skills.
The third core course, Interdisciplinary Capstone Project (IDS 497) is the culminating course in which the students continue to build their electronic presentation portfolio. They must choose from their “archives” the workplace and academic examples that most effectively highlight the three skill areas. They also put together an interdisciplinary essay that acts as a “cover letter” in describing the focus of their interdisciplinary degree and the benefits of interdisciplinary study in the workplace. One of the challenges that WPS students face is how best to describe what their degrees mean.
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Working (on) Electronic Portfolios
Connecting
Academic Work and
the Workplace