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Contribution: This paper analyzes reflective thinking within organizational structures in higher education and draws parallels between the challenges faced by educators developing interdisciplinary courses and their students working in ill-structured projects. Background: Interdisciplinarity as a learning goal is prevalent across engineering education literature. However, without organizational support structures to guide faculty members in developing interdisciplinary courses, interdisciplinarity as a student learning outcome is difficult to sustain. There is a need to evolve existing organizational structures faculty navigate when creating interdisciplinary courses, so that competing organizational systems do not stifle interdisciplinarity. Moreover, educators’ effort in developing interdisciplinary courses is mirrored in the uncertain processes in which instructors engage students. Research Questions: In settings of interdisciplinary curriculum design and implementation, how do interdisciplinary faculty collaborations parallel that of their student design teams? How do organizational structures affect interdisciplinary faculty teams designing courses that span disciplines? Methodology: The study used a qualitative case, bound by three required courses in a new interdisciplinary undergraduate minor. Data was collected via interviews, class observations, and student reflection assignments. Analysis was guided by the conceptual frameworks of King and Kitchener’s reflective judgment model and strange and banning’s conceptualization of campus learning environments. Findings: Both educators and students develop through the discomfort with uncertainty—a prevalent theme in complex problem-solving. Forms of summative assessment pose an added challenge for both groups as they negotiate organizational structures. Lastly, discipline-specific expectations and ways of valuing knowledge contribute to uncertainty through the interactions among groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed work is an increasingly common phenomenon in a number of technical and professional settings, and the complexity of this work requires high degrees of knowledge sharing and integration that move beyond assembly-line approaches to collaboration. Since participants in distributed-work settings rely almost exclusively on written and spoken language to mediate their collaborative relationships, professional communication faculty need educational approaches that empower students with language practices designed specifically to support effective teaming in these complex environments. To address this need, we employ discourse analysis and Speech Act Theory to identify these language practices in a case study of two cohorts of distributed, interdisciplinary, and cross-cultural student teams. The findings show correlations between language practices and successful collaboration. These correlations have significant implications for teaching and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication has long been a central component of engineering curricula, but recent developments In accreditation, software, and available media, along with rapid increases in cross functional, global, and virtual teams, have dramatically expanded the nature of communicative practice. In response, faculty in writing and communication programs that support engineers have developed a range of innovative practices. Approaches include expanded research into workplace practices, communication across the curriculum, dedicated classes, and modules tailored to individual courses. This introduction highlights both the drivers and the innovations described in this Special Issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]