TRANSITION OF INDIAN UNIVERSITIES FROM MULTI DISCIPLINARY TO INTERDISCIPLINARY: LESSONS FROM INDIAN KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM (IKS)
MDU has been understood to imply a bouquet of disciplines such as arts, sciences, commerce, law, architecture, engineering, medicine for study within the university. The underlying philosophy of promoting MDUs is laudable as students are free to choose courses from different disciplines which not only gives them a liberal outlook through diversified exposure but also helps them to imbibe critical thinking skills and a well-rounded personality, but do we really understand the true import of MDUs?
Philosophy of MDUs and Indian Knowledge System:
While much is being made of the proposal to set up MDUs, multidisciplinary was ingrained in ancient Indian knowledge and tradition and has been in existence in the Indian academic world. However, due to wrong policies of the government, universities became fragmented.
Ancient Indian knowledge system (IKS) was based on strong connections amongst concepts, theories and disciplines termed as Sutra Sangati, Padha Sangati and Adyaya Sangati. At a base level, it implied linkages between sutras (aphorisms), between paragraphs and between chapters. At the highest level, commentators and writers were expected to bring out connections through the underlying concepts and theories cutting across disciplines which was mastered by Adi Sankara. To illustrate:
• Varahamihira linked the behaviour of birds and animals for prediction of earthquakes.
• A deep understanding of plant sciences, geology was used to predict water columns in mountainous terrain.
• Dhanurveda is the art of warfare and the injuries - mutilation of limbs and pain suffered by people in a war was linked to Ayurveda which dwells on how to cure diseases and also how to do plastic surgery.
• Ayurveda also intertwines a deep knowledge of metallurgy, animal sciences, plant sciences to make advanced medicines; Gold bhasma , copper bhasma, silver bhasma and mercury compounds are used to prepare Ayurvedic medications while milk and urine of cow, goat, female camels and donkey are used to make special medicines.
• Plant sciences are widely used in preparation of medicines as plant leaves have medicinal properties and roots of the same plant have other useful properties. For the ultimate aim of treating sick people, concepts from metallurgy, animal sciences, and plant sciences were employed.
• The disciplines of Aushadam (medicine), Mantra (Vibratory technology) and Mani ( ratnas or planetary positions in Astronomy) are interconnected; if Aushadam cannot cure a person, recourse is taken of Mantra and if this fails the influence of Mani is studied. Mantra explains how various vibrations can influence the hypothalamus and our thinking process. Just as various seasons impact people’s health-cold/ flu/ fever during winter, dehydration and related diseases during summer, so also, seasons affect plants, and the medicinal properties of herbs change from season to season. What herbs are to be used in a particular season as Aushadam or medicines were extensively studied in Ayurveda.
Thus, in IKS, concepts, theories and disciplines were always intertwined and interlinked with a common thread binding them to solve a problem. Our ancestors never resorted to fragmentation and study of disciplines in a random manner, since they lived with Nature which never does anything randomly and is an embodiment of rhyme and reason in its quest to maintain equilibrium. Astronomy, astrology, music, fine arts and medicine are all different disciplines but have a common goal of keeping the mind, body and intellect of humans in a state of well-being. If this is understood, multidisciplinary universities will make eminent sense.
Interdisciplinary universities:
The interdisciplinary teaching-learning process (IDT) integrates two or more disciplines and facilitates research of complex problems that cannot be tackled by a single discipline. For example, Bioinformatics applies computational techniques to handle the vast magnitude of information on molecular biology to analyse biological pathways and networks by combining the fields of computer sciences, molecular biology, biotechnology, statistics and engineering. Business Management is in itself an inter-disciplinary field as it combines disciplines like accounting, economics, statistics and psychology, IT to comprehend complex production and supply chain issues, manage customer satisfaction and take strategic business decisions.
A fitting example for the differences between multi- and inter disciplinarity is the making of a curry. A multidisciplinary plate of food consists of potatoes, vegetables, and meat with a sauce. The vegetables are grouped together and are in logical proportion to each other but have not yet been mixed to come to a better flavour. When you make a curry out of the ingredients, you see a new whole come into being the potatoes, vegetables, and the meat, are prepared together in such a way as to create a new flavour (inter disciplinarity).
Interdisciplinary teaching and research:
A single discipline addressing problems belonging to that discipline is a unidimensional approach. However, societal problems are complex and require an integrated approach to analyze them. IDUs gained prominence in the 1980s in the USA from the viewpoint of a more meaningful education. The underlying logic was that particularly with regard to student engagement in cultural and societal issues, programmatic outcomes are better served as opposed to ad hoc course selection from a menu of unrelated courses. Integrated teaching and research (IDTR) are organized around topics, issues, themes, problems or ideas and helps students to develop transferable skills including critical thinking, communication and research. The added merit is that from the job point of view, students who have gone through inter-disciplinary courses have a wide choice of industry/ sector to choose from.
Conclusion:
The aim of integrated learning is holistic development of student’s personality by unity of academic learning with real life. – All approaches to integrated curriculum pretend to be more effective for student’s learning than traditional one-discipline-based approach. – The main differences between curriculum integration approaches lay in understanding the reasoning strategies, mutuality of connections and complexity of contexts. – If educators are aware of the type of integration – answer a proper question and implement the specific ways of planning and cooperation – they can realise the educational goals more effective. – In context of the new demands to education – development of students’ competences and life skills – the transdisciplinary approach can be seen as the most productive kind of integration.
Author: Dr. Sabyasachi Rath, Professor & Dean, College of Management & Liberal Arts, NIST University
Stay tuned for more such updates on our official social media: https://linktr.ee/NISTUniversity
Comments
Post a Comment