The Role of Appreciation in the Development of Interdisciplinary Teamwork Skills

Interdisciplinary teamwork is essential in addressing complex, global challenges such as climate change, technological advancement, and social inequality. However, effective collaboration across disciplines is often hindered by communication barriers, methodological differences, varying ways of thinking, cultural disparities, and biases. This paper examines these challenges and proposes that fostering appreciation for the unique contributions of each discipline can mitigate these obstacles. Appreciation enhances mutual respect and understanding, promoting more effective and inclusive collaboration.

The paper introduces three methods to cultivate appreciation in interdisciplinary teams: The world without my academic discipline which encourages reflection on the value of each discipline; the method Sieve reflection, which helps participants reflect on the interdisciplinary process and the contributions of each discipline to the final outcome; and Interdisciplinary candy distribution, which enables team members to express gratitude towards others. These methods foster interdisciplinary team competence by deepening participants’ understanding of how each field contributes to solving complex problems.

By incorporating these methods, educators and team leaders can foster appreciation across disciplinary boundaries. Fostering appreciation for diverse perspectives and methodologies not only mitigates the challenges of interdisciplinary collaboration, but also encourages innovation, mutual respect, and a more holistic approach to problem solving. Ultimately, this paper argues that appreciation is critical to creating inclusive and effective interdisciplinary teams capable of addressing the multifaceted problems of the 21st century.

Keywords: Interdisciplinary teamwork; Interdisciplinarity; Interdisciplinary learning; Appreciation; Challenges; Higher Education; Methods