TEK Faculty Fellows develop courses that focus on transdisciplinary and employability skills
Transdisciplinary Educational approaches to advance Kentucky (TEK) engages faculty and students with complex, multidimensional issues that impact the Commonwealth. A bedrock principle of the TEK initiative is that the best solutions emerge when people with different backgrounds and expertise come together to generate new ideas. Through transdisciplinary problem-solving, TEK also seeks to develop students’ essential employability skills, including the highly valued abilities to identify multiple points of view, communicate ideas effectively, collaborate in teams and reflect on growth.
A critical part of TEK is the development of new transdisciplinary courses as well as the revision of current courses to integrate transdisciplinary skills and learning outcomes. To accomplish this, TEK is engaging the expertise of faculty in the inaugural cohort of the TEK Faculty Fellows program.
This fall, the TEK Faculty Fellows are participating in faculty learning communities facilitated by the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT). Through regular small group meetings, faculty explore approaches to transdisciplinary curricular and instructional approaches, including community partnerships, team teaching, assignment design and inquiry-based learning. Over the course of the academic year, TEK Faculty Fellows will work on their courses collaboratively, share ideas and feedback and continue to support each other as they teach their new and revised courses in the spring.