Embracing ambiguity: Student experiences, creativity and confidence in the context of a novel interdisciplinary undergraduate course

Background The current study is a multi-year, multi-perspective evaluation of an innovative, interdisciplinary undergraduate course. The course was designed around three key innovations, with a view to addressing barriers to creativity identified in the literature. Methods The study design is a form of educational action research where the course proceeds through an iterative cycle of being piloted, evaluated and adjusted. The study was devised to answer four broad research questions and provided analysis of text-based submissions, surveys, interview and focus-groups to provide a nuanced picture of student experiences and the impacts on outcomes and approaches to knowledge construction. Results Key elements of the course that were valuable included building tolerance for uncertainty, being given space for exploration, being pushed beyond habitual patterns, opportunities to build resilience, embodied and self-anchored experiences of learning and opportunities to experience awe. Conclusions We provide a body of evidence and documentation of teaching practice aimed toward an interdisciplinary, embodied approach to teaching a course that seeks to promote creativity, confidence and transdisciplinary thinking in undergraduate students. The course has demonstrated some success toward its goals, but also raised a number of questions for future research.