As higher education institutions look to educate and graduate degree earners that have the skills and knowledge necessary to design, communicate, and collaborate in ways that allow for innovative solutions to complex socio-technical challenges, new approaches to educational efforts are being considered and implemented. Institutional responses have included new courses that have a transdisciplinary focus and embedded course experiences that use problem-based approaches coupled with cross-disciplinary team exposure. Often these initiatives have a singular thematic focus (i.e., sustainability). Little is known about the efficacy of transdisciplinary learning initiatives, especially those that encompass a breadth of thematic areas, as it relates to development of complex thinking skills and whether these learning environments provide for similar benefits across student majors. This study, conducted at a Research I university, was designed to address this gap in the literature by examining whether a university level learning initiative using transdisciplinary approaches was achieving desired goals to advance undergraduate students’ complex thinking skills. Findings among the respondents (n = 592) indicate that the initiative is advancing fundamental complex thinking skills in that specific courses allow students to learn about other disciplines and provide exposure to different disciplinary perspectives. However, results reveal that across all majors courses would benefit from increased real-world problem-based exposure and opportunities to interact with community stakeholders. Additionally, results suggest that undergraduates may need opportunities to develop a deeper understanding of the complexities that exist in cross-disciplinary collaboration, including how to develop integrated solutions that leverage the strengths of technical and non-technical approaches.

This study seeks to examine key extrinsic and intrinsic factors that encourage or discourage persistence in attaining an engineering degree and pursuing an engineering-related career among both male and female undergraduates. Quantitative and qualitative findings from nine participating undergraduate degree programmes reveal that career expectations formulated through educational experiences as undergraduates play a key role in motivating students. Among females, faculty interaction in the classroom, such as feedback received and the degree to which the faculty treat them with respect, is an important encouraging factor. For both males and females, discouraging elements of the undergraduate experience include the amount of time for coursework, competition in engineering classes and grades. The findings have several practical implications that faculty and administrators can employ in shaping the undergraduate experience to encourage short- and long-term interest in engineering among both male and female students.

Despite the awareness of the importance of self-efficacy, this concept has been studied in a limited sense among community college students (Collins & Bissell, 2004), but it has been shown to be significantly related to career decisions among enrollees (Kelly & Hatcher, 2013). The literature does not address what types of experiences can improve or enhance self-efficacy among college students as it relates to research and among community college students specifically. This study addresses the gap in the literature by examining what experiences can improve the self-efficacy of community college students as it relates to research and whether this has an impact on their long-term career plans to pursue a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) career.

Knowledge and problem-solving approaches that span disciplinary boundaries and involve diverse communities are foundational aspects of transdisciplinarity. Transdisciplinary approaches in research efforts are needed to address complex problems of global importance. At the same time education systems should be preparing graduates to enter the workforce with complex problem-solving skills. Students need to have learning experiences that allow for the acquisition of cross-disciplinary systematic reasoning if they are expected to engage in addressing these complex problems. Recent reports have underscored the need to create university structures and incentives that allow for dynamic and responsive approaches to this global need for transdisciplinary discovery and learning efforts; however, little is known about the efficacy of the approaches and models that have been implemented to create large-scale change in higher education and how they help in achieving transdisciplinary goals. Through an ethnographic case study analysis, this paper examines how a faculty-led community of practice model is being used to build transdisciplinary research capacity and transdisciplinary curricula at a Research I university. Given the unique nature of this transdisciplinary community of practice model, this qualitative and descriptive study sought to examine what elements of the model facilitated faculty participation in transdisciplinary research and curricular efforts. More specifically, this study intended to respond to recent calls to better understand the systematic approach that would need to be employed by higher education institutions if they are adequately engaging faculty in addressing complex problems in their research efforts, as well as engaging faculty in the adequate development of the future workforce through pedagogical transdisciplinary approaches. The findings indicate that the transdisciplinary community of practice model is useful for initially motivating and incentivizing faculty participation. The results also indicate that the inclusive internal support networks that were part of the model facilitated faculty engagement.