Interdisciplinary Learning in Universities with Emphasis on the Experience of Iran

Establishing and expanding the Interdisciplinary Higher Education has been one the major concerns and programs of the Ministry of Science between 1385 and 1388. A brief look at the programs، activities and results of establishing and expanding the “Interdisciplinary Higher Education” plan shows that the universities، Scientific Community، and even relevant staff of the Ministry of Science have been reluctant towards the plan. This approach is generally due to lack of conceptual quality and practical context، not being dependent to the requirements of the national environment، incompatible with the social and knowledge context، and specifically due to preferring the Interdisciplinary education to research، unavailability of the teacher-content، and unclear pattern of the Interdisciplinary education. Considering the origin and source of the idea of the Interdisciplinary knowledge، this paper tries to study the barriers which prevent moving from the Discipline-Based Education to the Interdisciplinary Education and Learning، in the context of expanding the frontiers of knowledge، new learning approaches and special emphasis on the experience of Iran. Then، two patterns of Discipline-Based Education and Interdisciplinary-Based Education will be compared and the features of the Interdisciplinary Education will be discussed. In the end، some plans for improving and changing the process of Interdisciplinary Education and the pattern of E-Learning and Web-Based Learning as a new and effective capacity for achieving the Interdisciplinary goals will be studied.