"Many cooks may not spoil the broth but may enhance it": A multidisciplinary approach to education

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Adopting and modifying the best practices of  teaching and learning may be the key to fostering innovation in teaching and learning.  The concept of borrowing innovative experiential and interactive teaching and learning methods from unrelated disciplines may be a novel strategy to ensure that graduates acquire the competencies they require.

This novel approach was this year's Global Knowledge Exchange Network (GKEN) 5th Conference theme. The conference created a platform for professionals from a multitude of unrelated disciplines to learn and share experiences of  best practices of teaching and  learning that foster development of  competencies in graduates.  Educators got the opportunity to learn from each other's discipline in such a way that it facilitated the establishment of collaborative multi-disciplinary networks and groups dedicated to enhance teaching across unrelated disciplines.

As educators, we view this approach as an inevitable extension of the global trend of fostering collaborative multidisciplinary research from seemly unrelated disciplines. As educators we have forgotten that good research comes from acquiring good research skills.  Adopting the GKEN model will not only increase  the  number of educational methods available to us, but also the opportunity to develop better educational methods through interdisciplinary collaboration. 

In our view that is the future of educational innovation, in ensuring we have the best teaching methods to impart the professional competencies required.

Professor Lwoga holds a PhD in information studies from the University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. She teaches and supervises both undergraduate and postgraduate students. She has facilitated a number of workshops and short courses.  She has published widely and has presented over 30 research papers in both international and local conferences.  Professor Lwoga currently coordinates the African Universities' Research Approaches (AURA) programme at MuhimbiliUniversity of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania, together with an additional four projects working with international partners in Sweden, South Africa and USA.

Dr. Doreen Mloka is a Medical Microbiologist/Molecular biologist. She is a Medical Education Fellow and the Director of Continuing Education and Professional Development at Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), Tanzania.