Interdisciplinarity: Science, Education, and Business

International conference "Interdisciplinarity: Science, Education, and Business" dedicated to liberal arts education (58–60 Galernaya Street).

Interdisciplinarity is, on the one hand, an obvious trend (it is impossible not to meet this word in almost every document oriented on future development), and, on the other hand, an equally obvious challenge for science and education. Without questioning the current scientific and educational achievements in the field of separate disciplines, it should be noted that in order to find an answer to the complex questions that society faces in the new millennium there is a demand for specialists who have been trained in different and sometimes rather distant from each other spheres at the same time. This means that it is time to review the existing principles and approaches to the educational process and preparation of students in higher education.

What should be understood as interdisciplinarity, and what is it obviously not? This issue will be raised during the conference in order to try and find an adequate response, or at least to agree on the use of this term. It is even more important as the developed understanding will help to prevent possible speculations with this popular word.

The interdisciplinary approach in education is directly related to the formation of important competencies such as ability and readiness to work in a team, the ability to work with texts in a larger sense, the skill of critical thinking, tolerance, etc. These are referred to as soft skills in international educational standards, and are not directly related to professional training in the sense of organizing the educational process, but are, in fact, the first requirement of any employer in the dynamic and ever-changing modern labor market.

Program

April 5

9:00–10:00am Registration

10:00–10:15am Conference opening: welcoming remarks by Aleksei Kudrin (SPbU)

10:15am–12:00pm Plenary session "Interdisciplinarity and Education"

12:00–12:30pm Coffee break

12:30–2:00pm Plenary session "Interdisciplinarity and Education" (continued)

• Stanislav Smirnov (SPbU; University of Geneva, Switzerland) "Interdisciplinarity or Specialization?"
• Mary Krembs (Bard College, USA) "The Two-Way Street Between Liberal Arts and STEM"
• Natalia Shumkova (Sberbank Corporate University, Moscow) "The Cooperate University as an Instrument to Realize Sberbank's Strategy"

2:00–3:00pm Lunch

3:00–4:30pm Plenary session "Universities and Business"

• Aleksander Kuleshov (Skoltech, Moscow) "Risk-Takers: Why They Are Essential for Russia and How to Foster Them"
• Aleksei Borovkov (Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University) "Multidisciplinary Knowledge-Intensive Problems of the High-Tech Industry"
• Nonna Materkova (Calvert 22 Foundation, UK) "The New Industrial Revolution: Why Robots Have no Chance"

4:30–4:50pm Coffee break

4:50–7:00pm Plenary session "Universities and Business" (continued)

• Isak Frumin (Higher School of Economics, Moscow) "Dialogue of the Academy, Labor Market and Society on Interdisciplinary Competencies"
• Igor Remorenko (Moscow City University) "Interdisciplinarity in the City University of Geneve, Switzerland: Pedagogy as a Tool"
• Svetlana Kostromina (SPbU) "Lifelong Learning: How to Stay Up-to-Date in a Transforming World"
• Nikolai Skvortsov (SPbU) "The Role of the University in the Development of the Region: Social-Humanitarian Aspects"

7:00–9:00pm Buffet

April 6

10:00am–12:30pm Plenary session "Interdisciplinary Education: Values and Objectives"

• Presentation by Leon Botstein (Bard College, USA)
• Tim Stearns (Stanford University, USA) "Creativity in Science: Why It Is Important, and How to Teach It"
• Anya Luscombe (University College Roosevelt, Netherlands) "The Value of Interdisciplinary Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Netherlands"
• Anatoly Mikhailov (European Humanities University, Lithuania) "The Nature of Humanitarian Knowledge"
• Presentation by Markus Ahola (Aalto University, Finland)
• Andrew Wachtel (American University of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan) "Is It Possible to Build and Interdisciplinary Bachelors Program Within a Post-Soviet University: The AUCA Experience"
• Vladimir Khalin (SPbU) "Quantitative Methods for the Evaluation of the Quality of Administrative Methods in Leading Universities"

12:30–1:00pm Coffee break

1:00–2:30pm Roundtable discussions

• Arts in the Modern Education Context
• Social-Cultural Engineering: Perspectives for the Development of Educational Programs

2:30–3:30pm Lunch

3:30–5:50pm Breakout session "Liberal Arts Education and Preparing Professionals for the 21st Century: Interdisciplinarity and the Labor Market"

• Evgeny Mironov, Natala Krasovskaya (Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Moscow) "Minor Programs as Technology for the Realization of Interdisciplinarity (The Example of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration's Liberal Arts College)"
• Andrey Korenevsky (Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don) "Interdisciplinarity, Soft Skills and Paraintellectualism"
• Natalia Beresneva (Perm State National Research University) "Technologies of 'Language and Thinking' in the Formation of a Specialist's Values: The Methodological Aspect"
• Aleksei Makhnach (European Humanities University, Lithuania) "Rethinking  Elective Choices and Interdisciplinarity: The Circumstance of University-Wide Training at EHU"
• Valery Timofeev (SPbU) "Observing the Principle of Interdisciplinarity in the Course 'Introduction to the Humanities'"
• Valeria Kashpur, Yulia Osachenko (Tomsk State University) "The Model of the Educational Core of the Bachelor's Degree: Experience of Development, Principles and Mechanisms for Realization"
• Marina Kalashnikova, Alisa Khalina (SPbU) "Presentation of the Results of the Research Project 'The Attitude of Parents of Students of the Program 'Liberal Arts and  Sciences' at St. Petersburg State University to the Liberal Arts Educational Model'"

5:50–6:10pm Coffee break

6:10–7:40pm Roundtable discussion "Graduates of Liberal Arts and Sciences Programs and Employer Expectations"

April 7

10:00am–12:00pm Student Debate. Moderator: Vladimir Orlov (SPbU)

12:00–2:00pm Breakout session "The Modern School in the 21st Century"

• Anna Sherstobitova (Open School) "Open School: A Personal Response to the 'School' Demands of Contemporary Parents"
• Anna Konoplya (Teacher for Russia Program) "Pedagogy as Leadership. Why do Schools Need Professionals?"
• Markku Kankkunen (Savonlinna International Education Center, Finland) "Learning for Understanding"
• Maksim Yakubovsky (London Gates School) "'Why Aren't All Schools Like This,' or Education in Enjoyment"
• Fedor Timofeev (Gymnasium No. 32) "From the Experience of Developing Skills for the 21st Century at School No. 32 in St. Petersburg: The Program of Career Research"

12:00–3:00pm Master classes for students: Alla Kalashnikova (Sberbank), Maria Pivovarova (Rostelekom)

2:00–3:00pm Lunch

3:00–5:30pm Breakout session "Soft Skills in University Educational Programs: How and Why"

• Elena Berezina (Perm State National Research University) "The Course 'Language and Thinking' as an Instrument for Developing Soft Skills"
• Olga Polyanina (Perm State National Research University) "The Psychological Effect of Implementing the Course 'Language and Thinking' as Practiced in Higher Education"
• Maksimas Milta (European Humanities University, Lithuania) "UX-Approach in Creating an Academic Course and the Reuslts of Teaching. The Experience of EHU and the Second-Year Seminar: Introduction to Social Sciences"
• Alena Timofeeva (SPbU) "The Formation and Evaluation of 21st Century Skills in the Process of Teaching Writing"
• Viktor Apryshchenko (Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don) "The Technology 'Writing to Learn' in Working with Historical Sources: The Experience of SFU"

5:30–6:30pm Open discussion "Interdisciplinarity in Science, Education and the Demands of the Labor Market"

6:30–6:45pm Closing of the conference