The BAIDS program provides a holistic education for future professionals, practitioners, scholars, and researchers in the field, featuring a unique, diverse curriculum and varied teaching and learning approaches.
The program utilizes an adaptive curriculum with three different tracks and varied teaching-learning strategies, modes of delivery and assessments. Prior enrollment, the students will choose from the program’s three tracks, although each is designed to intersect with the others. The tracks are as follows:
- The Global Development and Sustainability Track is designed to develop the students’ expertise in the field of global sustainability and its application to development fields.
- The Philippine Art, Culture, and Society Track equips students with the knowledge on Philippine culture and society. The track focuses on how Filipino culture and society shapes and is shaped by art, history, technology, media, and politics.
- Lastly, the Urban Spaces and Transitions Track provides students with knowledge on the key features of city culture and how urban areas respond to problems and events.
Program Curriculum
The first two years of BAIDS focuses mostly on General Education (GE) courses designed to hone learners’ core competencies such as critical and analytic thinking, oral and written communication skills and independent learning. Using a liberal approach to education, GE courses such as Scholarly Inquiry and Purposive Communication prepare learners for advanced professional courses and research work required later in the curriculum.
Meanwhile, basic professional courses such as Introduction to Interdisciplinary Studies and Issues and Seminars for Special Topics are also offered during these crucial two years which provide learners with foundational knowledge in the field.
Learners acquire the experience intended to provide the opportunity to apply the theories and principles to the workplace by rendering 200 hours (6 units) under the program’s Practicum with the government and non-government institutions.
Well-being and work-life balance is also a key feature of the BAIDS curriculum. Throughout their stay in the university, learners are encouraged to plan their own Wellness and Recreation Program (WRP), a university-wide course which intends to develop their physiological and psycho-social fitness as well as encourage social responsibility and community involvement.
Teaching and Learning Approaches
The BAIDS program was designed to empower students into becoming independent, lifelong learners as future professionals. As such, this program utilizes the following varied teaching-learning approaches focused on learners’ needs and capabilities:
- Student-centered learning
The BAIDS program adheres to FEU’s educational philosophy and learning paradigm, encouraging active and dynamic learning to develop the students’ higher-order thinking skills. This involves designing engaging activities toward better collaboration between teacher and student inside the classroom to facilitate effective higher learning.
The program utilizes a variety of lectures, discussions, and demonstrations in developing theoretical and foundational knowledge in interdisciplinary studies and other allied fields of humanities and social sciences.
- Interdisciplinary approach
The BAIDS program utilizes the interdisciplinary teaching method, where students learn to explore topics and issues from varied lenses and viewpoints. This approach aims to encourage students to develop a holistic view of how various academic disciplines relate with each other.
The BAIDS program adapts to the evolving education and learning technologies of the 21st century classroom and society. Recognizing the need of Gen Z learners for independent learning, some courses under the BAIDS curriculum are specifically delivered via blended learning methods, such as online virtual classrooms and self-study modules. FEU facilitates these methods via Canvas, a world-class learning management system.
- Interdisciplinary research
The program also utilizes interdisciplinary research wherein students integrate information, data, techniques, tools, perspectives, concepts, and / or theories from two or more disciplines or bodies of specialized knowledge. This is encouraged to advance the students’ fundamental understanding of the topic, or to solve problems which are beyond the scope of a single discipline or area of research practice.
Assessment and Research Work
Throughout the program, varied assessments and assessment-related tasks are deployed depending on the negotiation between the teachers and the learners. Teachers are encouraged to develop relevant formative assessments designed to help learners prepare for their summative assessments.
Assessments are a combination of traditional pen-and-paper tests, practical examinations, research work and performance-based tasks. These include quizzes and summative tests, reports and presentations, case analyses, research-based writing, return demonstration and peer assessments.
Apart from course-based assessments, research is also integrated into the curriculum, such as the course Foundation of Interdisciplinary Research and Process and Methods of Interdisciplinary Research.
Internship
Internship provides the students with an invaluable opportunity to apply the skills and knowledge they have acquired in the classroom to real world problems. It also enables them to broaden their understanding of the interdisciplinary field.
The BAIDS Internship Program is offered during the summer term following their third year in the program. A total of 200 work-related hours are needed to complete the six (6) unit credits of the internship course.