STEM conference 2019: How disciplinary corralling restricts the development of the self and the other

The major paradigm in UK higher education is to coral students studying a particular topic into groups which are both single discipline and single learning stage. This ghettoisation of education can have profound consequences on student development. In Mead's work on social behaviourism he describes the development of the self as a social process; by restricting students to a near group of peers their daily interactions become skewed which impinges on their development of the self. This may manifest itself in a lowered level of self-efficacy amongst these students - a strong determinant of success post-graduation.