Summary
This paper is concerned with the research and development of a competence framework to enhance educators abilities to teach inter- and transdisciplinary competencies. Teaching inter- and transdisciplinary competencies is a highly demanding task. It requires educators to both have the skills to teach the subject but also to have had experience in inter- and transdisciplinary research. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how university educators can be supported in their teaching of the competencies. The methodology used here is a case study based on research and on experiences in interdisciplinary teaching. It is based off two decades of research on programmes derived from the field of Education for Sustainable Development. Di Guilio & Defila follow the article introduction with section 2. Inter- and transdisciplinary – competencies students should acquire. This section is then split into 4 subheadings.
Special quality to be achieved in inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations
Consensus
Arrive at a shared problem framing, joint research objectives, shared research questions, and joint understanding of theoretical and methodological approach.
Integration
Must lead to common outputs (results and products), findings and approaches have to be reprocessed, related and integrated. The so called “synthesis”.
Diffusion
Research results must be disseminated and their reception by the audience promoted – neither disciplinary nor scholarly.
Special challenges due to the “clash of cultures” in inter- transdisciplinary teams
Misunderstandings and claims of definition
Tacit knowledge will exist between disciplines. These occurrences must be identified, explicated and “translated”.
Divergences defining the object of investigation and research questions
Conflicts may arise in collaboration depending on disciplinary understanding of aspects of phenomena within their field.
Divergences in choice of methods and criteria of scientific validity
The notion of method selection with objectives in mind will differ between disciplines so it is important that this recognised beforehand.
Prejudices and imperialisms
Scholars will often have superficial perceptions of the other fields involved in inter- and transdisciplinary projects as a result of exposure to media, public lectures, superficial reading, etc. Prejudices may arise causing conflicts hindering success.
Special challenges due to a missing transmission of knowledge on inter- and transdisciplinarity.
Inadequate theoretical foundations
Often is the cause that scholars participating in on inter- and transdisciplinary research are unfamiliar with on inter- and transdisciplinarity.
Lack of methodological know-how
Lack of knowledge on inter- and transdisciplinary methods is common making integration challenging.
Problems of coordination and planning
Discipline specific procedures and working patterns are often inadequately clarified, leading to incoherent planning
Competencies for inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations
(1) Competencies aiming at a fruitful exchange and integration between worldviews in inter- and transdisciplinary processes.
Familiarity with one’s own disciplinary worldview, awareness of elements making up ones academic profile, relating one’s own way of thinking and acting with experts from inside and outside the academia, being able to spell out the achievements and boundaries of ones discipline.
(2) Competencies aiming at a professional approach to the designing of inter- and transdisciplinary processes.
Familiarity with special quality requirements of on inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations, anticipating common problems arising during the works, designing expedient and state-of-the-art processes of consensus-building and integration and to implement appropriate methods for shared problem framing, common goals and questions, integrated results and products -,translate and reprocess results for the benefit on non-professionals, effectively support an efficient communication and collaboration in a team.
Di Guilio & Defila then describe an example of degree programmes designed to impact students with competencies for inter- transdisciplinary collaborations in section 3.
They then go on to describe suitable measures to support educators I teaching inter- transdisciplinary competencies. These measures are:
Synthesis
Theories, findings and methods presented should be justified by their contribution to an overarching problem/question, be it on pertaining just one course or for a whole series of courses.
Common goal
Educators should ne convinced that all learning objectives make sense and are relevant and valid.
The contribution of a lesson, of a course and of a series of courses to the overarching learning objectives should be clear at all times – to both educators and students.
Shared problem, framing and language
Topics in a single course should be defined in such a way to allow for specification and reconstruction from different disciplinary perspectives
A common conceptual framework should be established – this should be referred to in the lessons.
Valuing disciplinary perspectives
Single courses, the series of course and the whole degree programmes should represent an appropriate spectrum of disciplinary perspectives
Finally the authors detail three measures directly aimed at supporting the educators in their teaching.
The first measure on the organisational level was to make sure the academic staff of the institute responsible for the degree programmes encompassed a research group primarily dealing with issues of inter- and transdisciplinarity, thus including the scholarly expertise about inter- and transdisciplinary collaborations right into the organisation.
A second measure was to extensively install tandems, team-teaching, resource
persons-systems and similar. In all courses of the degree programmes, at least two scholars with different academic backgrounds were involved (some of them worked for the institute
responsible for the programmes, others did not).
A third measure was the establishment of a peer-to-peer-coaching by the involved
educators themselves. Meetings of coaching groups provided for a regular exchange where
educators could discuss questions and problems they came along in their teaching.
Relevance for Complex Systems Knowledge
This paper is relevant to the sustainable development topic as it makes reference to inter- and transdisciplinary approaches associated with the learning objectives of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).
The paper offers a clear description of the skills required by students to acquire in order for them to develop an effective understanding of inter- and transdisciplinary approaches. This provides a clear resource for reimagining inter- and transdisciplinary education at HEIs. It also offers a useful description and guidance for educators of inter- and transdisciplinary education.
Section 3 demonstrates an example where by inter- transdisciplinary competencies impact the students at the University of Bern. This may be a useful resource.
The paper offers a definition for inter- and transdisciplinary approaches “we conceive interdisciplinary as the collaboration of scholars of at least two different academic disciplines aiming at common results”. The authors also add that “we conceive transdisciplinary. . . as a special format of interdisciplinary, where, in addition to scholars from different academic disciplines, (future) users contribute substantially to the research (i.e. they are not just a source of information, data and/or feedback”.
