Session 2.4
The Articulator A pedagogical device to deal transdisciplinary complex problems at the University
Gilberto Zinzún Hernández
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico
Purpose
At the beginning of the National School of Proffesional Studies Iztacala, UNAM, unsuccessful attempts were made to integrate the traditionally fragmented medical curriculum. 30 years after emerged the Articulator, an analog device that links diverse disciplinary contents in relation to a complex problem. The emergency happened at the intersection of pedagogical and collaborative work with students and professors from different universities of the Mexican Association of Faculties and Schools of Medicine, and the theoretical work with multiple authors by Dr Gilberto Hernandez Zinzún. The purpose of this communication is to share it with academic communities interested in transdisciplinary integration.
Conceptual approach and methods used
An Articulator is an analog statement. Hologrammatically integrates content from various disciplines in relation to the intertwining of a complex problem in which human life occurs.
The transdisciplinary articulation occurs when the general analogical statement, obtained by abductive inference, (Peirce), is capable of expressing itself in terms of the various regions and/or levels of organization: sub-atomic, cellular, sociocultural, evolutionary, and so on; and vice versa: when all disciplinary specificities can be expressed in the general analogy.
Process
A participatory, creative and constructive process of problematization begins (Bachelard). The problem is not outside the investigation field of the researchers, but rather they, with their own practices, are giving life to the device (Foucault).
Each member of the group reviews a disciplinary view of the problem, and presents it to those who reviewed other views. Then, argumentatively, the participants elucidate whether they perceive a general similarity between the diversity of the views displayed. Finally, a general look arises where all the particular looks fit. A look of gazes that can involve the visibility and even questioning of the very epistemic framework or paradigm (Piaget, Morin) in force.
The functionally invariant process emerges through intra-inter-trans stages (Piaget and García) in the acquisition of new knowledge. The intra inter trans series do not consist of simple, linear overshoots, but are continuous overshoots of the overshoot instruments themselves, in a pedagogical process of singular potential for future professionals and researchers.
At the moment of that creative discovery, an exhilarating life experience arises. Of unveiling, of encounter, emergence, connection between subject and object, of a transit through that zone of non-resistance, described by Nicolescu in his development of the hidden third.
Results and conclusions
This process is transdisciplinary by articulating:
• planes of practices: students and teachers, among themselves (pedagogical); articulate the object and with the object of study (epistemic), with the socio-cultural reality of the problematization (socio-historical-cultural), with humanity, with life and the cosmos, where their professional praxis (pragmatic) takes on meaning (existential, axiological, transcendental).
• time plans: (present), evolution (past), enables a prospective vision of a desirable and/or possible action strategy (future), and supports decision-making, planning and government levels. In short, medium and long duration processes.
• spatial planes: local, regional, global Creativity, discovery, require the propitiation of a space that welcomes exploration, productive error, collaborative learning, incisive and self-critical questioning even of the instruments and paradigms themselves, of which the Articulator is testimony itself.
Embracing TD and experiential learning to develop resilience in secondary schools
Monique Potts
University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Transdisciplinary learning and practice has great potential to transform secondary school systems which are struggling to suppor the mental health, resilience and wellbeing of students growing up in a context of uncertain futures and climate disruption. This presentation explores the transformative potential of transdisciplinary and experiential learning through a participatory research pilot being co-designed with secondary school teachers and students in Sydney, Australia.
The events of the past eighteen months have seen a series of ‘peak resilience’ challenges in Australia including COVID-19 and climate induced events such as the ‘Black Summer’ bushfires, droughts and floods. These events have disproportionately impacted young people’s mental health, sense of wellbeing and certainty about the future. (Headspace, 2020; YoungMinds, 2020).
A current literature review and series of exploratory interviews with educators, young people and youth mental health practitioners has found significant challenges for young people in terms of their mental health and resilience and identified number of key themes in relation to this including identity/image, boundaries, changing pathways and structures, uncertainty and dealing with mental health. It is critical to explore new approaches to transdisciplinary and experiential learning to support young people’s resilience and wellbeing. In this case resilience is defined as the ability of a young person to define themself as healthy despite adverse circumstances (Ungar, 2004).
This research explores a set of core meta-competencies that can support young people to develop greater resilience and wellbeing; interbeing, adaptability, agency/autonomy, creativity, empathy and self-awareness and reflexivity. A series of experiential learning modules for secondary school students were designed to focus activities on developing these meta-competencies including place-based learning, mental health and personal agency, storytelling and perspective, systems thinking and futures thinking. These learning modules have been developed with input from teachers and students at the school.
A pilot project commenced in February 2021 in a Sydney secondary school with a group of 14 students aged 15-16 using a co-design methodology and participatory action research. Both students and teachers have contributed to the design and evaluation of a series of five full day workshops. All of these workshops are highly transdisciplinary incorporating curriculum learning outcomes from Science, English, History, Art, Personal Development, Health and Physical Education. The students work in teams to create change to create a change in the situation at school that might improve the resiliencea and wellbeing of younger students. Through systems and futures thinking methods and drawing on the students’ own wisdom and lived experiences the pilot aims to develop personal and collective agency for the participants.
Initial findings from this pilot are being compiled from surveys data, interviews, artefacts and observations during the workshops and will be presented at the conference. The aim of the research is to develop a framework for experiential learning for secondary school students in particular those students who may have disengaged from learning.
References
Headspace, 2020, 'Young people express deepening concern for the future of work and study, according to research', <https://headspace.org.au/blog/young-people-express-deepening-concern-for-the-future-of-work-and-study-according-to-research/>.
YoungMinds 2020, Coronavirus: Impact on young people with mental health needs
Ungar, M. 2004, 'A constructionist discourse on resilience: Multiple contexts, multiple realities among at-risk children and youth', Youth & society, vol. 35, no. 3, pp. 341-65.
Luthar, S.S., Cicchetti, D. & Becker, B. 2000, 'The construct of resilience: A critical evaluation and guidelines for future work', Child development, vol. 71, no. 3, pp. 543-6
Will technology safe our future? Teaching technology assessment and sustainability
Clemens Mader 1, Jörn Felix Lübben 2
1 Empa, Technology and Society Lab, Switzerland; 2 Albstadt-Sigmaringen University, Department of Sustainable Engineering – Nachhaltige Produkte und Prozesse (STE-NPP), Germany
Today we face grand challenges that have been mostly communicated to the public in course of the UN SDGs as well as challenges connected to climate change and energy resources. Reading the newspapers, the solution is often based on technological development like electric mobility, renewable and more efficient energy sources, process automatization, AI or IoT. The list of new technologies is long, and thus we might assume we are fine out. Technology will save the future. In technology assessment we try to take a neutral stand and assess opportunities and risks of new technologies and their applications for the future of human and nature. The precautionary principle is close to principles of sustainable development as a normative concept, based upon values and needs of todays and future generations.
At Albstadt-Sigmaringen University (Germany) from autumn 2021 onwards a new bachelor study program on sustainable engineering should prepare students for the development of environmentally friendly and sustainable products that can only emerge if the whole Development and production process takes the aspect of sustainability into account from the outset.
The transdisciplinary seminar on technology assessment and sustainability will be an integrative part of the new study program and was introduced two years ago. The seminar tries to take a transformative stand to change the wide spread belief of a basically future saving technology. Students from different disciplines (textile and clothing technology, mechanical engineering, and business administration and engineering) choose their technology of interest (related to their study program) and get in contact with stakeholders representing a variety of opinions. Students apply scientific methodologies like literature analysis, system-, stakeholder- and scenario analysis, narrative interviews and online questionnaires to acquire a broad variety of opinions. They are facing different viewpoints on the interpretation of knowledge by different stakeholders. Finally, students develop scenarios for the future of selected technology as well as recommendations to different stakeholder groups on how the technology needs to be applied, regulated or incentivized to support a global sustainable development.
The experience of the students in many cases transforms their understanding of the role of technology for sustainable development. It offers a new sight on the technology and the view that technology is not per se sustainable, but it depends on how we apply or implement the technology. Who has access to the technology and who doesn’t? What conditions cause re-bound effects? What are not only efficient but also sufficient ways for solving the initial problem that the technology should serve for? How comes there can be so many opinions on the application of a single technology?
As a final assessment, students present their outcomes in a group presentation, they work on a final group report and fill in an individual learning journal. In the learning journal, students reflect their experiences, learnings and individual mind-shifts. A student said: “I was surprised at how much changing the methodology can change the perspective on a topic and how many relevant insights can be found even by asking questions that are not exclusively technical.”