Inter– multi- and trans-disciplinary approaches in astronomy education research

Abstract

Looking at human and natural reality, based on experience and awareness of its complexity, the western style of knowledge was divided into disciplines. These developed their own language and methods in relation to their objects of study. The separation, useful in some stages of study and in their specific development, was often simplistic and damaging both in scientific elaboration, to meet the challenges that nature and the future offers us, and in didactic transposition of knowledge. Studies in general education and cognitive psychology, and more recently neurosciences, show that aspects of different disciplines are formed and stimulated in parallel, and also motion and cognition are linked in the brain. The research confirms that cognitive experience is linked to the body and to emotions, more than school organizations often wanted to recognize. Therefore, inter-, multi- and trans-disciplinary approaches better relate to the objects of study, to teaching methodologies, and to teaching research methods. To analyze these issues, I present reflections from my Astronomy teaching experiences with students of different ages in Italy and elsewhere, and I present open questions about teaching and learning, in and out of school, and about teacher training.