THE LEARNING PROCESS FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH

Abstract

Introduction. It is presently well understood that growth in new scientific knowledge often arises at the interface between different disciplines. Thus, the current growth in interdisciplinary research may be seen as a consequence of the logic of scientific development – from the highly specialized study of objects and phenomena to integration in terms of information gained through diverse scientific spheres that enable us to receive new knowledge. This paper presents a description of ongoing research (the beginning of which was covered in the Education and Science Journal1) into the developmental tendencies of key didactic concepts due to an expansion of the experimental field through the inclusion of achievements from related areas of knowledge (psycho-didactics, cognitive didactics, socio-didactics, lingo-didactics, etc).The aim of this research stage was to reveal how the results of interdisciplinary research dynamically influence ideas about the process of educational development.Methodology and research methods. In the course of the research, the authors analysed scientific literature in the field of interdisciplinary research, compared the results of interdisciplinary research and their generalisation, and contrasted the research outcomes with existing ideas about the learning process. Results and scientific novelty. Based on the allocated and formulated features of interdisciplinary research applicable to a field of education, the “enriching model” (integrated psychology, didactics and methodology of teaching mathematics in the 5th-9th grades) developed by E. G. Gelfman and M. A. Kholodnaya) was used as an example. It was established that interdisciplinary research involves not just elements, data and new developments from different scientific spheres, but also uses a conceptual framework, a methodological base and the tools of various scientific branches integrated into the interdisciplinary space. Moreover, interdisciplinary research rediscovers available knowledge and finds new zones for theoretical and practical application. The valuable interaction between didactics and cognitive science was shown. Didactics is informed by qualitatively new scientific bases when designing learning process models through the cognitively-structured knowledge and forms of representation that provide knowledge transfer, knowledge of neural activity that happens in the brain at the moment of cognitive actions, bio-physiological restrictions of cognitive processes, etc. However, despite an initial stage of formation of many scientific directions related to didactics, the authors concluded that these disciplines already have a significant effect on the perceptive process of learning, in terms of its functions and structural components. The learning process is seen as more comprehensive and complete in the context of developmental cognitive structures of knowledge, formation of a linguistic picture of the world and social support for students.Practical significance. In pedagogy, analysing interdisciplinary research identifies promising trends in the development of classical, non-classical and post-non-classical scientific paradigms as well as didactics (science focused on the best teaching methods). Moreover, interdisciplinary research provides the effective design of various learning models in a scientifically rigorous context.