Cross-disciplinary Competences Research Articles

SEL4C: Mobile Application for the Development of Social Entrepreneurship Competency

Universities must ensure their students acquire competencies that empower them to act as genuine catalysts for transformation. This necessitates, beyond imparting disciplinary skills and knowledge, the integration of cross-disciplinary competencies to equip them to navigate the complexities of their surroundings effectively. This study delineates the outcomes from deploying a mobile application aimed at fostering entrepreneurial intent among students at a technological university in Mexico. The objective was to enhance the perception of attainment in social entrepreneurship skills among students from fields not traditionally linked to business or entrepreneurship. From a methodological standpoint, a multivariate descriptive analysis was conducted using R software and RStudio, incorporating mean analyses, with further insights provided by violin and box plots. The findings reveal that the mobile application significantly contributes to the cultivation of social entrepreneurship skills, establishing itself as a feasible and pertinent technological instrument for nurturing agents of change. Notably, while female students exhibited superior average scores, male students demonstrated more considerable development in these competencies. This research is situated within the domain of Technology Applied to Education and Educational Initiatives via Mobile Applications.

Teaching the physiology of the human body in non-formal spaces: pilot experience of a Service-Learning methodology and the interaction between students of different educational levels.

Research institutes and universities have strengthened the development of biomedicine outreach activities, constituing a non-formal education system of science literacy, although with little commitment from undergraduate students. However, as a Service-Learning methodology, these outreach activities could work as a tool for the acquisition of skills by students of Health Science Degrees. Described here is the development of the workshop entitled "Exploring the human body" at the Biodonostia Health Research Institute and the pilot experience of its implementation as a Service-Learning activity at the University of Málaga. Firstly, 359 secondary education students were mentored by Ph.D. students through a 5-station workshop with experiments and activities related to the physiology of the human body. Then, 301 undergraduate students of Medicine and Nursing Degrees advised 965 secondary education students. Both groups of students assessed the workshop via questionnaires and a debriefing. The data showed an overall score of 4.6 out of 5 for the workshop. Undergraduate students reported a positive impact on their academic background (4.8 out of 5), mainly due to the improvement of oral communication skills (34%). Therefore, this methodology could be a valid and applicable tool to develop the cross-disciplinary competences of undergraduate students.

ПЕДАГОГІЧНІ УМОВИ ФОРМУВАННЯ КРОСДИСЦИПЛІНАРНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТІ МАЙБУТНІХ ПЕДАГОГІВ ПРОФЕСІЙНОГО НАВЧАННЯ

It has been established that the ongoing process of European integration in our country requires the creation of a competitive educational system, which mainly depends on the scientific and creative potential and innovative activities of educators. From this point of view, the reform of the national system of professional education at this stage involves a significant expansion of the content areas of the professional activity of pedagogical staff of educational institutions at all levels. In particular, there is a task of forming cross-disciplinary competence in vocational education teachers, since they are responsible for the high-quality training of eminently qualified specialists for the current labour market. The purpose of the article is to highlight the pedagogical conditions for forming cross-disciplinary competence in future teachers of vocational training. The task of the study is to identify and characterize the pedagogical conditions for the development of cross-disciplinary competence in future teachers of vocational training. In the study, the following research methods have been used: analysis and synthesis, comparison, summarization of primary sources, expert evaluation and survey of scientific and pedagogical staff regarding the definition of the list of pedagogical conditions for forming cross-disciplinary competence in future teachers of vocation training The article analyses the pedagogical conditions that contribute to the implementation of current trends in reforming educational systems and comprehensive personality development in terms of higher education institutions. In the study, the pedagogical conditions are considered as a factor or driving force for improving the quality of the learning process. Pedagogical conditions usually combine the performing of pedagogical actions with the use of appropriate forms and methods, and the results of students’ educational activities. At the same time, pedagogical conditions are a set of objective possibilities, content, methods, organizational forms, and material means for the realization of the pedagogical process; they reflect the basic requirements for the organization of pedagogical activity, and ensure the successful achievement of the set goal. It has been noted that pedagogical conditions can be classified into organizational and pedagogical, methodical, social and psychological, material and technical and aesthetic ones. Pedagogical conditions appropriate for forming cross-disciplinary competence among future teachers of vocational training have been singled out, namely: motivation of future teachers of vocational training to master cross-disciplinary competence; cross-disciplinary integration of students’ theoretical and practical training for the development of their cross-disciplinary competence; training of scientific and pedagogical staff to implement a cross-disciplinary approach in the educational process; implementation of the methods for forming cross-disciplinary competence in future teachers of vocational training. In order to identify the pedagogical conditions that will ensure forming cross-disciplinary competence in future teachers of vocational training, their needs in possessing pedagogical and technical knowledge have been primarily taken into account. Special attention is paid to the use of cross-disciplinary connections in higher education institutions which is a guarantee for forming cross-disciplinary competence in future specialists. Based on the results of the study, it has been concluded that modern teachers of vocation training should possess hard skills and soft skills, and be able to quickly find cause-and-effect relationships to solve various situations which are formed and improved within the limits of their cross-disciplinary competence.

Towards competency-based education in the chemical engineering undergraduate program in Uruguay: Three examples of integrating essential skills

In 2021, Universidad de la República in Uruguay approved a new Chemical Engineering undergraduate program that incorporates novel conceptual definitions such as competency-based education. This paper describes the process of defining the new curriculum plan and presents the program's structure, as well as specific and cross-disciplinary competencies. These competencies are then compared to the learning outcomes established in the guide for programs accreditation of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. To provide practical examples of how the competency-based approach was incorporated into the program, three specific cases are presented. The first case focuses on the implementation of the internship and industry project. The second case illustrates the incorporation of computational tools as an essential part of different courses throughout the degree program. Finally, the third case describes a new design for the fluid mechanics laboratory that emphasizes hands-on learning and helps students develop several competencies.

The school-life balance effect on acquiring cross-disciplinary competences in VET: disruption or continuity during COVID-19?

Considering that teleworking and online training are on the rise following the pandemic, studying how school-life balance affects the development of VET competences in online learning during COVID-19 can provide relevant information to enhance educational equity in the future. A longitudinal study was conducted employing an on-line questionnaire to meet the following aims: to explore the development of cross-disciplinary competences in VET during COVID-19; to identify different students’ profiles according to their school-life balance during the pandemic; and, to analyse whether the school-life balance was affecting competency development and propose improvements to training as a result. Results show that cross-disciplinary competences did not undergo important changes between the pre-pandemic scenario and during it, except for a decrease in metacognitive self-regulation. Similarly, most students reported having spent the same time studying before and during the pandemic. However, three main profiles of students are revealed, highlighting certain school-life imbalances. While all agree that remote teaching was critical in coping with the situation, differences were found by age and gender, with some participants experiencing more challenging situations. These results provide a fertile context for VET designers and teachers to generate new learning scenarios that meet all students’ potential needs.

Education Responses in Teaching during Covid-19: The Ongoing Result in Online Learning Implementations

COVID-19 had made many learning opportunities difficult. Governments had to reconsider existing school infrastructure, educational resources suitable for online learning, building teacher capacity, and student readiness for this move. These barriers impacted the educational continuity of many students in the countries affected, and digital equity required careful planning, development, and goal setting to foster effective learning environments. The sample for this study consisted of 272 Indonesian teachers and 3988 Indonesian students. This study used a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches. The results of the study showed that the challenges and the solutions based on the Three Framework (Government, Teacher, and Student) had both advantages and disadvantages to implement the best method to ensure equal access to education and to minimize the digital divide by establishing a collaborative and cooperative structure with the private companies and relevant organizations. Based on the Three Framework perspectives, it was critical to redesign and revise the national online platforms and services, including e-learning content for cross-disciplinary competencies during Century 21st skills.

Shaping LIS Education for Blended Professionals in a Pluralist Information Environment: Global Reflections

Technological innovations have led to an increase in demand for information technology (IT) skills in contemporary library and information agencies. This in turn has created an increased need for pedagogical skills on the part of library and information science (LIS) professionals for them to empower users with knowledge and skills to navigate a complex digital information terrain. Hence LIS professionals with both technology and pedagogical skills have become increasingly critical in a digitized information environment. In the context of this confluence of knowledge and skills requirements for the LIS professional, this article draws early findings from a global phenomenological probe into curriculum design and development directed at the blended or hybrid LIS professional located in a pluralist information environment and requiring cross-disciplinary competencies spanning LIS, IT, teaching and learning, and perhaps even other cognate areas. It explores, in this context, challenges, ideas, and thinking in LIS education from preliminary empirical findings from parts of Africa, Asia, and South America (representing the Global South) and from parts of Europe and North America (representing the Global North), with a view to stimulating debate and discourse on the repositioning of the LIS discipline toward staking an intellectual claim on the broadening of its disciplinary space resulting from a natural evolution of the LIS discipline in response to a technology-driven information environment. Shank and Bell’s concepts of “disruptive innovations” and the blending of traditional librarian skills with information technology and pedagogical skills, together with Corrall’s “content, conduit, and context” approach to educating for a pluralist digital information environment, are used to frame this reflection.

Governance of academic laboratories and the capabilisation of higher education students

Several education theorists advocate a capabilisation model based upon two pillars: professional emancipation and activation for citizenship comprised a balanced delivery of technical and research competences (TRC) and cross-disciplinary competences (CDC). Hence, this research makes a theoretical review of education governance literature and tests the capabilisation at Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Denmark confined to a subset of educational support infrastructures - academic laboratories (ALs) - to grasp their contribution to HES capabilisation, which constitutes a fairly unexplored research gap. The empirical paradigm consists of an iteration along a purposive sample of 15 HEIs. Results uncover a mismatch among national policies, universities/colleges' governance and firm expectations on graduate's competencies. A capability-gap is acknowledged concerning budgetary expenditure to education versus budgetary efficiency in graduate employment rates (GER); and between firm's capability-requirements (CR) and HES capability-delivery (CD) to the industry. The latter suggests the notion of capability-fitness, which constitutes the micro foundation for the balanced model of higher education student's capabilisation (BHESC) design.

Engineering education perspective for sustainable development: A maturity assessment of cross-disciplinary and advanced technical skills in eco-design

Abstract Nowadays, more and more students feel a lack of teaching development for sustainability topics in their curriculum. In French engineering schools or universities most of training courses do not answer to this challenge because they modestly include the question of sustainability in their curricula. Companies also strongly evolve in their industrial strategy in order to integrate environmental, economic and social perspectives and criteria in their product development process. Thus, they are looking for new skills by recruiting young technicians and engineers. The question arises how can be improved the integration of basics of sustainable engineering in trainings rooted in technical knowledge. To start addressing such a question, we propose in this paper a skill crossover matrix. Later, this matrix will evolve toward guidelines which may allow combining specific knowledge of eco-design skills and cross-disciplinary competencies. First, we conduct a systematic review of the literature to identify fundamental skills and knowledge associated to sustainable development approach in engineering and then specifically focusing on ecodesign. Second, we have confronted advanced technical skills from engineer's framework to cross-disciplinary skills in order to identify which connection could be possible. Then, we propose a survey with different academic profiles at different levels of training courses in the French education system. This allow us to clearly define what means eco-design teaching for them to compare expectations with reality on the academic ground. Last, we identified which skills need to be developed. This maturity assessment will allow us to define basis for guidelines which must help later teachers in engineering and technology to create and define their own fundamental and training content for ecodesign. Furthermore, this tool will also allow students to have a better vision over of their progress in skill growing level.

Governance of academic laboratories and the capabilisation of higher education students

Several education theorists advocate a capabilisation model based upon two pillars: professional emancipation and activation for citizenship comprised a balanced delivery of technical and research competences (TRC) and cross-disciplinary competences (CDC). Hence, this research makes a theoretical review of education governance literature and tests the capabilisation at Higher Education Institutions (HEI) in Denmark confined to a subset of educational support infrastructures - academic laboratories (ALs) - to grasp their contribution to HES capabilisation, which constitutes a fairly unexplored research gap. The empirical paradigm consists of an iteration along a purposive sample of 15 HEIs. Results uncover a mismatch among national policies, universities/colleges' governance and firm expectations on graduate's competencies. A capability-gap is acknowledged concerning budgetary expenditure to education versus budgetary efficiency in graduate employment rates (GER); and between firm's capability-requirements (CR) and HES capability-delivery (CD) to the industry. The latter suggests the notion of capability-fitness, which constitutes the micro foundation for the balanced model of higher education student's capabilisation (BHESC) design.

Professional orality as a special field of knowledge in teacher education – a position paper

An important part of teachers’ work constitutes being seen, heard and understood in communicative practice in encounters with pupils, colleagues and parents. This performative relational communication practice is a cross-disciplinary competence, which, independent of subject, is of great importance for the performance of pedagogical practice. The teaching profession is a phonic profession, and personal expression through language, voice, body, gaze and face is of decisive importance in a teacher’s daily work. In this position paper the elements of this competence are described. The authors identify and make visible how it can be trained, developed and learnt. They make an argument for professional orality (PO) as a transdisciplinary field of knowledge and compound competence in need of exploration and research. Based on a review of relevant research the authors outline three perspectives on teaching and research in the field of knowledge connected to PO: ethics, teaching and learning of PO with a performative and aesthetic approach, and adults’ transformative learning. The characteristics of training of PO are illustrated through development of a basic arts educational model. In the conclusion the challenges regarding developing a vocabulary for the teaching and learning of PO are presented, and the distinct areas in need of exploration and research are acknowledged. Norwegian Abstract Norwegian title: Profesjonell muntlighet som spesifikt kunnskapsfelt i lærerutdanning - en posisjoneringsartikkel En viktig del av læreres arbeid består av å bli sett, hørt og forstått i en kommunikativ praksis i møte med elever, kolleger og foreldre. Denne utøvende relasjonelle kommunikasjonspraksisen er en fagovergripende kompetanse som, uavhengig av fag, er av stor betydning for utøvelsen av pedagogisk praksis. Læreryrket er et fonisk yrke, og det personlige uttrykket gjennom språk, stemme, kropp, blikk og ansikt er avgjørende for lærerens daglige virke. Gjennom å identifisere og beskrive hvilke delferdigheter denne uttrykkskompetansen består av, og synliggjøre hvordan de kan utvikles, læres og trenes, argumenterer forfatterne for profesjonell muntlighet (PMU) som et transdisiplinært felt og en samlet kompetanse som trenger å utforskes. Relevant forskning knyttet til delområder av muntlig uttrykk presenteres. Basert på forskningsoversikten skisserer forfatterne tre perspektiv på undervisning og forskning innenfor det kunnskapsfelt PMU hører til: et etisk perspektiv, en performativ og estetisk tilnærming til didaktikk i PMU, og et læringsperspektiv knyttet til voksnes transformative læring. En grunnleggende kunstdidaktisk modell presenteres for trening av muntlige uttrykksferdigheter. I konklusjonen presenteres utfordringer knyttet til å utvikle vokabular for undervisning og læring av PMU, og områder som behøver undersøkes og forskes på anerkjennes.

Professional orality as a special field of knowledge in teacher education – a position paper

An important part of teachers’ work constitutes being seen, heard and understood in communicative practice in encounters with pupils, colleagues and parents. This performative relational communication practice is a cross-disciplinary competence, which, independent of subject, is of great importance for the performance of pedagogical practice. The teaching profession is a phonic profession, and personal expression through language, voice, body, gaze and face is of decisive importance in a teacher’s daily work. In this position paper the elements of this competence are described. The authors identify and make visible how it can be trained, developed and learnt. They make an argument for professional orality (PO) as a transdisciplinary field of knowledge and compound competence in need of exploration and research. Based on a review of relevant research the authors outline three perspectives on teaching and research in the field of knowledge connected to PO: ethics, teaching and learning of PO with a performative and aesthetic approach, and adults’ transformative learning. The characteristics of training of PO are illustrated through development of a basic arts educational model. In the conclusion the challenges regarding developing a vocabulary for the teaching and learning of PO are presented, and the distinct areas in need of exploration and research are acknowledged.

Finding a Common Lens

The Early Childhood Personnel Center (ECPC) was funded by the Office of Special Education Programs at the U.S. Department of Education to provide technical assistance to State Systems of Early Childhood Intervention and Institutions of Higher Education on issues related to personnel development. One initiative of the ECPC has been to collaborate with professional organizations to identify core cross-disciplinary competencies for all personnel serving infants and young children aged birth through 5 years with disabilities and their families. Seven national organizations representing disciplines providing services in early childhood intervention have been participating in this initiative: the American Occupational Therapy Association; the American Physical Therapy Association; the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association; the Council for Exceptional Children and the Division for Early Childhood; the National Association for the Education of Young Children; and Zero to Three. Alignments of personnel standards, practice guidelines, and competencies yielded 4 areas of competence that are common across service providers serving infants and young children with disabilities and their families. These are: Collaboration and Coordination; Family-Centered Practice; Evidence-Based Practice; and Professionalism.

Evaluación por los empleadores del desarrollo de competencias profesionales y transversales en los estudiantes de la carrera de Auditoria cohorte 2014, Universidad de la Serena

El nuevo desafío de la Educación Superior en Chile está en desarrollar competencias, donde las universidades están llamadas a lograr este fin. Este es el caso de la Universidad de La Serena (ULS) y su Carrera de Auditoría, donde el presente estudio busca evaluar por parte de los empleadores, el desarrollo de competencias profesionales y transversales en 27 estudiantes cohorte 2014 que realizaron su Práctica Profesional el 2017.Este estudio responde a un enfoque cuantitativo, un diseño no experimental y una investigación descriptiva transversal, donde producto de una encuesta aplicada, se observa una evaluación positiva en el desarrollo de 11 de las 13 competencias consideradas. Donde las competencias transversales, promediaron 3,35 puntos y las profesionales 3,71 puntos de un total de 4,0 puntos, permitiendo inferir, que aunque la mayoría de las competencias fueron bien evaluadas, se debe prestar atención a la adaptación al cambio y a la autonomía e iniciativa personal.

Enhancing reading skills through adaptive e-learning

PurposeE-learning is part of instructional design and has opened a whole world of new possibilities in terms of learning and teaching. The purpose of this paper is to develop an adaptive e-learning platform that enhances skills from primary school to university learners. Two purposes converge here: a pedagogical one – offering new possibilities, especially in terms of teaching scenarios (blended learning); and a research one – confirming the effectiveness of an adaptive e-learning tool in the case of individualized cross-disciplinary competences, such as comprehension of implicit information in written texts (French).Design/methodology/approachThe case study presented here concerns primary-school learners using the Implicit module of TACIT adaptive e-learning tool over the 2016-2017 academic year.FindingsThis paper gives a first positive answer to the effectiveness of such a tool in this specific context. This pedagogical effectiveness is more pronounced for low-level pupils, especially for girls and for older pupils (CM1/CM2, respectively, fourth/fifth grade).Originality/valueIn this case study, the module comes from an existing platform, created by the TACIT research group. The adaptive environment was created by using the Item Response Theory models and, more precisely, the Rasch model.

Digitised lifelong learning – the need for interdisciplinary sustainability modules in doctoral programmes

Ensuring long-term qualified employees and specialists is a key objective of a sustainable development and lifelong learning. At the same time, international competitiveness and technological capability is mainly connected to the countries’ education and science systems as well as of academia.
 Major industrialised countries such as Germany, for example, have recently increased their efforts to implement sustainably and institutionally lifelong learning courses at higher education institutions (HEI). In particular, creating offers for new target groups such as persons with family or care responsibilities, job-returnees, dropouts or experts are addressed. A main focus is the development of interdisciplinary courses in engineering and natural sciences in order to ensure the availability of skilled workforce during the transformation towards green economy.
 Therefore, strategies and (business) models for a sustainable, long-term implementation of part-time study and further education offers for new target groups at universities are still largely neglected. In addition, the adequate design of new and further development of existing qualification structures, curricula, modules, advanced study and specialised courses as well as the integration of digital (interactive) contents are accompanied by new challenges that have been largely ignored by research so far. So, both, fostered sustainable implementation of programs on an institutional basis and the subject-specific topic of sustainability is becoming increasingly important within the scope of interdisciplinary offers and courses. Moreover, new working and living environments need innovative and digitised learning backgrounds and conditions. However, a brief comparison between Germany, Austria and Switzerland, for example, reveals strong differences in the types, scope and degree of implementation at present.
 So a bunch of questions is still unanswered: How do innovative, interdisciplinary and part-time study platforms and programs have to be designed, structured and implemented? Which prerequisites, framework conditions, (quality) criteria and design forms are specifically relevant for advanced training courses and platform contents in engineering and natural sciences? Which subject-specific and cross-disciplinary competences as well as knowledge must be imparted to new target groups taking into account rapidly changing requirements in professionals’ social environment (e.g., labour market; product, service and technology management)? How can such innovative lifelong learning opportunities be designed allowing for increasing digitization efforts?
 Our research involves benchmark analyses, surveys and expert workshops in order to derive systemic, organizational and individual criteria and elements for the design and structure of sustainable, interdisciplinary further education programs and study platforms. Their characteristics will be illustrated using a three-level model. In addition, the effects of an increasing digitization of lifelong learning are to be analysed and specific methodological and didactic concepts are to be developed (e.g. blended learning). On this basis, recommendations for the flexible design, implementation and quality assurance of continuing education and training offers are derived. These results are developed in close cooperation with experts and decision-makers from politics, education/science and business in order to ensure a high level of practical applicability of the research findings. At the same time, the research is expected to strengthen the positioning of universities involved in international comparison.

Ziele einer Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung in Schule und Hochschule: Auf dem Weg zu empirisch überprüfbaren Kompetenzen

Wie gelangen wir zu empirisch überprüfbaren Kompetenzen in der Bildung für nachhaltige Entwicklung (BNE)? Mit einem Rahmenmodell, das fächerübergreifende und -spezifische Nachhaltigkeitskompetenzen in der schulischen und universitären BNE erfasst, möchten wir vor allem zur Messbarkeit von BNE-Zielen beitragen.The recommended learning objectives in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) have, for the most part, not been operationalized until now. Furthermore, connections to results of empirical educational research are often lacking. However, this is necessary in order to evaluate the provisions of fostering ESD. Taking concepts of empirical educational research into account, we suggest a frame-model for the structuring of relevant competencies. This model distinguishes between a basic and an elaborated level of sustainability competencies. On each level, differentiations are made between cognitive, affective-motivational and behavioural aspects. In the context of German secondary school learning, the focus is on inter- and cross-disciplinary competencies and a basic level of more domain-specific competencies. In university contexts, a level of elaborated sustainability compentencies including highly domain-specific as well as inter- and transdisciplinary competencies are relevant. The proposed framemodel of competencies relevant in ESD will be helpful in the structuring of existing concepts and operationalizations, to connect these competencies to other existing research, and to identify domains where operationalization is still lacking.

Informed Reflexivity: Enacting Epistemic Virtue

To discuss reflexive practice in relation to epistemic cognition, we posit informed reflexivity as an epistemic virtue that is informed by its particular context and purposes of knowing and action and promotes use of reliable processes to achieve epistemic aims. It involves reasoning about social relationships in which a person is embedded when acting in a specific kind of context—whether academic or real-world—that requires construction, evaluation, and application of knowledge. Informed reflexivity is the learned disposition to reason about one's knowledge-related actions, entailing context-specific epistemic characteristics. It involves an intentional stance about the need to reason about oneself and the context. Discussions of two disciplinary competencies (science and history) and two cross-disciplinary competencies (critical thinking and writing) illustrate how epistemically competent practices instantiate informed reflexivity. Promoting informed reflexivity as an epistemic virtue might dispose students toward reliable processes of knowing and making epistemically informed resolved action appropriate to the context.

Meaningful Learning Experiences in the Finnish Teacher Education

During the last few years the change of the school and how the school should change in the first place to meet the challenges of the future have been discussed a great deal. The talk has begun of the cross-disciplinary competences, referred to also as transversal (generic) competences in the curriculum, and of developing teaching towards the integrated modules called multidisciplinary learning modules in the reformed curriculum of the basic education. The multidisciplinary learning modules promote the reaching of the objectives set for the basic education and in particular, the development of the cross-disciplinary competences.This research was carried out in a Finnish class teachers' adult education programme during a study unit in January 2016. This study unit was a multidisciplinary learning experience, which was planned together and in which the contents of the seven different subjects taught in the comprehensive school were combined. The aim was to gain experiences of integrating the subjects, of planning and implementing learning modules, of meaningfully adapting information and communication technology as well as of collaborative learning. The research also surveys the knowledge of the concepts, which are related to the study unit. The results showed that the multidisciplinary learning module had offered meaningful experiences. The students had mastered well the study unit concepts. Their experiences in relation to the aims were mainly good, versatile and sufficient. Nearly every student intended to implement similar modules in their future work. The main objective of this study unit was to increase the students' understanding and knowledge about the multidisciplinary learning module through experiential learning and to provide them with a surface to reflect on the matters in their future studies.

Using the data mining method to assess the innovation gap: A case of industrial robotics in a catching-up country

It is critical for “catching-up” countries to narrow innovation gaps with developed countries by developing emerging industries. This research introduces a data-mining based method to systematically assess the national innovation gap that is specifically for emerging industries. The method examines the five key attributes of emerging industries, including the ownership of platform technologies, globalization intention, international knowledge position, university-industry linkage, and cross-disciplinary technology development. In particular, this method combines data-mining with experts' knowledge to build patent-training examples, and then uses a support vector machine-based classifier to single out all high-quality patents for each innovation attribute. Based on the selected high-quality patents, the authors utilize a factorial design analysis to systematically evaluate the innovation gap between countries. This method can significantly reduce measurement bias of traditional single patent indicators. In addition, it also can robustly adjust measuring weights in response to the specifics of each innovation attribute, while traditional multi-attribute evaluation methods cannot. As a result, this research empirically shows that China' industrial robot sector has apparent innovation gaps compared to developed economies, specifically in university-industry linkage, cross-disciplinary competence, and globalization intention, and this calls for the attention of policy makers and industrial experts.