Transdisciplinary Thinking Research Articles

Scientific habilty by using DNA and robotic activities in the science class

Educational robotics as an area of pedagogy is a discipline whose objective is the development of robotic prototypes that support the learning of natural sciences, demonstrating its potential as a didactic proposal that integrates technology into transdisciplinary thinking favoring digital thinking in the 21st century, in which we can mention scientific ability and the development of solutions to problems that favor scientific thinking. This educational research aims to connect the fields of chemistry and biology with the growing technology of educational robotics. A descriptive interpretive methodology was applied to a group of 80 high school students; They conducted experimental activities such as extracting DNA from tomatoes and observing the stages of mitosis in onion apical meristems. After observing the chromosomes in a microscope, the students use an augmented reality application, contrasting the information and creating a robotic model with recyclable material, programmed using the open-source ap-plication Arduino. No significant differences were found during the development of the activities between public and private schools, showing that 90% of the students obtained the DNA and 67% managed to develop robotic programming activities.

Transdisciplinary understanding of the fundamental and practice-oriented nature of pedagogical education

Relevance. Increasing of fundamentality and practice-oriented nature are two important strategies for development of pedagogical education at the present stage. Fundamentalization ensures the formation of deep basic knowledge system, defines a holistic scientific picture of the human world. Practice orientation is revealed through a prism of gaining experience in the course of various activities, the willingness of a person to productively increase and use his or her knowledge and methods of activity to solve problems arising in the reality, orientation towards continuous self-education and self-development. The aim of the article is scientific substantiation of transdisciplinarity as a strategy for bringing together the fundamentality and practice-oriented pedagogical education at the present stage. Methodology and methods. The methodological basis of transdisciplinarity is based on the ideas of a synergetic approach. The ideas of the praxiological approach are used in determining the essential characteristics of pedagogical actions success in terms of improving the quality of professional training for teachers. The professional training of future teachers to solve comprehensively set real tasks based on the formed knowledge system and acquired experience is focused on the concept of an activity-based approach. The results of the study. The results are presented by the scientific substantiation of the integration of the fundamentality and practice-oriented training for future teachers on the basis of a transdisciplinary strategy, the definition of conditions for the formation of transdisciplinary thinking among teachers, the development of practical skills and skills for solving complex problems through the prism of diverse knowledge and methods of activity: the inclusion of teachers in project, research, experimental activities, the organization of continuing education, strengthening the nonlinearity of the development in the educational system and ensuring disciplinary flexibility, reflexive understanding of the results for activities based on the consideration of praxiological knowledge to ensure the success of pedagogical actions. Conclusion. A teacher can carry out labor pedagogical actions effectively, efficiently, technologically and safely using the pedagogical education based on a transdisciplinary basis, in close interaction of deep fundamental knowledge acquired through direct practice of skills and experience, as well as using praxiological knowledge based on an understanding of the general theory of successful activity. The presented results can be used in the development of educational programmes for pedagogical bachelor’s degree and programmes of additional professional education based on the capabilities of the digital learning environment.

Reviewing Planetary Health in light of Research Directions in One Health

Abstract Climate change significantly impacts our planet’s health, ecosystems, plants, animals and humans, increasing extreme weather events and the incidence and prevalence of infectious diseases, including zoonotic diseases. We reviewed the environmental changes affecting human, animal, and planetary health and conducted a bibliometric analysis from 2012-22 that included these components. We identified 448 publications published on the topic throughout that period. Then, we reflected on the Research Directions question: How can we improve and facilitate multi-sectoral collaboration in warning and response systems for infectious diseases and natural hazards to account for their drivers, interdependencies, and cascading impacts? The bibliometric analysis of planetary health has shown increasing interest among researchers since 2017, peaking in 2022. Lancet Planetary Health was the journal with more published articles; The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine was the best-placed institution, and The United States led in topic-related publications. On the other hand, the climatic and pandemic global environmental crises demand fostered surveillance, which should concentrate on the drivers of disease, giving signals that account for human and animal health and environmental degradation. In response to global crises, higher education curricula should integrate One Health and Planetary Health approaches to achieve transdisciplinary thinking, allowing transcend knowledge, research and observation into action.

Development of Transdisciplinary and Complex Learning in Inclusive Educational Practices

This study examines the process of creating digital resources to meet the specific educational needs of primary education students at a school in the province of Valencia (Spain). The resources were developed by students of the Teaching program at the University of Valencia as part of the special educational needs subject. The research focuses on transdisciplinarity and the use of new technologies and sustainable development objectives to enrich the educational experience at the school as well as to study this approach with students pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Primary Education. To analyze students’ perceptions of this practice and compare their reflective and transdisciplinary thinking, a validated questionnaire was administered to a sample of 39 participants. In addition, seven focus groups were organized. The results demonstrate that via transdisciplinarity and the use of technological resources, students enhance their abilities to address complex situations, fostering creativity and innovation by relating different areas of knowledge in real and contextualized settings. Furthermore, an increase in reflective capacity and research skills is highlighted, contributing to better understanding and learning based on digital technologies.

Shifting Paradigms: Bringing Transdisciplinarity into the Light

Addressing complex societal problems requires the collaboration of diverse academic and non-academic partners ideally through transdisciplinarity. Most academic faculty members are couched in their disciplinary mind set with more recent transitions to multi- and interdisciplinarity. Transdisciplinary thinking is the new kid on the block. Switching through mono, multi, and inter to transdisciplinarity will require a paradigm shift. Each is discussed in this paper, so people can more readily find themselves, clarify the nature of their work, and appreciate the magnitude of change required if they shift paradigms. The paper then (a) identifies traits of a transdisciplinary individual who can employ a transdisciplinary orientation, (b) addresses paradigm shifts at the collective and individual levels, (c) discusses how to deal with natural resistance to losing one’s familiar way of thinking and (d) concludes with touchstones and safety-nets that encourage people to take the leap of faith required to embrace transdisciplinarity.

Implementation of strategic design in sustainable landscape development

Abstract This paper explores the implementation of strategic design in sustainable landscape development through a case study of the Neckar Landscape Park Student Competition. Drawing upon previous research on sustainable land use development, the study emphasizes the importance of integrated approaches and transdisciplinary thinking in managing landscapes. The strategic design process, characterized by analysis, synthesis and evaluation, is applied to address the socio-ecological and spatial challenges of the Neckar river valley. The findings highlight the potential of strategic design to create resilient and sustainable landscapes by combining scientific analysis and imaginative problem-solving. The case study exemplifies the value of strategic design in landscape architecture and offers insights for future landscape management.

Becoming a Creative Genius

The increasing complexity of society's sustainability issues requires new educational approaches that facilitate transversal skills and competencies suitable for the 21st century. Students must be equipped with discipline-specific expertise or technical skill; but also competencies to collaborate across disciplines in creating innovative solutions to complex problems. This paper explores whether a problem-based learning environment focusing on creativity facilitates transdisciplinary engagement and creative competencies and to what extent this manifests into transdisciplinary career paths and creative mindsets in a life-long learning perspective. An analysis of interviews with graduates from a transdisciplinary program, Creative Genius, at Aalborg University indicates that a pedagogical approach focusing on the embodiment of creative competencies helps prepare students to transition from student to professional and equip them to engage in transdisciplinary and complex problem-solving in industry and society. Based on the results, the paper proposes a model for creative transdisciplinary thinking and suggests a focus on creative self-efficacy as an essential learning outcome in transdisciplinary PBL environments.

IDEA+and OBFS: Using Transdisciplinary Strategies to Create More Inclusive Spaces.

Professional societies play a unique role in our personal and professional lives as spaces for connection and as regulatory entities. Often composed of volunteers from a variety of backgrounds, professional societies can guide the cultural norms and expectations of an industry by acting as critical leaders for supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. The present manuscript explains how professional societies, like the Organization of Biological Field Stations (OBFS), can embrace transdisciplinary approaches to create more inclusive (in)tangible spaces to address serious problems facing industries today. Climate change, sexism, and racism, are examples of "wicked" problems that cannot be solved using existing modes of inquiry and decision making because of their complex and interrelated nature. As members of OBFS, a professional society dedicated to the advancement of field-based research, we explain how transdisciplinarity can and has been used to begin addressing serious issues like racism and sexism in field-based research and provide steps for future professional societies to engage in transdisciplinary thinking. We close with examples of our own transdisciplinary work developed through our membership within OBFS.

Transdisciplinary STEM: Examples of Student Thinking within Nonformal Learning Experiences

Calls for more integrated approaches to STEM have reached every sector of education, including formal and nonformal spaces, from early childhood to tertiary levels. The goal of STEM education as an integrated effort shifts beyond acquiring knowledge in any one or combination of STEM disciplines and, instead, focuses on designing solutions to complex, contextual problems that transcend disciplinary boundaries. To realize this goal, we first need to understand what transdisciplinary STEM might actually look and sound like in action, particularly in regard to the nature of student thinking. This paper addresses that need by investigating student reasoning during nonformal STEM-focused learning experiences. We chose four learning episodes, all involving elementary students working on engineering design tasks, to highlight the various ways transdisciplinary thinking might arise or not. In our analysis, we highlight factors that may have supported or hindered the integration of mathematical, scientific, technological, and engineering ways of thinking. For example, the nature of the task, materials provided, and level of adult support influenced the nature of student reasoning. Based on our findings, we provide suggestions for how to promote transdisciplinary thinking in both formal and nonformal spaces.

Initial Notes for a Physical Education of the Future: A Transdisciplinary Perspective

Since the 1960s, there has been a discussion in the Physical Education (P.E) academic field, concerning its epistemological basis, initially in the United States. In Brazil, critical thinking towards P.E. has as its main argument that it is reductionistic since the object of study is the physical body and practices, disregarding a humanistic holistic approach. A shift began due to the proposal of a Portuguese philosopher, Manuel Sergio, in the 80s entitled Human Motricity Science. This article aims to gather information about the epistemological changes that PE has gone through, subsidizing the field with a new perspective, based on complexity and transdisciplinary thinking in which the conception of human corporeality/subjectivity being a milestone of Physical Education in the future.

The Specter of the Pandemic: Politics and Poetics of Cholera in 19th-Century Literature--An Introduction

In the nineteenth century, cholera made a deep impression on the collective memory of entire generations. As a human-medical borderline experience, it was a scientific driving force, a political destabilizing factor, and a challenge to poetics. At the interface of literary studies and medical history and by using nineteenth-century literary texts from North American, British, and German authors as examples, this transnational study shows for the first time comprehensively, that despite a supposed “impossibility of narration”, the traumatic pandemic experience of cholera found its way into contemporary literature, particularly in the model of the specter. Through culturally and historically framed textual analyses of literary texts by Edgar Allan Poe, Mark Twain, George Eliot, H.G. Wells, Heinrich Heine, Ricarda Huch, and others as well as a variety of contemporary life writing documents, the study explores the multifarious intersections of lifeworld and literature. Within the methodological and theoretical framework of the Medical Humanities and Gothic Studies, it thus reveals genuine strategies for making the unspeakable speakable. By the use of epi- and pandemic experience as an example of a state of emergency, the study shows how closely scientific, political, social, and cultural discourses are interwoven, how they influence each other, and what role art and literature play in these processes of exchange. The Spectre of the Pandemic thus raises awareness of the interdependence of most diverse knowledge formations and is a plea for inter- and transdisciplinary thinking and research, especially in times of crisis. The present excerpt is a translated, abridged and slightly adapted version of the introduction of the study Das Gespenst der Pandemie: Politik und Poetik der Cholera in der Literatur des 19. Jahrhunderts, originally published by frommann-holzboog publishing house.

Struggle for Transdisciplinary Moments: Building Partnerships for Resettlement

The effects of climate change are both acute and chronic, leaving many communities in a perpetual state of uncertainty. For others, there is no such uncertainty—their communities will soon be uninhabitable. Some levels of government have begun to recognize and slowly respond to communities facing the possibilities of relocation. This paper considers the impact of transdisciplinary thinking and collaborative moments in the planning phase of one of the few community‐scale managed retreat attempts in the United States. In January 2016, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) awarded the state of Louisiana $48.3 million to plan, design, and implement a structured and scalable resettlement with former and current residents of Isle de Jean Charles. The paper uses data from surveys and interviews with the practitioner team, fieldnotes, review of published reports, and a sample of more than 400 media accounts. Our analysis highlights how developing a transdisciplinary process may render a new understanding to the tasks and meanings of planning resettlements in the future.

Place-Based Bias in Environmental Scholarship Derived from Social-Ecological Landscapes of Fear.

Historical perspectives (e.g., moments of social, political, and economic significance) are increasingly relevant for developing insights into landscape change and ecosystem degradation. However, the question of how to incorporate historical events into ecological inquiry is still under development, owing to the evolving paradigm of transdisciplinary thinking between natural science and the humanities. In the present article, we call for the inclusion of negative human histories (e.g., evictions of communities and environmental injustices) as important factors that drive landscape change and shape research questions relevant to environmental conservation. We outline the detrimental effects of conservationists not addressing negative human histories by likening this social phenomenon to the ecological concept of landscapes of fear, which describes how not acknowledging these histories produces a landscape that constrains where and how research is conducted by scientists. Finally, we provide three positive recommendations for scholars or practitioners to address the manifestation of historic place-based bias in ecological research. What we call the social-ecological landscapes of fear provides a conceptual framework for more inclusive practices in ecology to increase the success of environmental and conservation goals.

Expanding the Focus of Occupational Safety and Health: Lessons from a Series of Linked Scientific Meetings.

There is widespread recognition that the world of work is changing, and agreement is growing that the occupational safety and health (OSH) field must change to contribute to the protection of workers now and in the future. Discourse on the evolution of OSH has been active for many decades, but formalized support of an expanded focus for OSH has greatly increased over the past 20 years. Development of approaches such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)'s Total Worker Health® concept and the World Health Organization (WHO)'s Healthy Workplace Framework are concrete examples of how OSH can incorporate a new focus with a wider view. In 2019, NIOSH initiated a multi-year effort to explore an expanded focus for OSH. This paper is a report on the outputs of a three-year cooperative agreement between NIOSH and The University of Texas School of Public Health, which led to subject matter expert workshops in 2020 and an international conference of global interest groups in 2021. This article traces the background of these meetings and identifies and assesses the lessons learned. It also reviews ten thematic topics that emerged from the meetings: worker health inequalities; training new OSH professionals; future OSH research and practice; tools to measure well-being of workers; psychosocial hazards and adverse mental health effects; skilling, upskilling and improving job quality; socioeconomic influences; climate change; COVID-19 pandemic influences; and strategic foresight. Cross-cutting these themes is the need for systems and transdisciplinary thinking and operationalization of the concept of well-being to prepare the OSH field for the work of the future.

O pensamento transdisciplinar no cenário musical

This article aims to verify and discuss the extent to which transdisciplinary thinking is present in music, whether in contexts focused on creation, performance, research, or in music teaching. The most endorsed authors, among others, were Basarab Nicolescu, E. Morin, F. Capra, S. Magnani, E. Fubini, M. Jiminez. After studying, it was found that it is possible for music to ingratiate itself with transdisciplinarity in the processes of musical creation and in-terpretation and that, from a different perception, the musical language itself contains ele-ments and procedures that are present in transdisciplinarity.

Applying transdisciplinary sustainability transitions research in international social work doctoral training

ABSTRACT In the last 15 years, transdisciplinary research of sustainability transitions has become an increasingly powerful approach. We discuss it as a perspective for social work discipline, and as a theoretical-conceptual frame of a new international doctoral training and research programme in social work taking place in seven European countries. In our qualitative study, we investigate how the participating social work doctoral students reflect upon transdisciplinarity and understand the interconnectivity between environmental, ecological, and social sustainability transitions—which is widely recognised as a highly complex challenge of sustainability. The data used included the students’ learning diaries from the first summer school of this programme. As core findings of the analysis five joint themes expressing the interconnectivity emerged from the data: the indispensable role of nature for all life; the economy-based causes of unsustainability; the role of human rights; the researchers’ own ways of life; and the practice-relevance for SW. Our results support recent theoretical arguments that transdisciplinarity comprises not only a disciplinary thinking but a way of being, where the holistic lives of researchers merge with the content of their work. Regarding our analysis of the pedagogical and didactic arrangements promoting transdisciplinary thinking, we can encourage direct collaboration and teaching inputs with other disciplines and demonstrable practice applications.

Toward Transdisciplinarity: Constructing Meaning Where Disciplines Intersect, Combine, and Shift

Although literacy research has traditionally focused on content area and disciplinary literacies, in this study we argue for the importance of transdisciplinarity. We employed a participatory action research design to examine pre-service teachers’ (PST) planning of a transdisciplinary math and music lesson to understand how conceptual framing of pedagogy and instructional practice can be shifted from content literacies to transdisciplinarity. Our area of inquiry focused on how PSTs’ understanding of transdisciplinarity shifted as they planned, taught, and reflected on instruction and how these shifts were supported by others. We documented evidence of how the lesson progressed from disciplinary thinking to interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary thinking throughout the planning process. We also documented how the process of planning, teaching, coaching, and reflecting provided PSTs with an opportunity to better understand the connections between transdisciplinarity and pedagogy.

One Health education should be early, inclusive, and holistic

The 19th century pathologist Rudolf Virchow was distinctive in his emphasis on multifocal and transdisciplinary thinking about the determinants of health and disease. Most famously, he wrote a ground-breaking report for the Prussian Government on the 1847–48 typhus outbreak in the region of Upper Silesia, advocating free and unlimited democracy as the single most important principle in addressing the epidemic.1 As an advocate for system change to address health inequities, Virchow has been described as a pioneer of One Health: the idea that the health and wellbeing of human and animal populations and environmental systems are complex interconnected occurrences shaped by biosocial contexts.

Open Pedagogy and Transdisciplinary Thinking: Making Connections Through a Visual Artefact Self- Study

The examination of teacher educators’ own practices through self-study research has been well established and self-study aligns with the growing interest in open educational resources (OER) and open pedagogy. This research used a self-study method of a Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics (STEAM) OER project, Form and Function(s): Sustainable Design meets Computational Thinking. Two research questions were pursued: How do open pedagogy attributes contribute to a transdisciplinary STEAM OER pedagogical stance? And how can one apply visual artifact self-study as intentional critical friends to examine professional value and to enhance pedagogical self-understanding? The researcher analyzed visual artifacts of created and documented images that supported the process of her interrogations of transdisciplinary curriculum development and open pedagogy. The sites and modalities of the artifacts were questioned and answers recorded using a critical visual methodology. Klein’s (2008, 2018) transdisciplinary thinking and the eight attributes of Hegarty’s (2015) open pedagogy frame the interrogation of the images and the connections made to curriculum theorizing. The self-study provides conclusions to the role of visual artifacts when conceptualizing the gestalt of complex ideas and relations. The self-study provides warranted assertions for open educators and researchers interested in the practices of transdisciplinary, open curricular and pedagogical processes alongside the eight attributes of open pedagogy, and the role of critical self-reflection.

The Blued Trees Symphony as Transdisciplinary Mediation for Environmental Policy

As the devastating impacts of anthropocentric behaviors have emerged in the Anthropocene, the specter of globalized “ecocide” has also emerged, requiring creative policy solutions. The Blued Trees project was an experiment in modeling how art might forestall ecocide by legally redefining public (economic) good to reconcile with common (benefit to a community) good. This continental-scale work of interdisciplinary art was copyrighted in 2015, requiring courts to recognize an emergent overlap between copyright ownership, eminent domain law, and new forms of art. My intention was to create a transdisciplinary, art-based model for sustainable relationships with other species and across demographics, which could be scaled in the court system for policy implications. My premises were that transdisciplinary thinking—work that dissolves disciplinary boundaries—can best preserve habitat integrity in these complex, uncertain times, and that laws are the building blocks of policy. The Blued Trees Symphony was conceived as sonified biogeographic sculpture in five movements based on the eighteenth-century sonata form, with the musical structure narrating a contest between Earth rights and accountability for ecocide. The legal theory was litigated in a mock trial produced with the fellowship program A Blade of Grass in 2018. The work, which brings together art, music, and performance with law, ecological science, and dynamic systems theory, continues as a work in progress in that some of its elements, such as trees and ecosystems, the score, and the vital need to stop ecocide, remain alive and very much in play today.