Podcast Season 5: Episode #4 Transdisciplinary

The increasing importance of transdisciplinary approaches in engineering education is driven by the need to address complex societal challenges by moving beyond disciplinary silos to embrace new and forgotten knowledges …

As the problems that society faces become more complex there is increasing emphasis on the need for engineers to work across disciplines, with a focus on taking interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to engineering education. However, there can be a lack of clarity about how such terms are conceptualised within the engineering classroom, this resulting in a lack of concrete teaching interventions.

In this episode we speak to Thies Johannsen, a research assistant from TU Berlin who works at the intersection between Social Sciences, Humanities, and STEM disciplines. Thies draws upon his education in Law, Social Sciences, and Politics, and Philosophy, as well as experience in policy making, advising political bodies and consulting for corporate associations and businesses. In his research, he aims to integrate theoretical and empirical research methods to provide a scientific basis for transfer. His research involves collecting needs and requirements from society, business and politics and he focuses on transdisciplinary teaching.

The rest of the article will summarise key points of discussion.

Specialisation and barriers to transformative, disruptive research

Thies proposes that specialisation and pressure to ‘publish or perish’ prevents us from understanding problems fully, this resulting in less innovative and impactful research outputs. He also highlights the institutionalised structures and bureaucracy which slow down innovative developments and help maintain silos. He suggests that we take a step back and reflect on our practices to help find strategies to move forward, transdisciplinary being once such approach.

Transdisciplinary: a definition

Thies explains that defining transdisciplinary is hard as it is an emerging concept but highlights the inclusion of ‘discipline’ within the word, which he refers to as a canon of specialised knowledge taught in education programmes and researched with distinct methodologies by communities. He also reminds us that ‘discipline’ can be used in the context of punishment and tells us that disciplines are associated with a framework of rules which transdisciplinary work aims to transcend.

Modes of knowledge

Thies describes the two traditional forms of knowledge production 1.) mode one referring to basic research, a traditional academic discipline orientated model of knowledge production, 2.) mode two which focuses on application orientated research and involves more stakeholders.

He explains that interdisciplinary can be considered as mode 1 (e.g., different disciplines work on the same problem, but the problem is defined by the discipline and viewed with a specific lens) or mode 2 (e.g., focused on ‘real-world’ problems or ‘real-world’ applications and that include various (non-academic) stakeholders).

Transdisciplinary in engineering education

Thies provides a research project focused on an agriculture process as an example relevant to engineering. He explains that this project could combine AI with agriculture to make procedures more efficient (e.g., using less pesticides and fuel). Some of the issues that may come up include privacy and concerns around surveillance, and thus we would need to consider behavioural and social aspects. Thies tells us that this approach is particularly useful for addressing ‘wicked’ problems which need to be broken down and considered from different perspectives.

The skills and competencies involved

Thies explains that empathy, teamwork, reflective and analytical capabilities are all important when communicating with different stakeholders with different perspectives. He highlights the importance of understanding the problem at hand and reflecting on disciplinary identities, methodologies and perspectives and what they bring to understanding of a problem. He explains that all students already have some capability in this area coming into university and that, in fact, learning within academia excludes knowledge sources used in transdisciplinary work.

Teaching, learning and assessment

Thies acknowledges that we cannot ask students to solve wicked problems and grand challenges in the classroom and that instead we could ask them to contribute to solving them or enable them to work on the process at a programme or course level, for example through cooperative education programmes or service learning. He

differentiates between problem-based learning approaches which have a known starting point and intended outcome, and challenge-based learning, which is more open ended and closer to reality, with no specific known or intended outcome. He advocates for the use of co-creation within workshops, as well as the inclusion of guest lecturers or experts. The workshop could involve brainstorming, ideation and creativity.

Thies describes a specific example of a half frame timber house where you may need knowledge not taught within an academic context (e.g., of how wood behaves after a certain period of time). Not having this knowledge may lead to costs and problems with the building. Within the classroom you may ask students to develop a solution by investigating certain materials and their properties, but also introduce them to non-traditional knowledge resources (for example knowledge of craftsmen). This may also involve looking to the past and reincorporating ‘lost’ knowledge into practice.

He tells us that assessing transdisciplinary can be difficult and resource intensive, but that it should focus on considering whether different perspectives have been included and reflected in the output, and whether the solution makes sense in practical. He also mentions assessing the associated skills and competencies, for example through reflection.

Challenges to transdisciplinary education

Thies explains that transdisciplinary teaching requires more coordination as there are more stakeholders involved, as well as a need to develop networks. However, he stresses the reward involved and advocates starting small. For example, if you don’t have transdisciplinary stakeholders, you can still activate different knowledge sources.

Takeaways

Thies encourages all educators to reflect on their practice and explore the potential of incorporating transdisciplinary approaches to their teaching. He believes that a focus on application and practice will help engage students and heighten their awareness of the need to be responsible engineers. He also advocates for the inclusion of diverse knowledge and perspectives when considering challenges faced by society.

Resources

Handbook of Transdisciplinary Learning which features Thies’ chapter entitled Cooperative Education

https://www.tu.berlin/en/vp-sl/transdisciplinary-learning/handbook-transdisciplinary-learning