Original scientific paper
Transdisciplinary Approach to Teaching and Research at the University
Krešimir Cerovac
orcid.org/0000-0001-7117-2289
; Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This paper discusses a new approach to teaching and research at the university – transdisciplinarity. For centuries, universities have evolved using a traditional structure of separate departments for separate disciplines. The contemporary university finds itself increasingly compartmentalized by the specialization of academic departments and faculty interests to the point that the fragmentation has undermined the ability of universities to respond effectively to the broader needs and demands of society. If the universities intend to be valid actors in sustainable development, they firstly have to recognize the emergence of a new type of knowledge − the transdisciplinarity. Failing this, the university will be replaced by the paradigm of the school, and the particularism that entails. But in achieving this transdisciplinarity universities will be able to foster the notion of science as a form of life, which in turn reveals itself to be the moral form of science and academic education. Transdisciplinarity combines disciplines, assumes the participation of various stakeholders, academic or not, and takes into account ethical values in the spirit of collaboration and integration.
Keywords
interdisciplinarity; multidisciplinarity; transdisciplinarity; educational process; university education; scientific complexity
Hrčak ID:
109485
URI
Publication date:
10.9.2013.
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