Integrating epistemological fluency in interdisciplinary learning

Abstract

Nowadays, learning occurs increasingly in collaboration with the broader world, leading to emerging complex and dynamic situations (Herrington et al., 2000; Ankrah et al., 2015). It poses a challenge to problem-solving, as moving problems, changing contexts, and the need to rely on a plethora of methods from multiple disciplines are the new normal (Lury, 2021; Dorst,(2015); Dooremalen (2021, p. 559). Interdisciplinary education is seen by many as' the solution'for dealing with emerging complexity (Markauskaite, et. al, 2024). It is therefore important to clarify what interdisciplinarity is? Interdisciplinarity is characterised by many as a process of integrating theory, methods, approaches, and knowledge of two or more different disciplines to create innovative solutions (Lattuca et al., 2012; MacLeod, 2018). However, one type of integration can be unlike another. For instance, integrating art and history is quite different from an approach combining natural coastal defense systems involving biology, engineering, and environmental science (Boix Mansilla, 2016). In transdisciplinary education, integration of disciplines may also involve bridging of different knowledge systems (Kilic-Bebek et al., 2023). Typical (conceptual) problem definitions taught in disciplinary courses may no longer hold in complex situations where human control is shared, for example, on networked platforms. During the problem definition process, AI or other data can be involved in creating new methods that do not build upon the senses or classical empirical data-gathering methods (Lury 2021; Dooremalen et al. 2021). Consequently, the cognitive and conceptual structure of …