An ecological paradigm of interdisciplinary learning: Implications for design

Abstract

In this commentary, I offer my insights from the Special Issue-Beyond disciplinary engagement: researching the ecologies of interdisciplinary learning-which, in my view, reframes interdisciplinarity.In contrast to the cognitivist paradigm-where research is largely concerned with learning processes that lead to an individual's cognitive interdisciplinary learning outcome-in the ecological paradigm research is primarily concerned with the interdisciplinary learning processes that occur within groups.To address a concern regarding the usefulness of design principles in this framing, I use an approach for extending the applicability of design principles by augmenting them with designers' dilemmas and solutions in various contexts.Three main dilemmas are discussed: (1) How to ensure students have access to disciplinary knowledge and epistemic resources, as they embark on the interdisciplinary work?(2) How to support the fine-grained socio-material-cultural processes involved in interdisciplinary learning between diverse learners, levels and/or disciplinary expertise?(3) How to build on, but also push the boundaries of existing infrastructures to develop new routines, social networks, physical and digital infrastructures to accommodate interdisciplinary learning from K-12 through higher education?A synthesis of the studies' array of solutions is proposed as a preliminary roadmap for the design of ecologically-oriented interdisciplinary learning environments.

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