Prática de ensino supervisionada em educação pré-escolar e ensino do 1º ciclo do ensino básico: a articulação integrada do saber

O presente relatório desenvolve-se no âmbito da unidade curricular de Prática de Ensino Supervisionada para obter o grau mestre em Educação Pré-escolar e Ensino do 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico apresentando o trabalho de investigação-ação desenvolvido em contexto de Jardim de Infância e 1º Ciclo do Ensino Básico focalizado na articulação integrada do saber. Elegeram-se como objetivos deste trabalho compreender a natureza das aprendizagens nas primeiras idades, promovendo a construção articulada do saber evitando a sua disciplinarização, utilizando diversas linguagens e implementar a metodologia de projeto no trabalho curricular. O enquadramento teórico procura aprofundar conceitos de interdisciplinaridade e construção articulada do saber nos processos de aprendizagem e o trabalho de projeto enquanto matriz de construção de conhecimento. Sustentado na metodologia de investigaçãoação utilizaram-se diversos instrumentos de recolha e análise de dados como a observação, registo de notas de campo e entrevistas às crianças permitindo responder aos objetivos delineados. Este trabalho permitiu compreender a necessidade da construção articulada das aprendizagens para promover aprendizagens significativas; Supervised teaching Practice in Pre-school and Primary Education: Integrated Knowledge Construction Abstract: This is the report of the action-research project developed in the context of a Pre-school and a Primary School focused on the integration of knowledge, part of the curricular unit Supervised Teaching Practice of the Master in Pre-school Education and Teaching in Basic Education (1st cycle). The objectives of this work are: to understand the nature of learning in the early ages through not only promoting the construction of an articulated knowledge while avoiding its disciplinarization, but also using several languages and implement the project methodology in curricular work. The theoretical framework seeks to explore the concepts of interdisciplinarity and the integration of knowledge’s construction in the processes of learning as the project’s work as a basic framework of knowledge construction. Adopting an action-research methodology, several instruments were used for data collection and analysis, such as observation, field notes and interviews to children, allowing to reach the stipulated objectives. This study provided the understanding of the need for the learning’s articulated creation to promote relevant learning.

Transdisciplinarity and reflective practice in sustainable development learning

Using various extracts from the reflective commentaries of MSc students, this article explores how transdisciplinarity and reflective practice operate in the programme. It shows how learners managed the uncertainties of sustainable development through regular critical and evaluative reflections. Students were able to apprehend the several worlds making up the sustainable development project and their own personal learning journey through the various competing, complementary and occasionally contradictory perspectives, modes of learning, sources of knowledge and information. One conceptual device facilitating this process was offering an understanding of sustainable development as constituting a ‘dialogue of values’, an approach that effectively invites students to square the metaphorical circle - i.e. broadly reconciling (ecological) sustainability with (economic) development.

Education for the creative economy : innovation, transdisciplinarity, and networks

The question posed in this chapter is: To what extent does current education theory and practice prepare graduates for the creative economy? We first define what we mean by the term creative economy, explain why we think it is a significant point of focus, derive its key features, describe the human capital requirements of these features, and then discuss whether current education theory and practice are producing these human capital requirements. The term creative economy can be critiqued as a shibboleth, but as a high level metaphor, it nevertheless has value in directing us away from certain sorts of economic activity and toward other kinds. Much economic activity is in no way creative. If I have a monopoly on some valued resource, I do not need to be creative. Other forms of economic activity are intensely creative. If I have no valued resources, I must create something that is valued. At its simplest and yet most profound, the idea of a creative economy suggests a capacity to compete based on engaging in a gainful activity that is different from everyone else’s, rather than pursuing the same endeavor more competitively than everyone else. The ability to differentiate on novelty is key to the concept of creative economy and key to our analysis of education for this economy. Therefore, we follow Potts and Cunningham (2008, p. 18) and Potts, Cunningham, Hartley, and Ormerod (2008) in their discussion of the economic significance of the creative industries and see the creative economy not as a sector but as a set of economic processes that act on the economy as a whole to invigorate innovation based growth. We see the creative economy as suffused with all industry rather than as a sector in its own right. These economic processes are essentially concerned with the production of new ideas that ultimately become new products, service, industry sectors, or, in some cases, process or product innovations in older sectors. Therefore, our starting point is that modern economies depend on innovation, and we see the core of innovation as new knowledge of some kind. We commence with some observations about innovation.

Linking Applied Ethnobotany to Social Learning: A Participatory Tool for the Promotion of Indigenous Plants Use in Matutuíne, Southern Mozambique

In its search for pathways towards a more sustainable management of natural resources, development oriented research increasingly faces the challenge to develop new concepts and tools based on transdisciplinarity. Transdisciplinarity can, in terms of an idealized goal, be defined as a research approach that identifies and solves problems not only independently of disciplinary boundaries, but also including the knowledge and perceptions of non-scientific actors in a participatory process. In Mozambique, the Centre for Development and Environment (Berne, Switzerland), in partnership with Impacto and Helvetas (Maputo, Mozambique), has elaborated a new transdisciplinary tool to identify indigenous plants with a potential for commercialization. The tool combines methods from applied ethnobotany with participatory research in a social learning process. This approach was devised to support a development project aimed at creating alternative sources of income for rural communities of Matutuíne district, Southern Mozambique, while reducing the pressure on the natural environment. The methodology, which has been applied and tested, is innovative in that it combines important data collection through participatory research with a social learning process involving both local and external actors. This mutual learning process provides a space for complementary forms of knowledge to meet, eventually leading to the adoption of an integrated approach to natural resource management with an understanding of its ecological, socio-economic and cultural aspects; local stakeholders are included in the identification of potentials for sustainable development. Sustainable development itself, as a normative concept, can only be defined through social learning and consensus building between the local and external stakeholders.

"Ignorance was bliss, now I'm ignorant and that is far more difficult":transdisciplinary learning and reflexivity in responsible management education

Purpose – The collapse of world economic systems brought the interconnectedness between business and global events sharply into focus. As Starkey points out: “leading business schools need to overcome their fascination with a particular form of finance and economics […] to broaden their intellectual horizons […] (and to) look at the lessons of history and other disciplines”. The purpose of this paper is to provide evidence from three years of research on the Aston MBA suggesting that an emphasis on developing capabilities within a far broader, connected and reflexive business curriculum is what business students and practitioners now recognise as an essential way forward for responsible management education. Design/methodology/approach – This research paper examines the reflective accounts of 300 MBA students undertaking a transdisciplinary Business Ethics, Responsibility and Sustainability core module. Findings – As Klein argues, transdisciplinarity is simultaneously an attitude and a form of action. The student reflections provide powerful discourses of individual learning and report a range of outcomes from finding “the vocabulary or the confidence” to raise issues to acting as “change agents” in the workplace. Originality/value – As responsibility and sustainability requires learners, researchers and educators to engage with real world complexity, uncertainty and risk, conventional disciplinary study, especially within business, often proves inadequate and partial. This paper demonstrates that creative and exploratory frames need to be developed to facilitate the development of more connected knowledge – informed by multiple stakeholders, able to contribute heterogeneous skills, perspectives and expertise.