Abstract:

Current challenges within the educational practice, greatly mediated by a growing digital presence, make collaborative competencies in teachers essential for achieving a solid design, execution, and evaluation of classes and academic projects. It is essential to explore new pedagogical models to develop an inter and transdisciplinary approach when educating at college level.

Taking this scenario into consideration, the present document contemplates and discusses new models for collaboration among educators for interdisciplinary academic projects, where skills such as active listening,communication, collective design, decision-making, and comprehensive evaluation are fundamental. These skills must be backed by a solid understanding of learning processes and socio-cognitive processing within students.

In order to successfully develop the aforementioned competencies, as they are described, educators must incorporate new teaching methods, not only during classes, but starting from an understanding of students as protagonists of their own learning, who require diverse perspectives and experiences in order to generate meaningful learning and guided by a diverse group of guides and teachers.

The educational model employed by the university Tecnológico de Monterrey, “Tec 21”, contemplates the design, management, and evaluation of courses of different extensions and levels of intensity. These courses’ duration can range from one to fifteen weeks and may be designed to be taken by students of the same program or have a multi-disciplinary composition. One of the main challenges faced by teachers in this scenario is working collaboratively with fellow educators from different academic backgrounds, attempting to place common and complementary expertise to create meaningful learning experiences, with the potential to generate theoretical and practical knowledge that can transcend the classroom. For this to happen, collaborative and multidisciplinary work is crucial.

Keywords:

Collaborative design, Higher education, Innovation, Transdisciplinary work.