DIGITAL LIBRARY
STRATEGIES FOR MULTI-DISCIPLINARY SCIENCE INNOVATION EDUCATION
Eindhoven University of Technology (NETHERLANDS)
About this paper:
Appears in: INTED2010 Proceedings
Publication year: 2010
Pages: 1377-1387
ISBN: 978-84-613-5538-9
ISSN: 2340-1079
Conference name: 4th International Technology, Education and Development Conference
Dates: 8-10 March, 2010
Location: Valencia, Spain
Abstract:
Almost by definition, innovative, sustainable economics, technologies, derived services and products have to be developed in a multi-disciplinary way: all kinds of bits and parts from less sustainable methods, technologies, services and products have to be reshuffled in new innovative, sustainable and peaceful ways. But initiatives, knowledge, financials and production capacity, distribution and consumption are spread over a lot of people, businesses, institutions and governments….
This multi-disciplines, multi-concepts and multi-actors character of these - sometimes World Wide - problems tends to inertia: every disciple waiting for the other, every expert waiting for the other, every World Citizen waiting for the other…
As the EU Lisbon Treaty and the Bologna Declaration suggests, there have to be more emphasis on – especially – multi-disciplinary Science Education.

Simultaneously however, multi-disciplinary academic Faculty and Departments find themselves always ‘at the business end’ of mixed Governmental – University reorganization and budget cuts. They are also poor represented in – traditional mono-discipline organized – academic – Governmental network organizations.
Up till now, ten years of EU Lisbon Treaty could - not yet – make a real difference. And – after one decade, Politics seems to be willing to close the Lisbon Process in 2010, to focus it self on the financial and economic crises.
Also due to the financial and economic crises, budget cuts will overrule Lisbon Treaty experiments soon: it will be ‘business as usual’ and mono-disciplines will rule University Programming once again.

So, multi-discipline Academic Faculty has to deal with it on their own. Architecture can be an outstanding example for multi-disciplinary Science Innovation Education, as it is an ‘interdisciplinary discipline’ balancing on the edge of Arts and Sciences – what deals from head on with this kind of interdisciplinary design and development problems. The authors of this paper argue that some recent advances in Architecture Education can offer ‘some lessons to be learned’.
Based on some methodological backgrounds some strategies for programming and education for multi-discipline Science will be discussed.
Keywords:
Multi-Disciplinary Science Education, New Challenges, Learning and Teaching Methodologies, innovation.