Towards establishing a conceptual framework for cross – disciplinary approach to case studies in continuing professional development of university lecturers

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University of Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines

Poltava V.G. Korolenko national pedagogical university

Towards establishing a conceptual framework for cross - disciplinary approach to case studies in continuing professional development of university lecturers

Jan Borm

Maryna Grynova

Tetyana Lunyova

Iryna Kohut

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of developing a continuing professional development programme (CPD) for university lecturers that will embrace a cross-disciplinary approach to case studies. First, it dwells upon the research and reflections in the domains of CPD for educators, cross-disciplinarity in science and case study as a methodology and builds upon the relevant benchmarking findings within the UTTERLY project. Then, it provides reflections on the UTTERLY project CPD course that had the case of the Arctic studies in the University of Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines in its core and required the application of the cross-disciplinary approach on the part of the course participants. Further on, the conceptual background for the arguments in favour of the cross-disciplinary approach to case studies included into CPD programmes is sought for in Humboldtian model of higher education and Jean Malaurie's idea and ideal of the university. Arguments to advocate the application of a cross-disciplinary approach to case studies included into a CPD programme are put forward. It is suggested that the conceptual framework for cross-disciplinary approach to case studies in continuing professional development of university lecturers should be grounded upon the concepts of «flexibility», «holistic approach», «appreciation of diversity», and «attention to the uniqueness of needs of educators and their students».

Keywords: education, university, teaching excellence, case study method, cross-disciplinarity in science, continuing professional development

Анотація

Концептуальні основи застосування міждисциплінарного підходу у використанні кейс-методу на курсах підвищення кваліфікації викладачів вищих навчальних закладів

Борм Я.

Університет Версаль-Сен-Кантен-ан-Івлін (Франція)

Гриньова М., Луньова Т., Когут І.

Полтавський національний педагогічний університет імені В.Г. Короленка, Україна

У статті розглянуто питання розробки концептуальних засад застосування міждисциплінарного підходу у використанні кейс-методу на курсах підвищення кваліфікації викладачів вищих навчальних закладів. Розвідка спирається на дослідження в царинах професійного розвитку освітян, міждисциплінарності в науці і кейс-методу як наукового й освітнього засобу, а також на досвіді реалізації курсу для викладачів-учасників проєкту ЕРАЗМУС+ ЕА2 «UTTERLY», підготовленого і проведеного Університетом Версаль-Сен-Кантен-ан-Івлін (Франція) у квітні 2022 року. Наведено аргументи на користь використання міждисциплінарного підходу для опрацювання кейсів на курсах підвищення кваліфікації викладачів. Запропоновано покласти в основу концепції застосування міждисциплінарного підходу у використанні кейс-методу на курсах підвищення кваліфікації викладачів вищих навчальних закладів такі концепти: «гнучкість», «холістичність», «поціновування різноманітності», «увага до унікальності потреб викладачів і студентів».

Ключові слова: освіта, вища школа, педагогічна майстерність, кейс-метод, міждисциплінарні дослідження, підвищення кваліфікації

Introduction

Continuing professional development (CPD) is part and parcel of the job of a university lecturer. In the changing world that eagerly produces new knowledge and embraces improved technology as well as seeks deeper insights into the human nature, it is vitally important for a university lecturer to keep up with the advancements in science and changes in the social priorities. The need for CPD programmes for lecturers is determined by the very nature of learning and teaching since these two processes are intertwined in an intricate way, «as people become more professional about the way they approach, manage and pursue their own learning, they will be better able to assess the way learning is supported by [Initial Professional Education and Continuing Professional Education] programmes. Hence the need to be 'professional learners' in order to become 'learning professionals'» (Eraut, 1994, p. 14).

The unceasing need for university lecturers CPD programmes is addressed by a variety of courses offered by different institutions. Since the demand for solid university lecturers CPD programmes in Ukraine has not been satisfied yet, it is targeted by ERASMUS+ KA2 project «University Teachers' Certification Centres: Innovative Approach to Promotion Teaching Excellence» 619227-EPP-1-2020-1-UA-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP (UTTERLY). The implementation of this project requires development of innovative CPD courses that presupposes setting the relevant conceptual framework.

1. The importance of the research on cross-disciplinary approach to case studies in continuing professional development of university lecturers

This study focuses on developing the conceptual prerequisites for using case studies that involve a cross - disciplinary approach in a CPD course for university lecturers. The relevance of this endeavour for the current research and practice in higher education is induced by the lack of consistent methodological substantiations for developing a CPD programme for university lecturers that can include case studies viewed via a cross - disciplinary prism.

2. Literature review

In our research, we consider findings on CPD for both school teachers and university lecturers, covering them with the term «educators».

Since the focus of this study lies at the intersection of the three research domains: CPD for educators, cross - disciplinarity in science and case study as a methodology, we will provide review of the relevant sources within each of these spheres.

Highlights of CPD for educators

Summarising the recent findings on CPD and reviewing them in the light of the present-day learning and cognition theories, F. Caena exposes the «importance of teachers' empowerment through collaboration» (Caena, 2011, p. 5). Presumably, such a collaboration can happen not only among the educators who teach the same discipline, but among the educators who provide instructions within very different domains of knowledge. Such a situation necessitates a cross-disciplinary dialog among the educators.

The finding that «although the CPD input was fairly standard in the way it was provided for many teachers across different schools, the effects on and consequences for different teachers were disparate and individualistic» (Harland, Kinder, 1997, p. 81) implies that staying within the boundaries of one discipline during a CPD course might not always be very productive. On the contrary, including various disciplines from different domains of knowledge might enable some of the educators to achieve really meaningful changes as a result of their participation in a CPD programme.

Besides, the studies on the CPD for educators highlight the important role of developing the viable professional learning community that will inspire and support educators in their CPD journey (Caena, 2011, p. 5). It is only but natural that such a community could and should include experts from various domains of knowledge.

Studies on the specialization and cross-disciplinarity in science

In their substantial analysis of the emergence and consequences of specialization in science, A. Casadevall and F.C. Fang demonstrate that even though the advantages of specialization in science include «efficiency, the establishment of normative standards, and the potential for greater rigor in experimental research», such specialization also poses risks of «monopoly, monotony, and isolation» (Casadevall, Fang, 2014). Monotony results in the lack of scientific mobility (Casadevall, Fang, 2014), which, in its turn, makes synergistic interactions between different fields impossible (Casadevall, Fang, 2014). However, disciplines can really benefit from a fresh look outside their boundaries (Casadevall, Fang, 2014). To reinforce their argument, A. Casadevall and F.C. Fang quote from the chemist Leo Baekeland, whose invention of Bakelite paved the way for the era of plastic, as he warned against the specialization of science, highlighting its potential ruinous impact on the science, scientists and wider public: «If specialization may be advantageous for increasing our productiveness in a given field of activity, over-specialization, on the other hand, may develop one-sidedness; it may stunt our growth as men and citizens; even for persons engaged in scientific pursuits it may render impossible the attainment of true and general philosophic conceptions» (cited after Casadevall and Fang: Casadevall, Fang, 2014). Thus A. Casadevall and F.C. Fang assert that «efforts to remove barriers to interaction between scientific disciplines are likely to yield substantial benefits in the future» (Casadevall, Fang, 2014).

E. Melero and N. Palomeras advance the argument that because of the «re-combinative nature of technological progress, innovation results depend crucially on the skillful matching of different pieces of knowledge» (Melero, Palomeras, 2012). Similarly, A. Taylor and H. Greve maintain that «multiple knowledge domains produce novel combinations» (Taylor, Greve, 2006, p. 723).

A team of scholars from various departments (Heitzmann et al., 2021) stress that because «learning and instruction in higher education» belong to «complex phenomena» it «cannot be well addressed by one discipline alone» (Heitzmann et al., 2021). In particular, they advocate the convergence of efforts of psychologists, educational scientists and experts in the subject matter domains (Heitzmann et al., 2021). Similarly, R. Barnett points out that «the Humanities face challenges and their role needs to be recast. They can and should address societal problems and challenges head on, they can no longer rest on bland assertions with their link with critical thinking and democracy. They should be more inter-disciplinary, linking with other disciplines to address major problems of the world and of society» (Barnett in Samalavicius, 2018). At the same time, the decreasing interest in the human sciences as study areas indicated a certain failure to recognise their social value. As J. Borm has opined, «A civic minded person is someone with a sense of history, the ability to conceptualize and state problems in a clear and comprehensible way, and an awareness of the need for multi-perspective approaches to the solving of problems» (Borm in Samalavicius, 2018).

Whatever the case may be, it is worth noting, that in their survey on «teachers' previous experience of CPD, their current attitudes and their future expectations», D. Hustler, O. McNamara, J. Jarvis, M. Londra, and A. Campbell observed that «many teachers associate CPD worth (and CPD itself) with 'doing something new'» (Hustler et al., 2003, p. 149) which might imply some teachers' eagerness to be exposed to the knowledge from spheres that are different from the domain of their prime professional interests.

Case studies as a methodology. The complex nature of case study methodology is explicated very well by the online resource for social and behavioral research methods Methodspace as follows: «Case study is inherently multimodal or mixed methods because it uses either more than one form of data within a research paradigm, or more than one form of data from different paradigms» (Case Study Methodology). Thus, it appears to be logical that a case study methodology can be meaningfully blended with a cross-disciplinary approach. As R. Heale and A. Twycross emphasise, «case study methodology serves to provide a framework for evaluation and analysis of complex issues» (Heale, Twycross, 2018), it enables researchers to reveal «the holistic nature» of complex phenomena (Heale, Twycross, 2018).

3. The focus of the research

This paper is focused on the task of developing a CPD programme through the discussion of the possibilities of application of a cross-disciplinary approach to using case studies as a learning methodology during a CPD course for university lecturers.

4. The aim of the article

The article is aimed at advancing a conceptual framework for cross-disciplinary approach to case studies in continuing professional development of university lecturers through the discussion of a training session provided to university lecturers within the UTTERLY project.

5. Cross-disciplinary approach to a CPD session within the UTTERLY project

The CPD session, that was organized and held by the University of Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines during April 20-22, 2022, for the lecturers taking part in the UTTERLY project, contained the discussion of a case of the Arctic studies in University of Versailles Saint Quentin-en-Yvelines at its core. Since no participants of this course were previously engaged in Arctic studies, the session «Designing educational packages about the Arctic with research results for secondary schools/connecting nano satellites and education» delivered by Adjunct-Physicist Alain Sarkissian and the session «Teaching Arctic Studies to political science students» presented by Eda Ayaydin became essentially a cross-disciplinary case study experience for the UTTERLY participants.

Conceptual context

The statement that «Cross-disciplinary research collaborations in the context of learning and instruction are of critical importance to address the complex problems of 21st century education» (Heitzmann et al., 2021) can be taken as a methodological cornerstone to establish a conceptual framework for consistent cross-disciplinary approach to case studies in CPD for university lecturers.

Developing such a framework should be advanced with the full awareness of the fact that university lecturers in different countries face different requirements as far as unidisciplinarity and cross-disciplinarity are concerned. The Benchmarking done within the UTTERLY project revealed that in some countries there are specific requirements about proximity of research domain of lecturers and their teaching areas while similar requirements may not be strongly pronounced in other countries (Benchmarking, slide 20). Thus cross - disciplinary knowledge might be more easily included into the educational process in some countries in contrast with the others, However, through the professional dialogue all the educators can embrace new ideas and insights that they can borrow from other domains.

At least two well-known models of higher education can be used to lay the foundations for the cross - disciplinarity in CPD. They are Humboldtian model of higher education as holistic combination of research and studies (Krull, 2005, p. 99) and integration of sciences and arts and Jean Malaurie's idea of a university as a place for the dialogue among different disciplines and cultures. As he has noted in an article entitled «Against the intellectocracy: the power of words», «we honour ourselves in disposing of a `higher' education considered to be the `elite'. If I refer to the social sciences, what should one think of a university that leaves out three quarters of the world in its history and philosophy teaching, that-is-to-say India, Chinese Taoism, Japanese Shintoism and the animist philosophies of emerging countries? (…) For 60 years, I was a member of great organisations in the field of social science: the EHESS and CNRS. I was always surprised that these institutions which house the leading specialists find it so hard to engage them in dialogue with each other. The reason is simple: first of all, they do not know each other (…) On top of that, owing to their increasingly specialized training, they have let themselves to be enclosed by the certitudes of specialists. paralysed by the dominant ideologies: marxism, liberalism, keynesianism, radical or liberal socialism. Rationalism seems to exclude the sensitive. To the physicist only things that can be verified by experiment are true» (Malaurie, 2018, tr. J. Borm).

Facets of cross-disciplinarity in choosing case studies for a CPD course

Since case studies make it possible to appreciate the complexity and uniqueness of some experience as viewed against the background of some general tendencies and generalizations, their use in a CPD course is very likely to address the diverse needs of a CPD programme participants.

The experience of working on a case study from a domain that is not an educator's major domain of research and teaching might enhance this lecturer's efficiency in teaching students whose major is different from their own major filed of research (e.g., teaching philosophy to students of mathematics). Such an experience is very likely to help educators engage in a meaningful dialogue with the students whose assumptions and expectations differ significantly from those of the lecturer.

Being challenged to work on a case study outside their prime research and teaching domain helps lecturers to become more flexible and thus potentially more creative and more understanding. Besides, such an approach enables lecturers to experience the challenges of learning in a way similar to their students' since the lecturers can find themselves overwhelmed with new terms, assumptions and research procedures.

Conclusions and further research prospects

This study has revealed that the conceptual framework for cross-disciplinary approach to case studies in continuing professional development programmes for university lecturers should include the following concepts: «flexibility», «holistic approach», «appreciation of diversity», «attention to the uniqueness of needs of educators and their students». The further elaboration of these concepts will facilitate the advancement of a truly constructive conceptual model that can be further used to develop CPD programmes for university lecturers.

References

interdisciplinary case study teacher

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