Co-creation is a process in which students collaborate (with teachers) in creating their own learning experience. This approach is based on one of the main principles of constructivist learning theory, namely that learners construct knowledge and meaning from live experiences (experiments, labs, project related work, group work etc.) rather than from passively taking in information. Co-creation makes active use of students’ input and regards teaching as a dialogue and a collaboration rather than a one-way transfer of knowledge.   

However, some educators experience a loss of authority by engaging in co-creation to a degree that they choose a more traditional way of teaching. It is important to note that working with authentic, ‘real life’ problems can minimize this sense of loss of authority in the sense that neither the educator nor the students know the answers beforehand and thus are more equal in the co-creation process. 

Honours Programmes are selective study programmes linked to higher education institutions. They are designed for motivated and gifted students who want to do more than the regular program or course offers. These programmes have clear admission criteria and clear goals and offer educational opportunities that are more challenging and demanding than regular programmes (Wolfensberger, Honours in Europe: getting to work, 2).  

Despite their good reputation for excellent study opportunities, there is also some criticism of Honours Programmess  as they are only available to a small number of selected participants. It is not enough to work transdisciplinary with honours students only. Instead, students in Honours Programmess should be regarded as frontrunners to inspire and pave the way for more students to obtain competencies in transdisciplinarity. 

Innovation Labs bring together students from different disciplines for a limited period of time to work in small teams on solutions to relevant societal challenges. Often an external stakeholder such as a company or local municipality is involved in the lab and presents the challenge/sets the task. Innovation Labs are co-creational and include groupwork as well as phases of self-reflection. They are not only focused on the outcomes but also on the (transdisciplinary) methods of reaching these outcomes. 

Europe faces grand challenges, such as terror, climate change, energy transition and a pandemic. Facing these challenges affords expertise in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), but skills and knowledge from All other subjects are needed to create STEAM solutions. Social, and ethical concerns are vital in dealing with the above-mentioned challenges and historical and (inter-) cultural perspectives always need to be considered. Creativity and artistic output are means of communication; they establish dialogue and generate new ideas. Bringing together students and teachers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds as well as non-academic stakeholders, transdisciplinary talent programmes can become laboratories of STEAM innovation. That is what STEAM+ is all about. 

Transdisciplinarity describes the approach of analyzing and acting on the present human situation from the perspective of diverse scholarly fields in order to deal with the complexity and interrelatedness of some urgent problems of humanity. The purpose is to assemble ideas for the solution of a problem from every relevant scientific and scholarly discipline from STEM-based subjects to the humanities.  

The sometimes still prevailing attitude that science and humanities are oppositional makes transdisciplinarity and connected co-creation a huge challenge and since all problems in the world today  are serious problems with a high degree of complexity, transdisciplinarity and co-creation will be the norm of problem-solving. These barriers must be broken down by introducing problem-solving through transdisciplinarity and co-creation in higher education such as teacher-education, paving the way for schools to follow suit and prepare young students for this new higher education. 

Transdisciplinary classes really need to be mixed, with not just one or two guests from a different discipline but with a balanced group of students from diverse subjects. Teachers need to make sure that the content is accessible and understood by everyone in the class to enable exchange. Teachers should be open to new content and not just repeat the same class each semester. If they do not have enough expertise in aspects of the content, experts should be invited or teachers should rely on co-creational learning with their students. Reciprocal trust is necessary: students must trust contents and teachers’ expertise; professors must trust students’ engagement and the desire to reach the goals set. 

In addition to scientists and researchers also non-academic stakeholders such as firms, municipalities or local citizens are often involved in specific transdisciplinary projects as transdisciplinary research aims for practical applicability. The understanding of transdisciplinarity presented here, is based on the following definition by the OECD: 

“…Transdisciplinarity is defined by the integration of academic researchers from unrelated disciplines and non-academic participants in creating new knowledge and theory to achieve a common goal.” (OECD 2020, p. 25) 

The inclusion of non-academic stakeholders, project-based work and focusing on a common goal are aspects specific to transdisciplinarity, which go beyond multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. 

In the context of this Menu, transdisciplinary education (short TDE) refers to curricular as well as extracurricular educational formats in higher education with a transdisciplinary approach. Thus, TDE may also include voluntary activities in sustainability issues, charity, arts and technologies. 

Important note: Transdisciplinary education is not meant to substitute expertise in individual disciplinary fields. The aim is not that specialists disappear or that the quality of education suffers. The aim is that by sharing knowledge across disciplines expertise in each field is enhanced.

The term “wicked” is not intended in the moral sense of being "evil"; instead, it is in the sense of being malignant. Thus wicked problems are difﬁcult to address. Ten key characteristics of wicked problems were originally defined by Rittel & Webber (1973) and are being rephrased slightly for readability by Lawrence et al. (2022):
 

1. Wicked problems have no deﬁnitive formulation.


2. Wicked problems have no ends to their causal chains—"no stopping rule" (i.e., one is never completely "done" dealing with the wicked problem).


3. Wicked problems do not have "true-false" solutions, rather "good-bad" or "better-worse" ones.


4. Wicked problems offer no "immediate" or "ultimate" tests for a solution.


5.Wicked problems mean that every attempt at a solution is consequential, i.e.,there is no opportunity to innocuously learn by trial and error since every attempt counts signiﬁcantly.


6. Wicked problems do not have an "exhaustively describable" set or series of solutions.


7. Every wicked problem is unique—having at least one "distinguishing property that is of overriding importance."


8. Every wicked problem points to other wicked problems—each also being a symptom of the other.


9. The discrepancies that characterize a wicked problem can be explained in multiple ways, and the choice of explanation affects how the wicked problem will be approached and possibly resolved.


10.Wicked problems pose particular difﬁculties for those aiming to resolve them

 
In short, a wicked problem is a problem, usually social or cultural and related to societal values, that's difficult or impossible to solve because of its complex and interconnected nature. Wicked problems lack clarity in both their aims and solutions, and are subject to real-world constraints which hinder risk-free attempts to find a solution.


Rittel H.W.J., Webber M.M. Dilemmas in a general theory of planning. Policy Sci 4, 155–169 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01405730


Lawrence M.G., Williams S., Nanz P., Renn O. Characteristics, potentials, and challenges of transdisciplinary research. One Earth 5, 44-61 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.12.010


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