Evaluation TILL 2023 - Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin, Germany
Date
2023-06-01
Authors
Konrad, Tillmann
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Technical Report
Degree Level
Abstract
The transdisciplinary international learning lab (TILL) offered academic and social learning, laying focus on 3 interconnected topics: transdisciplinary research, collaboration and intercultural skills. A fourth topic that formed around social learning is associated to networking and emerged during the discussions: group dynamics. All these topics are interrelated and have influenced each other. Intercultural skills, for example, had a great impact on group dynamics. Group dynamics, in turn, determined the degree of collaboration between the students, and collaboration had an impact on the integration of transdisciplinarity into students' research. Academic as well as social learning was challenged by several issues. Some key aspects here were e.g. the application of transdisciplinary research methodologies under real world conditions, the mentoring system, language barriers and the housing situation. Here as well, issues have strongly influenced each other. Organizers, instructors and students addressed these challenges with different strategies and varying degrees of success. The individual topics, associated challenges and strategies are described in this report. The goal was to develop recommendations for improvement in future TILLs. The sum of different challenges led to a relatively high degree of frustration within the student group. Students, through self-drive and external support, managed to overcome frustration, reorganize themselves, and deliver valuable output. This is a great learning success. However, future TILLs can and should avoid this high level of phased frustration. This evaluation report focuses on presenting the main aspects and linkages. A more detailed, scientific evaluation will be carried out by the involved research institutions.
Description
All rights reserved by the author.
Keywords
transdisciplinary research, collaboration, intercultural skills, group dynamics, TRANSECTS
Citation
Tillmann Konrad 2023. Report: Evaluation TILL 2023/Biosphere Reserve Schorfheide-Chorin, Germany. Tillmann Konrad Applied Science Consulting