ERIC Number: EJ1466008
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2025
Pages: 11
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0309-8265
EISSN: EISSN-1466-1845
Available Date: 0000-00-00
Scaffolding Geospatial Epistemic Discomfort: A Pedagogical Framework for Cross-Disciplinary Landscape Research
Vincenza Ferrara1,2; Flor Álvarez-Taboada3; Gert-Jan Burgers4; Eduardo Corbelle-Rico5; Miguel Cordero6; Eduardo Dias10; Anneli Ekblom2; Stefanos Georganos8; Jeff Howarth9; Maurice de Kleijn7; Tommaso La Mantia11; Niels van Manen10; Giovanna Sala11; Rafael da Silveira Bueno11; Philip Verhagen4; Anders Wästfelt1
Journal of Geography in Higher Education, v49 n1 p76-86 2025
Current environmental crises call for an integrated knowledge of landscapes and their ecosystems in a broader sense. This article presents a pedagogical framework for cross-disciplinary landscape research at postgraduate level. The framework is grounded in the use of geospatial epistemic discomfort as a creative force to develop and enhance inquiry skills able to cross and merge disciplinary boundaries. Developed within the Erasmus+ KA2 project "CROSSLAND", the pedagogical framework is based on the scaffolding of epistemic discomfort through four key didactic elements: 1) cross-disciplinary group work and open-ended assignment, 2) in-field inquiry as pre-training on space-time, 3) replacement of traditional lectures by student-led seminars, 4) GIS labs centred on the exploration of cross-disciplinary "portfolios" of geospatial approaches and methods given as worked-out examples. Main results from the evaluation of the framework implementation in a Summer School show how learning cross-disciplinarity happened thanks to a scaffolding that allowed, first and foremost, the socialisation of different conceptualisations of space. While students felt at ease with geospatial epistemic discomfort, we can conclude that spatial cognitive processes are powerful in improving abilities beyond the spatial domain.
Descriptors: Graduate Study, Interdisciplinary Approach, Environmental Education, Ecology, Flipped Classroom, Peer Teaching, Scaffolding (Teaching Technique), Summer Programs, Geographic Information Systems, Geography Instruction, Experiential Learning, Foreign Countries, Program Evaluation, Student Attitudes
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Spain
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: 1Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden; 2Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden; 3DRACONES Research Group, Universidad de León, Ponferrada, Spain; 4Faculty of Humanities, Art and Culture, History, Antiquity, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 5Departamento de Enxeñería Agroforestal, Campus Terra, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo, Spain; 6Instituto de Biodiversidade Agraria e Desenvolvemento Rural, Campus Terra, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Lugo, Spain; 7Spatial Information Laboratory (SPINlab), School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 8Geomatics, Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, Karlstad University, Karlstad, Sweden; 9Geography, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, USA; 10Spatial Information Laboratory (SPINlab), School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and the Netherlands eScience Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 11Department of Agricultural, Food and Forest Sciences, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy