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Risky thinking:

Transdisciplinary consilience constructs learning across disciplines

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Constructivism and consilienceConstructivism: Learners “build” worldsConstructivism: Teachers guide students

Consilience: Use curiosity, abstraction, mathConsilience: Understand each other, the world

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Transdisciplinarity Creating inclusive worldviews Conceiving individuals’ views Sharing perspectives en groupe Overarching & pluri-generating

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Consilience, transdisciplinarity, and…… divergent thinking

sharing culturally-generated viewsusing language, culture, mathexploiting, e.g., “Humanities 2.0”

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Three integrated concepts & a result

TransdisciplinarityConsilienceDivergent thinking

Result: Creativity!

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Creativity: 8 qualities

Fluency Flexibility Originality Elaboration Visualization Transformation Intuition Synthesis

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Creativity qualities in Language Fluency: flow of sounds into patterns

Flexibility: utterances fitting contexts Originality: the novelty of it all Elaboration: customization, explanation Visualization: picture-painting in words Transformation: synonymy Intuition: future, conditional expression Synthesis: summing-up, distillation

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Fluency A definition: Quick, smooth flow, flux

A pair of examples:In language, from phonemic awarenessIn math, from number sense

A result: Unrestricted higher-order thought

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FlexibilityA definition: Ability to conceive the “other”

Examples: In math, “adaptive strategy choice” In language, learning to reason like anotherA result: Cognitive plasticity

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OriginalityA definition: Generation of novel ideasExamples:

In engineering, new concepts In social science, creative problem-solving

In language, poetry A result: Useful, practical outcomes

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ElaborationA definition: Addition of detailExamples: In language, circumlocution In STEM, fine-tuning with detailsA result: Openness

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Visualization A definition: Seeing with the mind’s eye Examples:

In psychology, guided imagery In STEM, pattern, symmetry, order In language, painting word pictures

A result: Shared imagination

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TransformationA definition: Alteration retaining core

meaningExamples:

In chemistry, “off-label” applications In language, questions or imperatives

A result: Improved neural plasticity

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Intuition A definition: Recognizing connections Examples: In math, seeing things as figures

In language, sensing the sociolinguistic A result: Effective creative thinking

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Synthesis A definition: Creation of a coherent whole

Examples: In science, chemical & biochemical reactions

In academe, transdisciplinarity A result: “Self-directed” learning

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Transdisciplinary consilience in action

Filling in the spaces between disciplinesExamining in complementary waysProducing dynamic tensionJumping together