Transdisciplinary learning within tertiary institutions : a space to skin your knees

This chapter informs the development of a transdisciplinary living lab. This approach to education aims to transcend disciplinary boundaries by utilizing the university campus as a living laboratory in which students engage with a complex problem, in this case the introduction of an alternative sanitation system on campus – a urine diversion system. Collaborative, industry-engaged and interdisciplinary and/or transdisciplinary models of education are well suited to preparing students for the needs of the world, and as such constitute an important complement to traditional models of university education that involve mastering a single discipline. Transdisciplinary approaches create a space for multiple, the co-existing viewpoints and utilize the discontinuities between views as a source for further inquiry and emergent understanding. The current model of tertiary education tends to focus on knowledge creation emerging from current disciplinary paradigms rather than the transformational learning.