Supporting Student Learning in the Context of Diversity, Complexity and Uncertainty

One might reasonably expect a book with the subtitle “Teaching and Learning Within and Beyond Disciplinary Boundaries” to begin with some substantive comments about the nature of ‘academic disciplines’: how they are defined, how they have evolved over time, what is known about their similarities and differences, and whether the latter might explain particular tendencies in the teaching and assessment practices that can be observed in departments. These questions, however, are the subject of Chapter 2. In this opening chapter I draw attention to the central theme running through this book, that is, the continuous interplay between the contextual aspects of teaching and learning and those which might be described as ‘context-transcendent’.