Jack of all trades, masters of everything: From a specialized to a generalized way of teaching and learning in higher education

Abstract

In the context of advanced technology, increased knowledge, complex problems, and global issues, topics related to science and education need to be reimagined and deconstructed. All the proposed pedagogies developed throughout history need to be assessed to figure out which one would be the most suitable according to the current times. Although all of them offered some advantages and worked in their respective sociohistorical contexts, a theorical and pragmatic view should be used to get the best of those pedagogies. Polymathic pedagogy is the proposed way of teaching and learning, where the main educational actors (students-teachers) work together around a systemic paradigm, grounded in the ideal of the unity of knowledge, in which disciplinary, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches draw different theoretical and practical perspectives on the learning-teaching process that influences the biological, psychological, and social aspects of the individual, including the environment. An integrative and holistic approach of all the systems does not mean that the individual needs to acquire and accumulate merely information. Instead, it is a pragmatic way of choosing the appropriate knowledge and applying it in an adequate context.