Practicing Transdisciplinarity in Education: Values and Knowledge Education (VaKE)

(Academic) disciplines are a means to structure science and are not appropriate for epistemic discussions. Instead, it is proposed to use the concept of Trans-Domain Approaches (TDA). A TDA typically consists in a General Theory GT that integrates and transcends the Domain-Specific Theories (DTs) referring to a research topic. The constructivist teaching-learning tool Values and Knowledge Education (VaKE) is used as a prototype to analyze different features of a TDA. First, the theoretical framework of VaKE is analyzed under the perspective of TDA: VaKE integrates several constructivist theories, particularly about moral judgment competence, constructivist knowledge acquisition, and social constructivism. Then, the communication between stakeholders is analyzed more in detail, based on Shannon and Weaver’s channel model. The analyses focus on communication among researchers, between researchers and practitioners (teachers), between practitioners and students, and among students. Several conclusions with respect to TDA can be drawn.